Okay, so let me tell you about this little thing I worked on recently.
Getting the Idea
It started kinda randomly. I was just zoning out, maybe watching some sports highlights, you know? And then Garfield popped into my head. That lazy cat. And I thought, man, what would happen if you tried to make Garfield play football? Like, American football. The image just seemed funny. Him, pads, helmet, the whole deal. Probably complaining the whole time.
For a while, it was just a funny thought. But then, work was dragging, needed a break, something totally different. So I figured, why not actually try and make this image? Seemed like a simple enough thing to distract myself.
Starting the Actual Work
So, I fired up my old tablet and opened up a drawing app I mess around with sometimes. Didn’t really have a solid plan, just that core idea: Garfield + Football = Funny. First step was just sketching rough shapes. Trying to get that round Garfield body into some kind of football stance. Lemme tell you, it looked pretty weird at first.
It’s harder than you think, mixing those two things. Garfield’s all soft curves, and football gear is kinda sharp and bulky. My first few tries, he looked less like a football player and more like an orange blob that fell into a sports equipment store. Had to redraw the basic pose a bunch of times.
- Getting the helmet right was a pain. His head is huge and his ears stick out.
- Trying to make him hold a football? His paws aren’t exactly designed for gripping.
- Deciding on the expression. Should he be annoyed? Asleep? Trying (and failing) to look intimidating?
Adding Details and Colors
Once I had a sketch that didn’t look completely ridiculous, I started adding the details. You know, the stripes, the pads, giving him that classic orange color. Used the reference pics online, mostly for the football gear ’cause I kinda know what Garfield looks like by heart.
Choosing the team colors was another small hurdle. Didn’t want to use a real team, felt weird. So I just made up some colors that looked okay with orange. Went with a blue and white, kinda generic but it worked.
Then came the coloring part. Layering the colors, adding some simple shading to make it look a bit less flat. This part takes time, you gotta be patient. Sometimes the app would lag a bit, which is always annoying, but pushed through it. Added Odie in the background too, just looking confused. Seemed fitting.
Finishing It Up
After getting the main drawing done, I looked at it. It was okay. Still felt like something was missing. So I added a super simple background, just green for grass and blue for sky. Didn’t want anything fancy to distract from the main joke.
Played around with adding a speech bubble. Something like “Is lasagna scrimmage?” or “Can we replace the football with a pizza?”. Went with something simple, just a tired sigh, basically. Classic Garfield.
And… that was pretty much it. Saved the final image. It’s not gonna win any awards, definitely not professional work or anything. But it looks kinda like what I pictured in my head. Garfield, stuffed into a football uniform, looking completely miserable. Makes me chuckle when I look at it.
It was a good distraction, you know? Just messing around with a silly idea from start to finish. Nice change of pace from the usual grind. Sometimes you just gotta make a picture of a cartoon cat playing football.
