I’ve been attending science fiction conventions for nearly 40 years. Sci Fi conventions offer a variety of activities for anyone interested in the genre. There are panels on various related topics, dealer rooms, author and artist meetups and signings, costume contest, and an art show. One of my favorite things to do there, is attend the art show. I have sometimes exhibited, and sold, some of my own work there. You’ll see a variety of subjects, skill levels and styles of art, by amateurs and professionals. Dragons, elves, spaceships, mermaids, and all manner of science fiction, fantasy and horror from books, comics, movies and tv shows, as well as from folklore from around the world are found there.

One of the things I noticed often at various convention art shows were the cute, cuddly kittens and cats with feathered wings. They were done in a variety of color and sizes, and often pictured with cute dragons. They were popular and great if you like that sort of thing, but not something that appealed to me. I wanted to create something in response to that, something that resonated with me more. Black cats have always been my favorite cat, so I already knew that this new work they would be involved. They’re a little more menacing and indifferent. And of course, bat wings. So, in 2016, I decided to tackle that idea.

I tend to hang onto paper, cardboard, canvas or any scrap surface, for use in future projects. I found some excess black mat board from graphic design classes years ago and decided to draw on this in color pencil. The boards are small, around 5×7 inches. I’m a fan of the blacklight posters from the 60s and 70s, as well as black velvet paintings popular then. I did a couple of pieces with these materials several years ago, and remembered how much I enjoyed working with it. Like those, I knew these works would use that black as the majority of the image, drawing the highlights.

I researched cat and bat images, then sketched up some ideas. Once I had made a few, I went ahead and finalized one piece. I think I just started drawing the first piece without prepping the black surface with a sketch. I don’t usually work that way, but went with it for this piece. It has the unimaginative title of “Batcat 1”. Happy with this result, I created a few more, on other small sizes of black mat board, and titled subsequent pieces accordingly.

The World Science Fiction Convention, AKA WorldCon, is held in a different part of the world every year, and in 2018, it was held in San Jose, California. I bought a space in the art show and brought along some of the batcat original pieces, along with other art and prints. At that point, I’d sold a couple already, so didn’t have those. All the batcats originals sold at that show, and I sold a few other originals, as well.

A few years ago, I started turning some of the batcat images into designs for t-shirts. This required me to create images in a more graphic style that would translate better for use in merchandise, as shown in the two images below. Eventually, I incorporated those into other merchandise, such as stickers, cards, etc. These images encouraged me to do more art in that style, which is something I had not really focused on until then.