I’ll bet some of you are wondering, “Doodling cats and mice must take up a helluva lot of Jean’s time. How does she get anything else done?”

OK, I’ll admit, some days it’s an issue. But most of the time, the whole doodle-and-blog thing is offset by the cats’ willingness to help out with other stuff. For instance, here you see Blackie and Max, hard at work in my studio today, creating a new masterpiece for Art in Action, which is happening next week. (Thanks a bunch, guys!)

Case History

Here’s another prime example of my feline support team coming through—this time on a recent illustration assignment for a Canadian client.

The two images below comprised my first round of sketches, variations on the same theme: Canada and Russia creating an alliance to keep U.S. shipping interests out of the Arctic region.

When I showed these concepts to the art director, he asked if I wouldn’t mind stripping everything out but the beaver and bear, adding in an eagle, and developing them all as characters.

Great idea, but not much time to hunt down reference. Blackie and crew to the rescue!

Even though it was late at night, and we were all tired, the cats did a fantastic job of getting into character, resulting in the final printed piece you see below. I was happy, the art director was pleased, and even Charlotte liked it. (I was worried she’d think I made her nose/beak too big.)

On that note, I’m going to go rouse my napping felines and see if they’d like to help me shovel the driveway—quite a bit of snow here today. Have a good night everyone and see you on here tomorrow!