Cat Cartoons, Computers and Happy Accidents

If you read articles on painting or drawing you'll often come across the phrase 'happy accident' to describe the wonderful effects than can sometimes (though alas, usually quite rarely) occur by mistake. I think the phrase is probably most often used in reference to watercolour painting where the intermingling of different washes is naturally unpredictable.

Anyway, the other day I came across a few old envelopes, these are the sort of envelope that official things like bills arrive in and the idea of taking something that usually contains an item that doesn't sit within my 'top ten things I'd like to receive in the mail today' and using it to created something more positive took my fancy...yes that's a very elaborate way to say 'I decided to start drawing on the back of an envelope!' :-)

Doodling on an old envelope is, I'm guessing, as old as envelopes themselves, but for whatever reason I decided to draw on the inside surface of the paper which (in the UK at least) has a light blue octagonal pattern on it. I grabbed a black gel pen and started drawing a cartoon image inspired by our pet cat Limelight who likes nothing better than joining us in bed and settling down in 'duvet valley' (known more commonly in the States as 'Quilt Canyon'!). The funniest part of this is that Limelight likes to check out potential landing spots before taking a leap onto the bed so this pair of lime green eyes appear, peeking over the edge of the bed, surveying the luxurious land above. So, I ended up creating the drawing below.

As you can see, the drawing is on the blue octagonal background mentioned before. I was happy with the image and liked the unusual effect the inside of the envelope provided. So, I did three more cartoons, all Limelight-inspired, and then scanned them into the computer. I don't normally modify images of my drawings and paintings on the computer beyond making slight adjustments to contrast etc but I was curious to compare the look of the lines on the blue background to their appearance on traditional white. I selected the 'paint bucket' tool and clicked on the duvet in the drawing intending to flood-fill everything (except my black lines) with pure white. Instead, a 'happy accident' happened as the program only selected parts of the drawing upon my first click (see below). What's cool is that the there is now more depth to the simple line drawing as the blue appears to recede from the stark white of the duvet, and even better, random petals on the floral pattern remain coloured in. Of course, I could have continued selecting areas to turn the background completely white but I really like the effect and the random way in which it occured.

Anyway, the finished drawing is called 'Is There Room For Me?' :-)