This "thumbnail," instead of being the size of my thumb, is full size. I use the conventional thumbnail to record ideas in my sketchbook and to try different approaches when I don't really know what I want. I saw a possibility for this letter design while watching a Fred and Ginger movie. I didn't need a thumbnail, I knew what had to happen, so I used the actual letter outline to figure out how to make the action fit.

The watercolor dyes have been applied. I'm having the female be a black cat because someone had expressed interest in a name that had an R in it, and had casually said that "of course, it had to have a black cat in it." Since I was about to embark on this letter with cats, I decided to make the female black (since the owner of the black cat was female). Well, that decision sure made my life difficult, I can tell you. With a black cat, all you have are teeth showing. It was tough to make everything friendly-like...no gnashing of teeth and eating up the neighborhood children.