Green Cat Forest Contest

Just before anyone screams "Oh nooes her hair has terrible split ends!!", her hair is supposed to be roots. Thank you.

This is my late-hour entry for Green Cat Forest contest [link] as usual I do everything last minute.

"Green Cat", why not draw an actual cat? Because I thought this idea was better. And it was not required to be a cat itself. True, conceptual trees are common, but it's not common for me. I decided to personally adress her as Natura. _{yes I'm that original}

Basically, she's is a forest-linked being, she doesn't really walk by her feet unless she's really bored, she normally just stands on her roots/hair and can actually use them to walk around. Like a tree, she feeds from her roots, the nutrients coursing through her body in those major veins in her body (yes those are supposed to be veins). Since she feeds directly from the ground, whenever something wrong happens with the earth or the enviromnent, she is the first to feel it.

I suppose the great main source of inspiration/concept was Laughing Octupus from Metal Gear Solid 4 [link] . When the design seemed too simple for me, I remembered Guado from Final Fantasy X are arborial beings and thought of those more salient veins.
And I also used my own hair as inspiration.

~

This is my second colored work and the first 'official' one, and I don't like it very much. I wanted to see the level of my real skills, so I used absolutely no reference or inspirational image, it's all my anatomy, my shading, etc. To try and see how much I need to improve. And well. It's obvious.


Music: Mainly Titans Will Rise by Gothic Storm [link] (beautiful female choirs, I thought it matched Green Cat Forest/Natura's aura)
Time taken: hm... around 2 weeks of slow work, 85% made yesterday between 6PM-midnight
Materials: A4 paper, 2B pencil, rubber, 1 colored pencil, 3 crayons (it feels so good to have a younger brother at times like this so I can 'borrow' his stuff)