![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AKNKGo4MPaFz9GMAnE5fDtjSiiwufHExWAsuqm7v5gPFM8XEp92BL6YNxA23axB.png)

Hey Hive!

We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!

I started a new series sharing some of the custom subscriber badges I made back in 2021 for [my Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/imtacocat)! After a month of streaming I was fortunate enough to become a Twitch affiliate which comes with a lot of perks like getting money through viewer subscriptions, ad revenue and the like. Subscribers get benefits such as an ad-free viewing experience but also access to unique channel emotes and a special subscriber badge next to their name in chat!

https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/23x1UJhGkKdcA5ZZC4aZGL66SWuoH8hTXres3yGCRDZL7Px9aQ4eLSXc4FtmFbVu8BA7N.png

Since you get to customise the subscriber badges I thought this was a perfect chance to get creative! I had unlocked a few sub badge slots and the first few were quite close together so I only had a month to come up with more ideas! I wanted a consistent theme across the sub badges and I thought making it gaming-related would be appropriate. More specifically, I wanted my badges to be different classes/jobs you'd see in classic RPGs. That way they'd be completely unique unlike some other streamers/artists whom just do a recolour or slight variation of the base, or build up upon it like these:

https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/23x1W7oAaVPRmAAa1ub7zRU64UephBX6rBtVC2hPF1hmgGS3FT46J4kxDJUHp6471P7hA.png

Source: [fiverr](https://fr.fiverr.com/kavyun/create-custom-twitch-sub-badges)

So these were the first few that I made and we've covered the first two so far, which leaves the Pirate for the 9 month badge and the Ninja for the 1 year badge!

https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/23tbPh7hxRBYVY3BwEmx7GLMTkbRJRF1hhG8MJ8L5CQjcEKPjpowN5mH7e7XMaR5d9KYg.png

For the Pirate I wanted there to be a few key elements that would make it recognisable: the pirate hat and eyepatch. But it didn't seem like enough details to me so I did some research and found some references that I thought would be helpful. 


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AL4YUETVfiZ4VxnoN13oRPuS7bnBeTbyFdLSMazV7EwrS3pwGAcquD5vANW41Ar.png)

I remembered there was a derpy parrot in the channel reward icon pack that Twitch gave for free, and I thought it'd be cool to include it since parrots are a pirate's pet.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/23t7BMAMtKeLAT789J7YVxH3WPFwf3B9Z5AzqCQAaqwdePKZCZM7bpHN7qK9N7a6C8yZU.png)
 
I also thought the treasure chest cat was really cute, so I came with a rough sketch of how my TacoCat would look like with a treasure chest, hat and eyepatch.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AJpoQPbHTgcUkCsiFcKQejNQ9dmKyWnFonPvqRNSjuXtcrfhXo3u7xUkmSZLgjU.png)

Initially I thought of him biting the chest like a toy would be cute but after I drew and coloured in the hat and parrot something looked off.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/ALJta3AE2rZth6VDKhLzMZubhwmQp8DJn8f5TNfhVpvvT1DEu3UgpCLP1NFSYU2.png)

I wasn't really sure about the treasure chest so I drew and coloured in the eyepatch first.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/ALHTM5VdFQQDztY5RuAgD9PJiebAYazb73SmLKMhre9gRBtGXvte6H2wfkcsu7f.png)

It still looked like something was missing so I tried to draw in a simple treasure chest, with a paw covering it, and we get this!

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AKNKGo4MPaFz9GMAnE5fDtjSiiwufHExWAsuqm7v5gPFM8XEp92BL6YNxA23axB.png)


It turned out surprisingly well actually! I liked the colours and the hat and eyepatch looked pretty good as well. Now looking back I see a few mistakes here and there but if I were to change anything I'd probably change the paw placement a little, and make the eyepatch bigger.

The next one was a special one for 1 year subscribers which was the Ninja! I thought a Ninja TacoCat would look pretty cool and probably pretty simple since most of it was going to be black. 


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AJpo2NaNL5d5n7CYjrzgiVZKWcZYermfNHVTpAttm6jWzANfjccHi2kUuMULYQg.png)

There were a few different references I found but I'd say a classic ninja look was a full hood with just the eyes showing. So this was the sketch I came up with:


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/ALAHAsaJnBouKGgvzyLhgE5Tu2SGjPQ483PAyxFjVtxsnBC8KGsRGR93emRQiGo.png)

Initially I didn't really have an idea on the pose until someone in my chat suggested I draw my cat holding a katana or a shuriken. Since I already had a katana on the back I thought a shuriken would be cool to add and wouldn't take up too much space or block the face. I drew in the hood with some shadows and highlights. I didn't want to make it all black since it would be hard to distinguish with the black shuriken so I made it a little on the greyer side.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/ALAG98KeUnyyrc6nSRNSoegqvtzpDtoNnUhzZNJ8HSRAJVWwgLywc8YrkmZg82g.png)

And after drawing and colouring in a simple shuriken and katana, we get this! 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AJpjSHF1aeqMEA7Aey5J27Y5e8FZfKuDW2SaD9n1bbvpVvQMQpHmgx5jhuFi3nZ.png)

I thought this looked pretty cool but the katana looks quite off to me now. The lines are too thin but the colour is good. If I were to change this now I would definitely redraw it again so it at least matched the style of the shuriken. But it still looks pretty good nonetheless.

Here's the timelapse for these two badges:

https://youtube.com/shorts/CBva3ItUDek

After these were done I took a break for a while but since then I've worked on more so I'll share them as well! Hope you're enjoying this series and thanks so much for reading!

https://i.imgur.com/PXZB7ti.gif

<p>To find out more about me, check out my intro post <a href='https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@taco.cat/my-first-steemit-post'>here!</a></p>

-----------------------------------------

<center>Check out my previous post in this series!</center>
<center><a href='https://hive.blog/hive-156509/@taco.cat/art-attack-189-magical-girl-tacocat'>Art Attack #189: Magical Girl TacoCat? 🌟</a></center><center>https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/taco.cat/AKF99TnP2ySg4krH4thsFeZ3KgRSuv34U51iKAjVMVDtNqQcgJeG3dHYAEJ66DL.png</center></a></center>