Help Deciding

[Naters.Art]

Okay I need some help deciding which bird cat set up i should go with for next 3rd thursday. so I've decided to put it to a vote.
Cat forward?

or cat backward?

thanks for your help.

[bharris]

I'm voting cat back even though I love the face, less brutal.

[Pixby]

Damn, the sketch I am working on has a tree house too. Although it's a night scene in a pine tree forest. But, still...

I like cat forward. And maybe a little less look of glee on Stanley's face. He seems like a serial killer in the making by expressing such wonderment at bird murder in progress right before his eyes. Haha.

[amberwingart]

I agree - the look of joy on the boy's face kind of makes this a disturbing image...I'd make his look more shocked...Also, maybe show the bird getting the upper hand on the cat or something? - that will give the image a bit of a lighthearted and interesting twist... Otherwise, I'd go with the cat's back, since I agree with @bharris that it's less brutal...

[Pixby]

@amberwingart Or, hey... the cat could even simply be hugging the bird too hard. Throw in some little hearts floating in the air above the cat, and the horrendous noise could be the cat literally "crushing" on the bird I mean, if disturbing or macabre is his goal, then hey, more power to him. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But, yeah, lots of little ways to make this more appealing to a wider audience, for sure.

Oh, and btw, I LOVE the perspective of this illustration. The tree house and line work are excellent. The style, while not unique, is executed amazingly well. I wish I had as much talent as Naters. Soooo envious.

[Naters.Art]

Making the picture a little gruesome was actually my intent. i wanted a different reaction to the "horrendous noise" than i figured most people would capture. I thought a little boy would find a bird being eaten by a cat to be both disgusting and awesome. but, i too like the cats back because it's an action happening just out of view.
@Pixby yeah i switched up my first idea because it was an old man finding a baby on his door step, but then i saw what @NoWayMe was posting and felt it was too close in concept. who knows, i may revisit it.

[Rob Smith]

@Naters-Calderone Really strong drawing skills! I love your characters. The cat facing the viewer might be more brutal but you definitely know exactly what the cat is doing whereas the cat facing away from the viewer is more vague thought implied.

One other thought I had is...the boy looks happy and excited to see the cat eating the bird. Is he excited about that? or horrified?

[amberwingart]

Good point, @pixby - I hadn't processed that macabre may have been his intention! I agree with the perspective and drawing skills being awesome - great job!

[Naters.Art]

yeah, i didn't have one of the layers on...this is the expression i was going for.

[Lynn Larson]

My immediate response was "that's terrifying" while laughing! the last expression nails it! I'm torn on the cat, i love his face in the first one, and the second one leaves it up to your imagination a bit lol

[Bobby Aquitania]

Cat back for my vote. The reader usually makes up in their mind much worse from personal experience, then what the artist can show. The cat forward is still cartoony, so you lessen the blow, even if it's meant to horrify. If it were realistic with oodles of blood, then yeah that would be way over the top. But cat facing away, I can imagine all kinds of stuff happening... where it's biting, how bad the bird looks, etc.

Good job all round. Hope that helps.

[Naters.Art]

okay so i scratched both ideas and decided to play with light and atmosphere. Being a cartoonist, so i decided to take a "saturday morning cartoon" approach with the scene. let me know what you think.

[Chip Valecek]

@Naters-Calderone I really like your style, however for the prompt I prefer your old man and baby concept more. But if it was me, I would take all of these ideas to finish. They are all great.

[Jiří Kůs]

I like the last one most

[Naters.Art]

@Chip-Valecek yeah, for concept, that's my favorite one too. but it's not very dynamic. they look for skill over "cleverness"

[MOO]

I love the one with the policeman and the box of spilled donuts and oozey leg. It made me laugh

[amberwingart]

I really like the policeman one - that one's really creative & you got an awesome angle on it! Really interesting angles appear to be one of your strengths!

[Naters.Art]

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen thanks. laughter is always my goal

[Lee White]

@Naters-Calderone not sure I agree with that one. Concept will always be #1 and execution will be secondary to that.

[Naters.Art]

@Lee-White good to know...that makes the decision harder though