Créu's 20th Anniversary!!
- Créu Cat
- Mar 27, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 27, 2023
❤ Can you believe Créu turns 20 years old TODAY, March 27!? ❤
That's right! 20 YEARS AGO, Créu was copyrighted as a character in Brazil, so on this date we celebrate his official birthday! 🎂
I hope you could participate in our INCRÉUDIBLE festivities today!!
Art Stream at https://discord.gg/creucat in which we drew 20 Créus TOGETHER!
A very special GIVEAWAY, with AMAZING prizes at https://www.instagram.com/p/CboSuINFm62/ !
And sometime this week... possible NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO?!
But I know why you're really here... you want to take a real look at Créu's HISTORY, right?!
Okay, so... if you've watched CRÉU'S SHORT, you actually were already glancing at a brief history of Créu - from the first conceptions to modern days!
So let's take a closer look at these drawings - and more!
There is a TON of drawing history - but don't worry, PriVer Archives is something I plan to do for many more posts, so subscribe to see more!
Alright! To begin our journey, let's start with this drawing here. THIS was probably one of the VERY first drawings of Créu, in the geometry class!
A lot of people ask what inspired me to create Créu (no, it wasn't Geometry haha). The design of Créu is basically "the first thing that comes to mind when I draw". Sort of like a second nature doodle that I NEVER get tired of drawing! I think this is also why I consider Créu a "blank canvas", something that paves the way for more design elements to be added.
Secondly, I want to show you guys the image that was actually copyrighted in Brazil!!
In fact, this is the actual document that was sent to me as proof of Créu's registry. As you can see, it's dated March 27, 2002! This would basically be Créu's birth certificate :)
When I was in my teens, I was also VERY into anime, which back then the most popular ones were Pokémon and Sailor Moon. There is already a BLOG post about Créu Comics with tons of cool archive stuff, so definitely check that one out, but let's look at some heavily anime-influenced Créu drawings!
Soon enough I got myself a copy of Photoshop 7, which was VERY hard to come by back then. Learning it was also difficult because we only had magazines back then - thank you, Mom, for purchasing one for me that had some Photoshop tutorials!
Here's some of Créu's first digitally-colored drawings!
Over time, I got a bit more experienced, learned to work with layers and experimented with brushes!
For my 15th birthday, my family did a huge party (it's always been my Mom's dream!), and I made this cover art to celebrate! Inside this book, there were pages that guests could sign and leave messages.
UPDATE: this PriVer Archive had been published already on a previous post! You can see it here: https://www.creucat.com/post/happy-2021 ❤
Even with the digital arts advancing, I never lost sight of the beauty and freedom of drawing on paper! Did you miss Créu's old chubby design? XD
During that time, I also knew I wanted to become an animator - but YOUTUBE didn't come around until much after, when I was about to head to college. Still, the art of animation fascinated me, and you can see some of that influence of "animation principles" on these later drawings.
It wasn't long after that I discovered Adobe Flash - and drawing in vector, with a tablet too... and my imagination went wild to create all kinds of Créu Content!
Who could forget the OG Créu logo?!
Let's take a look at more Flash-made Créu art!
Oof, this BLOG post is getting pretty long!
I want to add a few honorable mentions before we head out!
These two images here were featured on the "I am Créu Cat" SHORT. The first one being from my very old UOL Blog (with a few creative freedoms to fit the short, but it looked very much like that, and those are real drawings from 2005-6!). The pixel version of my "Prisona" was made by @briakitten !
... and this one here was a drawing to feature Créu's Community on Orkut (a Facebook predecessor)!
After I started my animation BFA at the Academy of Art University, you probably know what happened - I started venturing into YouTube, and later went on a loooong hiatus from Créu to focus on my career at Pixar.
But that will be a topic for another day! I'm gonna have to come back to share more vintage Créu arts and history later!
I hope you enjoyed this brief history of Créu in his 20 years and the OG drawings, for now! Here's to 20 MORE YEARS!! =^^=
