Tail Mail with Syl

February 19, 2024 by Sylvie in Art

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the new year. A few art prompts have happened since the last time you heard from me. Over the summer there were two art prompts - Summer Camp 2023 in June and Cat Days of Summer in August. Both prompts included themes of summer fun and ways to keep cool. In October there was a prompt with a new theme - Costume Carnival - featuring carnival and Halloween themes. The last prompt to wrap up the year was December Doodles 2023.

This month’s theme - KA Pen Pals 2024 - was inspired by cute stationery and the idea that I think the alumni would send each other letters if they could. They would write about the interesting things they’ve found in their new homes and tuck a piece of ribbon or lint in the envelope to share. What do you think they would find interesting enough to write about? To participate please check out the “KA art challenge” thread under the Arts and Crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members.

Below you will find art pieces I picked from the last few prompts. Thank you so much to everyone that participated in 2023!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Discord (@Sylhouettes).

To view all past art prompts click here.

Summer Camp Check-in with Syl

June 20, 2023 by Sylvie in Art

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

It’s already June, which happens to be Adopt a Cat month! I hope the year has been treating everyone well. This month the kittens have been attending summer camp for #KASummerCamp2023. To participate, please use the hashtag #KASummerCamp2023 on Twitter or post your work in the new art challenges thread that can be found in the arts-and-crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members.

Below you will find submissions from April’s #KAArtsyApril2023 prompt as well as February’s #KASweethearts2023. Thank you so much to everyone that continues to participate and cultivate our creative corner in the community!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Twitter and Discord (@Sylhouettes).

Does summer camp sound familiar? The kittens first attended camp in 2021!

To view all the past art prompts click here.

Sweet Arts with Syl

February 06, 2023 by Sylvie in Art

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

I hope everyone had a good start to their year! It’s February which means the first art prompt of the year, KA Sweethearts 2023, is here. One of the first things I do when I’m thinking of terms for an art prompt is check the random “holidays” that occur in that month. February of course has Valentine’s Day, but more importantly is February 20th, National Love Your Pet Day. I also learned that February itself is National Cat Health month so maybe give your cat an extra treat or two on the 20th but not too many! To participate this month, please use the hashtag #KASweethearts2023 on Twitter or post your work in the arts-and-crafts channel in the Discord server for Patreon members.

We wrapped up the art prompts of 2022 with KA Winter Wonderland which showed the kittens playing in snow, building snowmen and decorating for the holidays. Below you will find submissions from that prompt as well as October’s. Thank you to everyone that participated and encouraged each other last year!

If anyone has questions or ideas for future community art events please comment them down below! You can also contact me on Twitter and Discord (@Sylhouettes).

To view all the past art prompts click here.

Arts and Cats at the Pumpkin Patch

October 07, 2022 by Sylvie in Art

Hello Kitten Academicians, it’s Syl!

We’re now approaching 3 years of Kitten Academy themed art prompts with the first one being “KA Inktopurr” in 2019. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting into but I wanted to stir up the creatives in the community and see more KA related fanart. Now, we have a regularly active, multi-talented art community. I think it was a successful last minute idea! Over the years I’ve adjusted the schedule and right now every other month feels like the best routine that hits major holidays and seasonal changes.

Speaking of holidays and seasonal changes - October’s art prompt is “Pumpkin Patch” themed and includes many things you’d expect to find at one, as well as some additional fall related terms! To participate please tweet your creation using the hashtag #KAPumpkinPatch2022. If you’re not a Twitter user you can post your work in the arts-and-crafts channel in the Kitten Academy Discord for Patreon subscribers.

In August, we had “KA Back to School” which was hosted exclusively through the Discord server. Our creative community is regularly active, allowing members to compliment and discuss each other's art in a contained manner across various hobbies.

I greatly appreciate and thank everyone that participates in these prompts and brings their own creative aspirations to the community. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for Kitten Academy’s trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Below you’ll find submissions from earlier this year featuring our Back to School prompt, as well as KA Beach Party 2022!

If you would like to know more about upcoming prompts and activities, you can find me on Twitter (@Sylhouettes) as well as in the Kitten Academy Discord server.

To view all the past art prompts click here.

[Quick note from the editor: Aside from Tommy having broken Teespring — we’ll try again soon — we’re up-to-date with the T-Shirt Schedule!]

Arts and Cats with Syl

June 27, 2022 by Sylvie in Art

[Edit: This blog was meant to post earlier in June but the Kazoo Network kept interfering.]

Hello Kitten Academicians!

It’s Sylvie here again to talk about all things art, well maybe just a few things. So far this year we’ve had two art prompts – Floofy February and Artsy April. February’s prompt had us imagining cats writing love letters and playing in the flowers whereas April was about art and nature. There are still four more planned prompts for this year – June, August, October and December. This month we’ve been taking a mental vacation to the beach as we imagine kittens chasing seagulls, playing in the sand and even surfing during Beach Party 2022. October and December will be seasonally themed so look forward to that!

When I first created these prompts I was still learning digital art so I try to make them friendly to all skill levels as well as fun for all mediums. I quickly learned that drawing everyday is tiring so myself as well as others tend to combine days. With this in mind, the rules for participation are simple - the terms are inspiration for your creation and can be interpreted however you’d like.

To participate during the short remainder of this month you can create an art piece and post it on Twitter using the hashtag #KABeachParty2022. If you’re not a Twitter user, we also have members of the Discord server that post their creations to the arts and crafts channel.

Below you’ll find the submissions from Artsy April 2022, but if you would like to view the other creations you can find them here. Thank you so much to everyone who participated - we love to see the creativity within the community!

Does Beach Party sound familiar? We first had one in 2020!

To view all the previous art prompts click here.

More Art Alliterations with Syl

April 06, 2022 by Sylvie in Art

Hello Kitten Academicians!

It’s Sylvie again and I’m here to tell you about this month's art prompt, Artsy April 2022. This time around, the terms on the prompt were mainly chosen by you, the community. Thank you so much to everyone that gave us suggestions for the prompt, we look forward to getting the community more involved in the future. If you want to participate in this month’s prompt, all you have to do is create with whatever medium you enjoy and post it to Twitter using the hashtag #KAArtsyApril2022. If you’re not a Twitter user, you are also welcome to post your work in the arts-and-crafts channel in Discord. We can’t wait to see all of your creations this month. I hope you’ll join us, even if only one day inspires you. Lastly, don’t forget - have fun, don’t stress and if it stops being fun, take a break!

Below, you’ll find the submissions from the previous art month, Floofy February. Thank you so much to everyone that participated! If you would like to see all of the other fun and floofy artworks click here.

Does Artsy April sound familiar? We also did one in 2020!

To view all of the previous art prompts click here.

Art Alliterations with Syl

February 25, 2022 by Sylvie in Art

[Ed: We’re trying something new here because we’re so far behind on showing the appreciation we feel for the amazing artists in the Kitten Academy community! Feel free to comment below.]

Hello Kitten Academicians!

My name is Sylvie and I’m the “Syl” responsible for creating the Kitten Academy art prompts. I’ve been creating these art prompts since October 2019 as a way to engage the community and give you all a creative outlet. Over the past couple years, we have seen some great pieces created by the community and will be continuing to find ways to welcome newcomers and encourage participation. At the end of this blog I’ll be showing you some community submissions from the last two art prompts — Spooky Sketches 2021 and December Doodles 2021.

Typically, each prompt is themed and includes terms for every day of the associated month. This month is Floofy February and to participate you can use the hashtag #KAFloofyFebruary2022. As Mr. A said in the previous art blog, you can participate however you want using whatever medium you enjoy. While the idea comes from traditional art prompts, we consider these as creative opportunities for those of all skills, talents and interest in our community. We have seen entries using various mediums as well as nail painting, photoshop, crochet pieces and poems just to name a few. As a creative person myself, I understand how ideas come and go randomly so I don’t want anyone to feel as though they must stick to specific rules. Personally, I like to combine multiple days and I’ve noticed other participants do the same as well. There is no requirement to participate every day, and I find that combining days creates fun ideas while also helping to prevent burnout. I don’t have many rules but the ones I find the most important are — have fun, don’t stress & if it stops being fun take a break!

Speaking of taking a break, it has been a while since the last art blog was posted. As you know, Mr. A has his hands full of kittens almost all the time now and to keep these running on schedule, I’ll be creating the art submission blogs from now on. Please look forward to the rest of the community creations this month as well as our next prompt that will be scheduled for April!

To see all the amazing entries from the last two prompts check out these hashtags on Twitter — #KASpookySketches2021 and #KADecemberDoodles2021.

If you would like to know more about upcoming prompts and activities, you can find me on Twitter (@Sylhouettes) as well as the Kitten Academy discord for Patreon subscribers.

Merchandise mArt!

August 02, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Art, Merch

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Once again, our very own Banksyl has created a month-long art “challenge” — although how challenging it may be is entirely up to you! All you have to do to participate is anything you want to do! Whether it’s a photoshop, or an oil painting, or a musical composition, poetry, even a batch of KA-inspired artisanal cheeses — anything goes! All you need to do is tweet a photo of your art using the hashtag #KASummerCamp2021 or mail a sampler to “Kitten Academy Official Cheese Taster, PO Box 186, Monroe, CT 06468.”

As in previous months, we’ll be sharing some self-selected entries from the previous art challenge at the end of this mews article. If you’d like to see all the entries, you can check the previous hashtag: #KASpringIntoArt2021 — There’s some amazing stuff there and we feel like maybe we didn’t see all of it ourselves the first time around so we may be due for some retweetings!

But before we get to that, we need to take a minute to tell you about some things that are — and aren’t — on our Teespring store! The first thing that isn’t is the word “Tee” - they are in the process of rebranding as just “Spring” so you may notice the links we’re about to share go to various spring-related domains.

Jay and Syl, who manage the Teespring store, have added several brand-new designs that we’re super excited about! And there’s also several older designs that are being removed from the store, so this is (probably) your last chance to get them if you’ve been waiting.

Good TODAY ONLY (Monday the 2nd) at Teespring/Spring you can use the code “BACKTOSCHOOL” to get 10% off whatever you order! That savings is entirely from the Teespring portion, so it doesn’t cost us a penny.

Two quick notes - some of these designs are showing you the rear view initially and you have to click to see the front. This appears to be a bug on Teespring. Secondly, don’t forget that for each design, you can choose different styles of shirt (or bag or phone cases, etc) and colors in the menus on the right-hand side.

“I’ve Made a Puge Mistake” - Puget Art by “Captain Sokira”

Those are all fantastic and exciting! And here’s a fun fact: the “Don’t Panic” design based on Garbanzo’s paw, who was our last polydactyl, up until the new momcat arrived this weekend who is also polydactyl! Timely option to represent our lovely new mom, “Mural.”

Here are the designs that will be leaving the store on the 7th:

“Loganberry is Importanter” White by Jay

“Loganberry is Importanter” Black by Jay

That concludes the Merchandising portion of this blog post! Here comes some fantastic art from the previous art prompt! We’ll be back soon with a mewspaper post to tell you all about the new mom, Mural, after we get some good photos of her.

Mattie Qute

Megalina

Michelle

Neela Kangal

Pauligirl

Scarlet_Hotshot

Sylhouettes

Waithamai

Emily G.

FrozenTundraCrew

is.a.Momo

Isabelle M

Jay (mlem!)

Jen Pollard

Lagshiga

Loreanne

Art - Late as Usual!

April 09, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Art

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

Syl’s put together another fun and excellent art prompt for the month of April, over on Twitter, and there’s already a bunch of entries! (Because we’re very late in posting about it - entirely our fault!)

To participate, all you need to do is make an art based on the prompts and tweet it using the hashtag #KASpringintoArt2021. Anything goes, whether you draw or paint or sculpt or sing or something completely different!

Here’s a selection of art from the last prompt, and you can click through here to see everything! Thank you so very much to everyone who participated in the Winter Break art!

Tygerlander

Waithamai

@jamielynnhero

DragonMakr

Isabelle M

Jen P

JHK (Mom to Furry Monsters)

Laura_m

Loreanne

luinie

Mattie Qute

Michelle

Neela Kangal

PeckishPoaceae

Sylhouettes

Wherefore Art Thou?!

January 08, 2021 by Mr. Academy in Art

[Ed: Did we use this title already?]

Greetings, Kitten Academicians!

We’re a week late posting the art challenge for January but there’s no reason you can’t start now! Syl has provided a list of prompts for each day and a hashtag on Twitter so you can tweet them out using the #KAWinterBreak2021 hashtag and we can all enjoy! Feel free to use whatever media suits your fancy, whether it’s pencil or paint or clay or sound! Or anything else!

Today we’re editing a bunch of candid photos of the Fancy Feasters taken over the last weeks, and hopeful to find time for a new winter photoshoot. Both of which will appear in a blog post here…in due time! Plus, DAWS may have news of new momcat(s) soon, so stay tuned!

Here’s some spectacular self-selected art in random order from the Harvest Festival, and you can view all the entries on Twitter by following the #KAHarvest2020 hashtag! Thank you so much to everyone who art-icipated! We love all of it!