* ICM – first-week assignment – Screen drawing*

I’m a designer, I like to have a more generalistic approach to design and I’m somehow proud of not being over specialized in one particular field (but, how really possible is that?) If anything I keep finding myself attracted by everything. I’ll go from ornithology to Japanese folktales, or from biology to Verdi’s operas. Just trying to keep Humboldt proud, one of the last polymaths who ever lived. Maybe, is that, the idea of a polymath what makes ITP so attractive, or at least to me. It’s the possibility of being one that’s so exciting, as Nancy called us recently, we are “unicorns in the making”.

A hybrid state among fields is possible, that’s what I believe in and, want to do at ITP. Most of my experience as a designer comes from working in the field of performative arts, and there is where I want to start experimenting with different media, create new interactions with the audience.

Back to the assignment; several options were given (alien, monster, other) and I choose a subject that recently has me obsessing about. The Maneki-Neko, which is a Japanese lucky charm that resembles the form of a calico cat (I have a calico cat called Ische), and… It’s inspired by a real cat!

This gave me the opportunity to draw my own lucky cat for the first time and to mix it up a little, reimagining it as a new spirit, similar to a Kitsune (Fox spirit) which has nine tails and transforms into a woman. My Maneki-neko is also a demon/spirit, but a cute p5.js mischievous one.

I had some very basic knowledge of processing which helped, but even so, I got stuck a little, some functions are more complex than others, like curveVertex or arc in this particular case.

For the colours, I used photoshop to see the RGB.

But I started with a doodle of my cat and continued to use it as a reference for colour or for the position of X and Y.

 

 

The link for the evil Neko image and the sketch (with code) link