Painting Hairballs Step By Step

Here's something I bet they didn't teach you in cartoon school. Every cartoonist would be well off to know how to bring cat hairballs to life.

Here's my initial colored pencil study of Stimpy projectile hwarfing up a stream of predigested fur.

After scanning the study I inked the drawing and filled it with flat colors.

Next step is to add a gradient. The top of the stream of hairballs is a cool gray, the bottom a warm gray. The subtle contrast of neutral colors gives it an earthy feeling.

Using a rough textured brush I Painted an outside edge of the stream. then, on another layer I painted the other side using a lighter slightly different color.

In the interior I drew another batch of hair lumps using the same rough brush.

Then I added a bunch of loose scraggly hairs coming off the borders of the chewy mass.

Turning off the border line layers I started scribbling in a bunch of tangled hairs.

I added another layer of swirling hairs. I've turned off the first layer of squiggles so you can see the second more clearly.

Here it is with both layers visible.

I added a layer of loose light-colored hairs in the interior.

Here's all the squiggly hair layers combined.

And then all that combined with the border shadings.

From there I drew another layer of compact individual hairballs and on a layer underneath them airbrushed some shadows.

I made a layer of gradients for the hairballs.

Loose squiggles inside the balls.

More squiggles on another layer.

I added long loose scraggly hairs around the outsides of the bug-like balls.

I painted a rim light on one side of the balls.

And a shadow on the edges of the other side.

All layers together.

Now even though hwarfs are not technically the same thing as barf, the addition of small vegetables will enhance any substance being forcefully ejected from one's mouth.

For instance some corn.

A carrot cube wouldn't hurt.

And of course we mustn't forget the peas.

Just a bit of rendering to make the veggies appetizing.

I added some action lines to the vegetables.

Just for good measure I added some extra hairballs close to Stimpy's mouth.

All the hwarf ingredients' layers turned on.

And now you can see why Ren is in a panic.