I will be getting ready to start "The Black Cat" soon. The only thing that worried me is that I haven't really done too much work with rendering fur. Then an opportunity presented itself.
Awhile back some friends of mine from the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design decided that we would stay connected by giving each other challenges and then posting the art on a blog. The current challenge is to create a human animal hybrid. Anyone who wanted to take part put in their name and then everyone would be randomly given another person in the group to turn into an animal that we thought represented them. I have Monique, a fellow illustrator (you can see her work at http://moniquecomics.blogspot.com/). I am about half way through. Check back soon to see the finished piece!