If the image above shows one thing, it’s that sometimes, you (ok, I) have to complicate things before making them simpler. It also hopefully shows how cats seem to feel invisible as soon as their eyes are hidden, which is only one of their countless and delightful idiosyncrasies. And don’t you love how baffled they look when you make it clear you know where they are? You could almost see the little thought bubble above their endearingly silly-looking furry head: “wow, what kind of super powers do you have? I was so well hidden!”. But I digress.
So, anyway, being a crazy cat lady cat owner, that’s the first idea that came to my mind when I saw Illustration Friday’s theme from a few weeks ago, “Hidden”. Since I couldn’t finish before the deadline, I took my time on this one. The composition of my first image didn’t have the delicately minimalistic vibe I was shooting for, it just looked, well, sadly empty, so I decided to add a plant, and cat toys (ha! see how the mouse-toy is hidden in the planter, mirroring the not so well hidden cat? how conceptual!), but even after trying things like reversing the image, dragging the elements all around, and so on, something was still wrong.
So I cropped, and suddenly, it seemed to improve. Farewell, plant. Goodbye, toys. Cropped in landscape? Mh, I like it. In portrait? Hey, I like it too, even better, perhaps.
What do you think? Have I just spent too much time on it and no longer see it clearly?
Si ces images montrent une chose, c’est que parfois, il faut compliquer les choses avant de les simplifier à nouveau (en tout cas, en ce qui me concerne). Ce que j’espérais aussi montrer, c’est cette façon qu’ont les chats de manifestement se sentir parfaitement bien cachés dès que leurs yeux ne sont plus visibles, l’une de leurs nombreuses délicieuses particularités. À l’origine, cette image commencée il y a quelques semaines devait illustrer le thème “Caché” d’Illustration Friday (trop tard). Mon premier essai de composition était très dépouillé, mais j’ai dû me rendre à l’évidence : ce que je rêvais délicatement minimaliste était en fait juste… vide et tristounet. J’ai donc rajouté une plante, et des jouets pour chat, mais même en déplaçant tous les éléments X fois, je n’ai pas réussi à trouver le bon équilibre, et je n’arrive pas à mettre le doigt sur ce qui me gêne dans l’image intermédiaire.
Alors j’ai recadré. Adieu, la plante. Au revoir, les joujoux. Et tout d’un coup, ça marche beaucoup mieux (ombre mise à part), en portrait aussi bien qu’en paysage. Non ?
penny
Oct 1, 2013 -
This is delightful… and echoes perfectly of my Shadow (cat)!
Verte Adélie
Oct 3, 2013 -
Thank you! Shadow is a great cat name. :)
jean
Oct 3, 2013 -
So beautiful. I’m a crazy cat lady and I adore this image. It is very interesting to see the difference between your final cropped version and the more detailed version with the (super cute) mouse and fish toys. I love your final version (both portrait and landscape) because the cat is the focus — in the more detailed version, my eye is drawn toward the tree. Wonderful work!
Verte Adélie
Oct 3, 2013 -
Thank you so much, Jean! In fact, if I had posted the image as a participation to Illustration Friday, perhaps the more detailed one would have been better, because you may not notice the cat immediately, which is a good thing if you want to illustrate the world “hidden”!
Melissa Mackie
Aug 12, 2014 -
Very beautiful and delicate work. Well done!