Mishanti

Going through my hard drive, realized I never posted this anywhere! Getting senile, I reckon.

Anyways, this is the back cover illustration for "Ratha and Thistle-Chaser" by the talented Clare Bell (rathacat here on DA). Mishanti is just a cub in this picture; I used a photo of my cat Minuit as a kitten for inspiration. Getting the wooly texture of baby fur was a challange, I'd never treid painting it before so the photo was quite useful. Had to change the proportions a bit since he's a big cat (well, a fictional prehistoric near-cat nimravid). Mishanti narrowly escapes death several times in the book, and I wanted him to look rather wary but not terrified - he's a survivor. The bright orange eyes are meant to evoke his (likely) grandfather, the infamous Shongshar.

This was also one of the first things I ever painted on Livestream, which was interesting.


Here's the actual book: www.amazon.com/Ratha-Thistle-C…


Commission info: