surly cat loves you!

happy early valentines day, my lovely

readers! i'm sharing Surly Cat early as a present

to you. =D i'll be going out for a nice dinner

with the love tomorrow for a date night, and

am hoping i'll finally get a few hours to write on

monday–actual valentines day.

i was trying to paint birds again last night, but

they were simply flitting away from me. after three

or four poor attempts, i decided to try a cat

instead. none of the lesson books inspired me,

so instead, i googled for cat images and found this…

haha! tell me it's not the cutest thing you've

seen? so this is the cat that inspired Surly Cat.

i first tried to paint him in the orageish color but

that proved too difficult. so i rendered him in

black ink. what do you think? does he make you smile?

he makes me giggle every time i look at him!

this was one of those paintings where i started with the

first four strokes and thought, there is no way i can

paint this thing. but slowly and surely, he began to

emerge on the rice paper, coaxed by brush strokes as if

by magic. in art, as in writing, there is the comfortable

confidence of "i can do this, i've done this many times before"

and the challenge of "i don't think i can do this, but i'm going

to try". it's the latter that makes us better every time.

if my oriole made you happy, i hope my Surly Cat makes

you giggle, as he does me. and finally, in celebration of

Silver Phoenix paperback release, i'm giving them away

over at the Supernatural Underground.

have a wonderful weekend and a happy valentines day!!

Surly Cat's theme song sung to "Spider Man" tune:

Surly Cat, Surly Cat does everything

a Surly Cat can

Glares at you

Pouts all day

Is Surly as only a Surly Cat can!