Painting Whimsical Cats (and probably other stuff) Again After Almost a Decade Away From Traditional Art

2026-01-27 Blue Sky Butterfly and JAC Acrylic Painting by TET

Blue Sky, Butterfly, and JAC by TET
Acrylic on Canvas.

WIP of a New Whimsical Cat Painting by TET.

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays I spent a lot of my time reflecting on where I'm at as an artist and content creator, torn between the need to at least make some kind of regular income, and the need to just create art.

Possibly controversially, while I am an early adopter of generative image and video AI creations, and would say they are an art form, they're not a very fulfilling art form for myself. A useful tool, yes, but even when used with my own art, they're more interesting than anything I would stand by and say 'that was a satisfying creative journey' I just made.

Creating with generative AI is more like being a director of a film, where all the actual art is being done by everyone else, but you get a say in the direction and output. It's still a creative endeavor but it's a very hands off, upper management form of creativity (making a somewhat clumsy analogy). Not that I plan to stop exploring the potential of AI. I just don't want everything I do to be sitting in front of a screen.

Thanks to the rise of 'AI Slop', an over used and over reaching term by those who use it (in my opinion), I think there will, almost certainly, be a new appreciation for traditionally made art. Which is something I can do and find very creatively satisfying.

Almost two decades ago I had a relatively good side income selling my original acrylic paintings of whimsical cartoon cats (and sometimes dogs). So good that a few people even commissioned me to paint their pets in my cartoon style. You can see prints of my original art, at the links, in my Redbubble store.

While Redbubble prints of my art have never really sold - except for a brief period where I really went all in, full time, on promoting prints - I was, almost without fail, painting and selling an original cat artwork every week through ebay.

It's certainly possible I could do that again. Maybe even turn it into a more successful, full time endeavor now I have two decades more experience of learning and selling my creations online.

This may seem like me just looking for another way to make money - and it absolutely is - however I've been moving back to traditional, hand drawn art for quite a while now.

Resident Dragon Cartoon by TET.

I wanted to get back into drawing so I started journal drawing (using biro pens) a year and a half ago. That morphed into me developing and drawing a five day a week gag cartoon, Resident Dragon. To date I'm five sketches short of my target total of 366 cartoons - should I ever decide to sell a full year, daily cartoon desk calendar.

As yet, I haven't made any serious money from Resident Dragon but I have tested the cartoons with dragon fans, and the humor does land. I'm just now putting together a Resident Dragon Store, and plan to sell books featuring the cartoons. It's a long game but I really enjoy building my Resident Dragon world.

Which brings me around to painting whimsical cats. To be honest, I actually got burned out on painting an artwork a week. It became a bit of a grind. Particularly because the cat paintings were the ones that sold the best.

Which was fine, but I don't see myself as a cat person - or even a dog person. I'm very much both, if there is a dog or cat within my family. I'll spend an abnormal amount of time interacting with and talking to cats or dogs that live in my home. I just don't have the urge to go up to other people's dogs and cats and pet them (though I will if they come up to me).

This time around I may find myself painting whimsical cats, or maybe Resident Dragon scenes, since the cartoons themselves are colored digitally on a screen. Still not my favorite thing to do. Digitally paint. Though it's at least close to traditional painting in some respects. It still feels like my art.

To cut a long story short. I tidied and reorganised my very small studio to give me room to create acrylic paintings again. After more than ten years, the obvious place to start was to paint a new whimsical cartoon cat.

Before tidy up and after tidy up photos of my Office/Studio space.

Not to create a great, or even a good painting, but just to see if my decade plus, old tubes of acrylic paints were still any good, and to blow the dust of some of me brushes and paint palettes that have been sitting there, dormant for just as long.

I guess we'll see where this goes. Maybe keep an eye on my TET-Life YouTube Channel too, as I may get back into filming me creating my paintings, as I used to back in the day.

Comments

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Embarrassing Yourself with Doof Doof Music

Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog