There might be several reasons why I thought it would be interesting to paint a rats invasion.

First, I’m afraid of rats. Like, terrified.
Several years ago I was on holiday here with some friends. The place is as untouched as you can get in a first world country.
A good balance between having a shop ten minutes walk from home, an awesome beach in front of your doorstep, and wildlife carelessly sharing your living space as if they were paying their part of the rent.

I didn’t mind the bats who used our living room as a hunting ground, or the crows in the morning, or the toads, or the giant spiders.
Hell, I like spiders.
Then one morning a big rat decided to explore our kitchen.

You see, as a city person, it was the first face to face I ever had with a rat. I really didn’t know yet they’re not my thing.

I immediately figured that out when I found myself on the table.
Like, with a single jump.
Without even thinking.

If I were asked, today, to do it again in exchange for a million British pounds, I doubt I could pull that up with such agility and elegance.
Long story short, to this day I still find rats very disturbing, and a rats invasion is pretty much the most disturbing thing I could ever think of.

Except for an invasion of rats clad in armours and wielding blades, on top of the ordinary carrying diseases thing.

For once, I tried to break a bit the rules of composition.
I thought that in a plague of rats, no single individual should really stand out.
Colours, edge control, details and (just slightly) colour and saturation kind of lead the eye towards the big guy one third of the way from the right.
I also positioned the other rats’ limbs and faces so that the eyes have an easy way to scan the picture and eventually get to that spot on the canvas.

However, there is really no emphasis on anything in particular, which is something that I also tried to force by using a flat, frontal point of view.

Since by the end of it I still had all the layers, here’s a nice gif with the different stages.

Oddly enough, during the few days I was painting this, I happened to read Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (if you haven’t read it, fucking do it! Now!), where rats are indeed quite prominent.

Also, the other day a friend of mine, out of the blue, mentioned his days as a Warhammer player, and Skavens being his race of choice, which is another big serendipity.
I wasn’t thinking about them at all (despite being nerd enough to know what he was talking about). But still.

I don’t know what all these coincidences have to do with me painting a rats invasion. Just use this information as you see fit:)

by Paolo Puggioni