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My Art and I - The FAQ

Much of this comes from a very inquisitive e-mail I was sent once - no, anonymous sender, I didn't mind ;)  I saved my responses for a page just like this.  I'll update or add to it as needed and as I remember to do so.

What kind of art classes have you taken?

    At my first college, Appalachian State University, I spent four years as a Graphic Design major. I took the four basic drawing/3D design classes that school offered as well as Graphic Design I, Clay I, Painting I, Printmaking, Photography I, Graphic Arts (industrial printing techniques), four art histories, Technical Drafting, Typography, Serigraphy, and Calligraphy.

    In May of 2003 I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration. During my time there I took: Photography I, Illustration, Illustration Techniques, Advertising Design I, 2D Design, Color Concept, Comic Book Illustration, Intermediate Illustration, Advertising Design II, Commercial Figure Drawing, Photoshop, Quark XPress, Web Design, Portfolio, History of Illustration, Electronic Illustration, Figure Drawing, and Figure Painting.

Do you draw SWAT Kats on your own time or for class?

    All SWAT Kat art (and any other fanart) is and always has been done on my time.  In my experience, licensed characters like the SWAT Kats, are usually not acceptable for class projects. Students are generally encouraged to exercise their creativity and design their own characters.

Did you work on the series SWAT Kats?

    Wow.... I'm incredibly flattered everytime people ask me this, but, no, I did not. I have never worked for any animation studio. In fact, I was in high school when SWAT Kats first aired on television in 1993. I'm currently employed by an auction company to do their ads, brochures, and office go-fer work.

Did you make up all of those poses you see the characters here in by yourself or did you copy them from the show?

    Everything you see on the webpage now came straight out of my head - with the occassional help of friends and family who were cajoled into posing for me to get a certain stance or hand position right.  And, myself and the mirror have provided the pose more than once.

    Most of my first SWAT Kat drawings were taken straight from the show.  I paused the vcr and drew exactly what I saw.  I still pause the show or reference screenshots online to study characters I'm trying to get accurate (such as the villains, whom I don't draw nearly enough).  I make sure I have their facial features and costume right, but I don't borrow shots straight from the show anymore.

Do you know anything about 2D animation?

    Only so much as any other animation fan can learn from books. I have several of the Disney "making of/art of" books and a few general "history of animation" sort of books.  But, no, I've never actually done anything animated.

Do you know anything about 3D animation?

    Not at all. I spoke with another student who was taking a course in it once, and most of what she said went completely over my head.

The SWAT Kats and I?

See that poor, stooped T-Bone?  If you click you can see the others, but they're equally scary. Anyways, these deformed creatures are where it all started.  I drew my first SWAT Kats in January of 1994 and I've been at it ever since.  They're quite addictive for me, I think.
Incidentally, the Callie in the image with that T-Bone is not my first version of her.  That is on a separate sheet.  I have dozens of "doodle sheets"  like this starting around 1991 and continuing to present with additional sketches and doodles in a collection of sketchbooks and scrawled around my class notes.
The humanized Callie and the human woman on there are not mine, but were drawn by my friend Esther.  I think I dared her to try a SWAT Kat female as a human. She did rather well, no?

For my lengthy "tale" on how I got into the SWAT Kats, click here.

A Couple Notes on the Original Characters:

• I don't know why I've encountered this misconception, but the character Crash Clawson/Furley is not mine.  He belongs to his creator who is Crash/RJ Tremor/Matt H.  I have drawn Crash and Matt's other character RJ Tremor quite a lot in the past, but this is simply because he's a good friend.

• Max Furlong, Carrie Furlong, Ryan Clawson, Raze, Alicia McFurland,  Robert "Mickey" McFurland, Sypher, Static and Lt. Kristen Sharpe are my characters.  They do not belong to Hanna-Barbera. "Mickey" is my cousin in kat form.  Sypher and Static are two of my characters for the MBI/SK role-playing game. (For more information on the MBI/SK RPG, visit, the RPG's homepage.) Kristen Sharpe, obviously, is myself - albeit an exaggerated, cartoonized variation of my personality. I have used most of these characters with my SWAT Kats fanfiction, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of any of them appearing in an original story someday. 

• For more on my original characters, go to the RPG/Original Characters Page or, for more on Max and Kris, see my Fanfic page where both have detailed bios.

[How I Got Into These Kats] [Back to the Curious About Me? Page]

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Disclaimer: SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is copyright Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc. All Rights Reserved. © 1995. All other characters and material within this page are the property of either myself, Kristen Sharpe/T.L. Amos, or their respective creators.