A Sticker, A Button, and A Magnet- New Products

Bast Katt (sticker)

Creating merchandise/products outside of the occasional one-off convention print is very new territory to me, but it's a venture that I'd say is well worth taking.

I recently had a series of products manufactured (a sticker, a button, and a magnet) to sell at conventions. In time, I'd like to expand out the line to feature more characters from not only the world of Bast Katt, but from other stories/ideas I have.

For right now though, I'm starting out small, and I'm only going to do a limited run to see how folks react.

Admittedly, while I am nervous about how this could all work out, I am at least glad to finally be moving forward with my art/work in a far more tangible way.

It only feels right that I begin this journey with three of my classic characters- Bast Katt, Fida Cantor, and Mary-Gold Tauros. When I first began conceptualizing original characters/stories years ago, they were some of my first efforts to truly congeal and gain a degree of momentum.

While many of the pieces were small, every time I drew Bast, Fida, or Mary-Gold the reaction was almost always the same- positive.

Fida Cantor (button)

Now with time/experience under my belt (and a much better/mature mind for it) I feel like I can finally begin making the world of Bast and co. a firmer reality.

I had a ton of fun running through the different concepts for this product line, and while they're somewhat simple in their final forms, I'm overall happy with the results.

Bast's hair proposed a bit of a challenge initially (seeing as Bast has a ton of crazy anime-hair) but once I decided to put her hair up in a segmented pony-tail, the rest of image fell right into place. The line-work for the piece was done by hand, while the colors were rendered through the art program Krita.

The phrase "Tail Chaser" is actually a small reference to what I originally wanted to call the story that Bast comes from, but sadly it was already taken in another comic. All the same, I figured it would be a fun nod to include the origins of the character in the first product line.

Fida was perhaps the most troublesome of the three designs, not necessarily because she was difficult to depict (in fact, I had the easiest time drawing her) but simply as a matter of me not having a witty slogan to build the button around.

Mary-Gold Tauros (magnet)

When I first decided that I was going to do three different products, I wanted each to have a fun slogan that would (somewhat) inform the overall design. Bast and Mary-Gold came to me almost in an instant, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what to put on the button for Fida.

It wasn't until I was at work one night that the slogan would hit me when I was told to "button up" before going into an area. Once I had the slogan, everything else fell into place, and the final piece proper came out smooth as butter from my pencil.

After doing the line-work on paper, I rendered the colors in Krita, and sent the image off to the manufacturer. While there was certainly a fair bit of some hassle in the beginning, I think that Fida's piece may be my favorite out of all of them.

Guess I'm just a sucker for abs.

There isn't much to say for this one (as I think it speaks for itself) outside of I don't think I've ever drawn Mary-Gold this "big" before. Much like the Bast and Fida pieces, the line-work was done by hand, while the colors were rendered in Krita.

All the same, I'm sure she gives great hugs...