Nekomata, the Forked-Tail Cat

So this year, Anime Boston had an art contest to go with the youkai theme for AB2013. I love youkai, and this also gave me an excuse to flesh out my gallery with some non-fanart work that is still more accessible than my original characters (sad to say, but true). The site had a list of youkai to work from, and multiple submissions were allowed with the grand prize being a free space in the Artists' Alley at AB2013, so of course I went to town.

This was my first entry for the contest, the bakeneko or monster-cat, which are supernatural cats in a similar vein to kitsune and tanuki. I specifically did a nekomata, which is a bakeneko with a split tail. Kirara from Inuyasha is actually a nekomata. One of the powers attributed to bakeneko is the ability to make ghostly fireballs, so I decided to do blue flames kind of like corpse candles or foxfire. Plus I could tie it in to the cat himself by making his feet glow. I like the overall effect.

I also did it long and skinny like this so I could turn it into a bookmark. I need to swipe one of the ones I made for the con now so I can use it in the next book I read.

TD: pencil and ink on paper, Illustrator for lines and Photoshop for colors.