For my art class our final assignment was to take an already existing tale and reimagine the characters and enviroment within it. We chose the myth of the Zodiac Race and I reworked the character of the cat.

In certain versions of the Myth The cat is pushed into the water by the rat who wants to come in first place. This is the version we used. We reimagined the Zodiac race as a street race taking place in a cyberpunk-esque future where animal people race in underground leagues for an attempt to join human racers in the premier leagues.

ideation

I started without using reference to try and let myself explore who the cat could be.

The first personality to show up was this grey sleek cat, with his whiskers forming a mustache.

I was originally characterizing the cat as suave - a common vibe for cat humanoids.

refinement

I thought it would be funny to go in an opposite direction of making this large fluffy orange cat and I knew this was closer to what I wanted. Imagining the Zodiac race concept to be a real story, I realized making the cat fluffy was the right decision. If there was going to be a where The Cat is shoved into the water by The Mouse, like in the version of the tale we were going off of, making The Cat very fluffy would allow me to exaggerate the betrayal. In that scene I could make him literally shrink when he falls into the water and look pathetic.

If I made him sleeker then this wouldn't seem as big of a difference.

And this could extend to other sceanrios - like flowing in the wind when he's racing to emphasize the speed.

So choosing a fluffy cat, I began to develop the character.

reference

For reference I looked for images that showed personality that I could use to imbue life into The Cat.

silhouettes

I developed his shape by making some silhouettes.

I started to think about his vehicle. Originally it was a sleek motorcycle for the sleek cat - a vehicle that would allow him to squeeze through different gaps in the city in a way that other vehicles couldn't. Then as I started to develop the personality of the cat better in my head as a part of a story I realized a few things. One, the cat had to be both relatable and well liked to make the betrayal of the rat feel much more impactful later to the viewer. Because of this, I decided that I wanted to make him seem a little scrappy. Someone who is not a perfect person, but decidedly good. I also wanted to show how he worked hard to be a good racer and so instead of giving him a motorcycle I gave him a bike. Unlike his other competitors he couldn't afford a top of the line vehicle, he has to work hard with everything he's got every race. Not only does he have to work hard in his life as a racer, but also physically as he strains his body to push down on the pedals.

The most expensive thing he owns is his helmet. I designed it after the Maneki-neko inspired by a comic I enjoy The Lucky Cat by The Lucky Cat Team, that combines both the story of The Zodiac and the Maneki-Neko. Where the cat in the Zodiac Race becomes the Lucky Cat.

He really began to come to life

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