illustration Friday-Focused

Here is my digital illustration for this week's topic on Illustration Friday. This week's word is "focused."

When they announced the word, I immediately thought of a camera. After all, I've been having all sorts of fun with a point and shoot camera. But the thought soon left me, so obviously, that didn't have much of an impact on me. If I didn't care all that much, I didn't expect anyone else to care either.

When I went back to the sketch, the word, "cheese" stood out. Why do we say cheese when we pose for a camera anyway? Wait, a minute... cheese? What animal is the most focused? I thought of my cat. That critter can get focused on anything that moves. Cats... cheese... mice.... I wondered what connection could be there.

Here were the sketches I made as I was thinking and doodling. As I was thinking of a mouse, I thought how focused one feels if they get the feeling they are being watched. 

I took my illustration into Adobe Illustrator. I started drawing the mouse.   

I begin drawing by using the pen tool. It takes a little while to get used to, but you can't beat the accuracy and the flexibility once you master it. The pen tool allows you to draw with a mouse or a digital tablet equally well. When I finished the drawing, I took it into Live Paint, eliminated the unneeded strokes and started filling in areas with color.

Next, I began drawing the cat. I put each character on a different layer so I could move them around and apply different effects to each.

I put the eyes and whiskers of the cat on different layers to I could apply a glow to the eyes, and a faded effect for the whiskers. Next, I added a layer of dark color just above the cat layer. This helped everything pop a little more and give a little mystery to the cat.

I drew this all in Adobe Illustrator.