Creating Hungry Cats Birdhouses; A Wicked Take On A Age Old Rivalry

One of my all time favorite cartoonists is Gary Larson. His FARSIDE comics besides being hilarious take age old beliefs and turn them upside down, in the sort of way Stephen King does. They just think differently. I think my favorite Larson cartoon is a dog saying goodbye to his mistress. It certainly makes me consider how to treat a dog.

I too was faced with a "what to do next" when another Larson comic about the cat-dog conflict got me to thinking about the birdhouses facing me. What if the cats were waiting at the birdhouse? Why chase around when you could just wait?

Illustrations of cats

I chased down some images of illustrated cats on Google images and used them for ideas. I knew I wanted cartoonish cats and they weren't hard to find. In fact there were too many so I decided I only wanted the birdhouses to have cats ringing the bottom since all three were to be hung on a flat surface with only three sides showing.

The next thing was to paint the raw birdhouses. I decided on a red, yellow and pink color. Because the wood seemed extra dry it needed several coats, especially the red paint. However, I decided I liked the Red paint with wood grain showing. By wood grain showing threw it added character as it allowed the cat figures to be only outlined in black with the whites of their eyes showing.

Using different colors

What attracted to me to these birdhouses was they were meant for birds as small as hummingbirds and could be opened and cleaned out. I was careful in not putting paint or varnish inside them.

Red with wood grain

While the theme may be the same I wanted each birdhouse to have its own unique identity. The red one just red and black with white eyes to pop! The pink one used a variety of colorful cats while the yellow cat used basically brown tones. the finishing touch was roof top paw prints with the yellow version has a cat looking down into opening. All fun, whimsy and hope for the waiting cats!

Finished red birdhouse

Paw prints, the added touch

Sorry, this program runs like typical old Microsoft Front Page web design software; one of the worst programs ever. 

However, you can see the three color schemes and how they all follow the "hungry cats birdhouse" theme.  It was fun to do and shows you can have a bit of whimsy in your designs. Cat lovers might cringe but, as we all know, cats do chase birds!

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