In Memoriam

"Primrose Elf"  ©Mitzi Sato-Wiuff 2015

It is primrose season.  I love seeing them offered in small pots at grocery stores and front racks at home improvement centers in very early spring.  We have seen a very short winter here in Colorado this season, and the temperature has been unseasonably high for January and February so far.  I don't like the nasty inversion that lasts for weeks with arctic temperatures and grey sky at all, plus I don't ski, due to old leg injuries that act up in cold weather,  so I'm not missing anything.

What I'm missing terribly, though, is my kitty.  Black and fluffy and oh, so, so sweet!  She was one of the babies a stray mama gave birth to in our basement back in May.  We've adopted all four babies and the mama, although she comes and goes as she pleases and doesn't give us an inkling of an affection. lol  Two of her babies have taken to us and been the stars of our feline family since.  But as a work-from-home artist, I ended up spending a lot of time with the sickly black baby we named Mayu.  She had eye infection at first, then she had upper respiratory issues and I carried her around in a baby sling on me so I could cuddle her while I had my hands free to work.  Once she was healthy, she turned out to be the adventurous one, climbing on a roof and trees, jumping and breaking things off the shelves... you get the picture.  But I adored her for snuggling up against me on the piano bench when I played the piano.  She would occasionally reach out and start an impromptu duet.  I love that!! :D  She scared us more than once when she jumped on the piano in the middle of the night and banged a few notes to wake us up.  I even had a song made up that we routinely hummed in her presence.  Well, she's been missing since January 16.  We've been looking for her and we miss her terribly.

Art is a way of dealing with emotional stress for many people, and it certainly is for me.  I drew another cat image when one of our cats passed away in the past, too.  I still miss her, but the act of drawing soothes me somewhat.  Besides, I know that she wouldn't approve if I was crying about her and didn't do anything else. 

Here's where the picture starts.  Line art is processed (lightened and tinted) for the digital free-hand coloring phase.

I could have gone with most any color for this little elf, but Jr. suggested that she'd be cute with a dark complexion.  I like the idea very much.  ^_^

Played around with different colors, but in the end, pink and yellow seem to soothe the eyes and the hearts.

Now you know the back story of this image. ^_^  But that's just where the inspiration came from.  In the final image, it's a kind little Primrose Elf gesturing you to be quiet because her little kitty has fallen asleep for a nap on a warm early spring day.  She's enjoying the warmth of the fluffy kitty on her lap, sitting in the bed of early-blooming primroses.  ^_^

I've made the line art into a digi.  It's at my Etsy shop, web site, and my storenvy shop.  1500 x 2100 pixels, at 300 dpi, JPG.