My oc and mascot MeatCat was made 5 (and 10 days) years ago! In that time frame I've drawn him a new reference 5 times (roughly once per year) and this is the most recent, of which was made for his 5th birthday!!
I thought it would be cool to have a post that had all of these references because you can see the insane progress I've made in that time frame. So the rest of them in backwards chronological order are under the cut, plus any little rambles I wanted to go on about it.
This post is 100% for me to celebrate my little guy and my art journey but I thought I'd make it public as an interesting milestone in my art hobby. That and since I can thank tumblr for getting me out of art stagnation :P
The most recent reference besides the new birthday 2025 one was actually made for artfight 2023. I skipped 2024 oops, but not for lack of trying. It was kind of a rough year for me-
I was so proud of this when I made it, and still am. How I drew his tail was so... shapes? So shapes. I was a different beast back then, when I made this I cranked out 5 oc references in a week for artfight a month before it actually started! College and work have kinda made that type of art productivity impossible for me now a days lol... I yearn to go back to it TuT
These drawings where my tumblr profile picture for so long. I was so damn proud of this when I made it. I was listening to the pink elephants remix because I found it in an animation meme one night and suddenly decided that it was "sooooooo meatcat" and stayed up till 5am making him a reference. Needless to say I didn't go to my classes that morning- too tired to drive :P
These where inspired by my best friend turned partner skyistheground's way of drawing him. Their art was my number one inspiration back then (still is). I remember when I drew this I thought for the first time that if elementary school me would have seen this they would have been so proud. That this is exactly the type of art I wanted to make. Knowing I've gotten even better then this with time makes me feel warm.
My art was super stagnant when I started this blog. I was drawing the same way for years and never improving. Cult of the lamb was the first fandom I actually got to PHYSICALLY be apart of and it forced my art to get better. It was kind of awesome to see the rapid improvement in just under a year. I crave that type of fandom enjoyment so bad.
God he's so... eyes. I used to be in closed species and meatcat was from the mignyan species. I don't really agree with closed species as a concept now, but it was fun while I was apart of it, if not a huge money sink...
I made this reference to go on my Buzzly profile, anybody remember that train wreck? I didn't stay long after the whole survey scandal, wonder if it's just as much of a ghost town as I remember when I last checked it...
My anime boy of a guy. He's changed so much from this initial concept. I still like to put him in NASA branded clothing sometimes just to think back on his roots.
Originally he was an Among Us oc.... oh 2020 what a time to be alive. Me and my friends at the time had an active Among Us roleplay discord server, the concept was supposed to be that they where in some kinda time loop and also which oc was the imposter would change every loop either after all the crewmates where killed or the imposters where found out. Needless to say getting 6+ people to all roleplay that much even during pandemic times was a struggle and we never made it past the first loop, meaning Navy MeatCat never got to see the light of day there.
Fun fact before MeatCat was his name it was actually FleshCat... awful!
Weird to think I made him back when my life was at rock bottom. I live somewhere else now, started a new life, got an entirely new group of die hard friends, have two amazing partners who I love with all my heart, and have a little kitty cat daughter who makes every day worth living. And this freak has been with me through all of it. I hate him I hope he explodes!!
I made it. 5 years later I really did make it!! My life is going so well and after trying so fucking hard I'm finally where I want to be in life.
Anyways my next art post I will be publicly hanging this fucker see you then-
Interested in supporting me? Want to see WIPs/sketches/abanonded works? Want requests and raffles? Welll...Think about supporting me on Ko-Fi or dA !!!
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Other links;; https://linktr.ee/carlarzall
Disc server;; https://discord.gg/TGpPUE9mfG
