Making of "Meowing" (Patreon)

We have 3 cats and this one finds it necessary to meow at me until dinner is served. Look at his face! You can see he's already thinking about it!

His name is Finito and he does not have a good sense of time; so his meowing can start HOURS before dinner actually needs to be served. He will find me and not leave me alone until my job has been carried out. Even beginning to make dinner does not stop him! He will meow at me when I'm getting the bowl. Meow while I'm getting the cans. Meow as I'm putting it all together, and pad along beside me, meowing, as I go to place the bowl down.

I have a little joke with myself that he thinks he's actually being really helpful. Like the meows are an integral part of dinner prep, and it wouldn't happen without his vigilance and dedication. I mused that if only I could talk to him and explain that meows aren't necessary, he'd be taken aback that I didn't inform him sooner.

So that's where this comic idea came from! 😁

I had previous line-art of Fran putting nuggies in the microwave from "So Obvious", so I started there. I was going to just have Fran surrounded by meows and then her turning to reveal the kids behind her, but I quickly realized the joke worked much better with the juxtaposition of the kids acting like real cats at the start.

With the kids established in the first panel, I could safely change the 2nd to a crazy close up of Fran. This also solved a problem I realized I had from panel 1, where she's standing in the way of the microwave door closing! 😅 The 3rd panel had a lot of text and not enough room for Fran, so I angled it to look like her view -with the microwave door now conveniently closed!

Putting Coop on top of the microwave helped fit everything in. I was going to have him jumping away in the 4th panel, but then I came up with the "Not bottle it up" line, which worked so well paired with him still acting very cat-like.

I had some fun with the coloring on the 2nd panel. I've been really enjoying employing back-lit shading recently! So simple for such a striking effect! Just add shadow the whole face (minus eyes) and then cut a band away around the edges to reveal the unshadowed colors underneath!

One last thing was to make sure the microwave timer changed. Such a small detail, but I know that's all I'd be hearing about in the replies on socials otherwise! 😜