Sunday 22 February 2009

The Moggy & the Magpie. - IF "instinct"




What to do for this week's illustration friday...? The answer was outside my bedroom window. There was a magpie making a racket (more so than they usually do) because an ambitious little black and white moggy was trying to sneak up on it. Instinct told them both how to play the situation... the magpie really seemed to enjoy taunting the mog while it in turn tried to act like a black and white twig and stop it's bell from tinkling. After ten or so minutes the magpie got bored and went higher up the tree while the cat decided to try and get down. Now here is where instinct decided it was also bored and buggered off leaving the mog with a problem! Going up instinct chose all the right branches, coming down gravity decided it wanted to pay a part in the proceedings. It took the cat another ten minutes to try out all the possible routes, psych itself up then inelegantly scramble backside first down the tree!

Forgive the poor photo... I didn't want to go get my longer lens in case it all kicked off! Believe it or not you can just make out the cat's eye in the bottom ring... honest.

24 comments:

artworkbyimelda said...

hehe! LOVE it. You and I were thinking in the same feline way! How funny. Even choosing the bird avatar. Made me immediately click into yours. Great job.

ArtSparker said...

Great story and elegant illustration, I love the cat's socks. You've got an Aesop's fable thing going on here.

david kow said...

So beauty story and awesome designs, man!!

Anonymous said...

Cool illustration and great story. Goes to show inspiration comes in the most unlikely places.

Periwinkle said...

Very lovely illustration!

Alexandre Esgaio said...

Great! You got it!

Atsi-Batsi said...

I like how you interpreted the scene and linked it to this week's theme! As usual, I love the little details..like the cat's little white paws. :)

Just Another Nut said...

Gotta love that animal instinct. Great illustration. That magpie is big enough that if I were the cat, I might have to think twice before trying to catch that one. ~ AC

Caroline said...

Love your illustration! That could be my mog there! She's black and white and often to be found lurking in trees!

Carmen SaldaƱa said...

Fantastic piece and great choice for the theme of this week!
The composition is amazing, simple and very effective. The color is great and.....well, I think everything is brilliant in this illo. I love it!

Marion said...

Great illustration! Love the straight forward black and white (and the tones in between).

Burt said...

Angry bird, ftw!

(I must become a follower of your blog. Illustrations...too...good.)

MrBibleHead said...

Great Illustration! Love your use of gray and black and white. The concept is excellent.

Jujululu said...

Great illustration. Love your style.

denise said...

Love this, you've really caught the tension between the magpie and the cat.

Anonymous said...

what a lovely illustration. some time ago, maybe even a couple of years, there was a story on the bbc website about a very aggressive kitty who found fame when a poor bear got stuck up a huge tree after the kitty started staking him out at its base. it took hours for him to get down and only after she gave up. i think i still have the picture which i will try and dig out for you :-)

krisztina maros said...

so poetic illo. beautiful!

MuchoS MonoS! said...

A very lovely illustration... and the origin of, simply incredible...

Hugs,

Nicky Linzey said...

Lovely illustration and the story/photos that go with it.

Joyce Ann Martin said...

I love when inspiration presents itself so! Such a wonderfully designed illustration. :D Thank you for sharing such a fun story!

Laura Marsh said...

That's pretty funny. I like the expressions on the bird's and cat's faces. Good stuff.

Dee said...

I love your Moggy and the Magpie illustration.

Mark Cavell said...

Don’t fancy the cats chances.
Great illo. Loving the monochrome.

Emily Tuffen said...

love the story, LOVE the illustration!