Illustration project: Robot winged cat

Here are a few photos of an Illustration assignment to make a paper figure. I chose to try making a cat...

Originally I meant to finish this sculpture off simply as a semi realistic robotic jointed cat, but as I was making it, I thought it looked a little plain as it was and wing detail afterwards. It is a bit of an homage to the childrens book series Catwings by Ursula Le Guin (one of my favorite authors!)

It's been a long time since I've read the book and I can only vaguely remember scenes from the story, but I loved the idea of fanciful winged cats sneaking in and around a city, gliding in for a visit through a window.



The photos are meant to show the cat exploring around and comfortable in an urban environment as the cats are in the books, but now I realize it's almost like the invariably cute and of course winged magical familiars that appear in fantastical magical girl anime tv shows, ha!


You can see my super messy work table, after a round of furious paper scissoring to get this to the finish line.

This cat was made solely out of cover stock and hot glue. I didn't rely on any cardboard or inside wire structure since the paper was stiff enough once bonded with glue. My initial thought was to make a cat in a characteristic pose with arched back and slight crouch. I added some contoured pieces to try to emulate realistic musculature and a bit of an armored look.