Tail Chaser- A Bast Katt Sticker

Creating merchandise/products outside of the occasional one-off convention print is very new territory to me, but it's a venture that I'd say is well worth taking.

I recently had a series of products manufactured (a sticker, a button, and a magnet) to sell at conventions. In time, I'd like to expand out the line to feature more characters from not only the world of Bast Katt, but from other stories/ideas I have. 

For right now though, I'm starting out small, and I'm only going to do a limited run to see how folks react.

Admittedly, while I am nervous about how this could all work out, I am at least glad to finally be moving forward with my art/work in a far more tangible way. 

It only feels right that I begin this journey with three of my classic characters- Bast Katt, Fida Cantor, and Mary-Gold Tauros. When I first began conceptualizing original characters/stories years ago, they were some of my first efforts to truly congeal and gain a degree of momentum.

While many of the pieces were small, every time I drew Bast, Fida, or Mary-Gold the reaction was almost always the same- positive. 

Now with time/experience under my belt (and a much better/mature mind for it) I feel like I can finally begin making the world of Bast and co. a firmer reality.

I had a ton of fun running through the different concepts for this product line, and while they're somewhat simple in their final forms, I'm overall happy with the results.

Bast's hair proposed a bit of a challenge initially (seeing as Bast has a ton of crazy anime-hair) but once I decided to put her hair up in a segmented pony-tail, the rest of image fell right into place. The line-work for the piece was done by hand, while the colors were rendered through the art program Krita. 

The phrase "Tail Chaser" is actually a small reference to what I originally wanted to call the story that Bast comes from, but sadly it was already taken in another comic. All the same, I figured it would be a fun nod to include the origins of the character in the first product line.