There’s a cat stuck in a really tall tree!

Self Critique: my efforts to foreshorten Rhapsody’s left leg (the one to our right) didn’t quite go the way I had planned. The bra top’s design might look strange. I design her new top with an over the shoulder strap, but didn’t think the design all the way through when it came to the under-arm area and got woefully confused.

After three long years, Rhapsody has finally returned! And she’s sporting a slightly new look. Her hair has been given a makeover and is no longer pointy. Her bangs have also been changed. I’s now very wavy and silky. Her ears are now white to make the cat parts of her arms and legs. Her tail is now extra fluffy, and now has a bow with a bell tied at the end of it. The three dots that were on her face (which was a holdover from when she had whiskers) has now been turned into freckles (which is also on her shoulder too). Here’s the old 2015 pic for comparison. And, for the first time ever, she now has… clothes! But fear not, she still has her classic nude version as well. If you’re watching the clothed version of this, the clothing is based on her chibi version’s outfit. She now has an shoulder straps on her bra, and the ragged skirt she has is now a transparent silk one. And as a standard under it, she has a thong. Keep in mind, this is not her summer swimsuit. This is her normal outfit.

This whole pic is actually one big homage to a pin-up pic I came across. The pic in question is by pin-up artist Gil Elvgren and depicts a lady climbing up a tree collecting a coconut. Whenever I think of Summer, my mind often goes back to back to old pin-up art from back then. While I’ll never be able to match the mastery of those pics (especially from that of Elvgren), I still wanted to give something like it a shot and put my own spin on it. Plus it was a perfect scenario to put Rhapsody in since she’s, well, a catgirl.

Here’s the pic in question.

One thing I wanted to add was the beach in the back. This was due to this and a couple other pics I’m working on being connected in some way. The other two pics are of Chelsí and Belinda together not too far off, and Xiuying is at the bottom of this large tree waiting to Rhapsody to come down with the coconut. I also wanted to try my hand at a real beach scene again (not counting the Moira pic I did earlier this season). Last time was when I drew Falcon and Rouge together, as well as the Puerto Rican Day pic. This was back in 2015. I was also still using GIMP at the time.

Overall, this came out pretty good. And I’m definitely sticking with this new design of Rhapsody.

Done on Clip Studio Paint Pro. Intuos4 Tablet used. Painting by Gil Elvgren referenced. Body-chan model traced for schematic skeleton, then drawn freehand the rest of the way.

Rhapsody is © DeadPhoenX.