NEW YORK — Big Buddy returned home on Tuesday to find the living room wall adorned with a huge framed portrait depicting a man resembling a viking alongside a massive tiger.
“Buuuuuud!” Big Buddy yelled. “What the hell is this?”
Little Buddy popped up from his spot on the couch, then stretched and yawned.
“Oh that? I had another portrait of us commissioned, you like?”
Big Buddy glowered.
“No, I do not like! You are not a tiger and I am not…a viking warlord or whatever the hell that’s supposed to be.”
Little Buddy casually scratched the couch and shrugged.
“I may have asked the artist to take a small amount of artistic license,” he said, “but I think it’s pretty accurate for the most part.”
Big Buddy sighed.
“Take it down,” he said. “It’s absurd.”
Little Buddy cackled.
“But you haven’t even seen the other one yet!”
Update: This is now a conspiracy! Reader M’s cat, Ramses, has commissioned a similar portrait of human and feline:
Pain In The Bud 
I like it. Ramses wants one of us: Witch and Black Panther. lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here ya go:
LikeLike
I wasn’t able to add the image in the comment text in my last comment, so I edited the post and added the image of you and Ramses at the bottom.
What will these cats think of next?!?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s meow-velous!!! Thank you!!!
May I use it in a Post? Who do I credit it to?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure, you can link back if you want and/or just mention Pain In The Bud.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will do both!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Little Buddy! You rascal, you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, I think that’s pretty accurate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Especially Buddy. I can hardly tell the difference!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice, portraits, everyone!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bella would show me as the village idiot and herself as Cleopatra I am sure…
LikeLiked by 1 person
On ours it looks as if my left hand is gently resting on Ramses’ paw – or it resting on my knee?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The left hand is on the dress fabric but the style set I used for it is intentionally palette-limited to give it that illustrated comic book type look. You can see that there are only two skin tones — normal and shadow — and that Ramses’ face is the same handful of similar tones in geometric shapes instead of cross-hatching or half tone to give it dimension.
I’ve been using that style a lot because I want to make t-shirt designs out of some of the cat propaganda images I’ve posted, the ones that say things like “Obey Your Cat” and portray cats as tyrants. Not only is that limited tone style true to the art style of old North Korean and Chinese propaganda, but it looks a lot better as a t-shirt print than more realistic representations of cats.
I have a t-shirt of the image of Buddy playing basketball, the one on my “About” page, and even though it came out pretty clean when viewed on a screen, it’s muddy as a print on fabric.
LikeLike
You know, have you thought about selling on Etsy? Or do you already do so?
(BTW, I’m sticking with my hand resting on Ramses’ paw – lol. It’s definitely something my Witchy self would do!)
LikeLiked by 2 people
I haven’t sold anything yet. I’m gonna test the other designs first to make sure they look good on t-shirts, get some feedback and adjust if necessary, then hopefully have them ready for the holidays.
I’ve been really careful with the fonts and typesetting as well to make sure everything’s legible, but you never know till you see it.
LikeLike
how fierce! how beautiful!
LikeLiked by 1 person