Nekomata are a yokai from Japanese folklore. They are long lived cats that eventually grew a second tail and with it acquired supernatural powers, allowing them to gradually to take on more human qualities as they age and grow stronger. Eventually they begin walking upright, talking and even dressing in human garb. Here the Nekomata is still rather young and feral, one wonders if it could even be able to speak human language at this point. It wears only a single, borrowed or perhaps gifted piece of garment, which it uses to practice its disguise. A creature on the threshold of becoming something else yet again, it uses its magic to float suspended in the nightsky, backlit by a glowing moon.

The moon itself is a pretty classic companion to such night creatures, as yokai tend to roam at times when most prying eyes would be closed or looking elsewhere. Just like the cat is trying to become something else. The moon as well, as never the same twice. It fades, and returns and changes through its various phases with the passage of time. Its light is said to allow the ordinary world to loosen, which is perhaps another reason spirits such as this might be more present at the nightly hours.

This artwork was drawn in multiple stages and represents yet another deep study of Japanese Edo-Period artworks. First, I outlined the creature akin to how cats were depicted back then, then however I deviated by transforming the usually straight lines into many furred pen-strokes. I painted over it with blue and magenta before finally applying the last bit of black to shade and deepen the fur, which inevitably hid some of my prior outlining work.