I had been focusing on simplifying rat forms and starting to dress them up. I started with the green rat without referring to a reference of the clothing style
- (a white rat dressed in a dotted green robe with a golden yellow edge. Her head is topped with black shiny hair in a shimada style with two long ornamental pins with red tassels. She holds an orange paper parasol)

In the same sitting, I drew the second rat after doing a little bit of study
- (a white rat with dark whiskers wearing a brown dotted kimono with a blue shimo and a dark blue kami. His underclothes are orange. He wears his hair in the chonmage style. He stands ready with his hand on the hilt of a sheathed katana)

Later on, I was exploring the concept of adding a narrative to these rats and drew this Samurai standoff scene; on the same poor-quality paper as the others, unfortunately.
- (a white rat dressed in brown yoroi faces away from the viewer, squaring off with a pair of white rats dressed in peasant clothes. The adult male rat wears a kasa and is hiding the younger female rat behind him.)

Within the next year or so, I digitally sketched this kimono rat but eventually scrapped the painting attempt. I was still paying a lot of attention to the form of the fabric.
- (sketch of a female rat sitting facing away from the viewer, she looks back over her shoulder. her obi is tied in a fukura-suzume musubi. She holds a parasol)

Eventually, I painted the mounted Mongolian archer/ Samurai scene in college for an assignment in my illustration course. More effort was invested in world-building in comparison to fabric rendering. 
- (A brown rat in reddish lamellar armor wearing a metal helmet with a red plume is riding a rooster that is rearing back. His bow is strapped to his back and has a mongolian style quiver on his hip next to a sheathed blade. The rooster has blades strapped to its ankles. A rat dressed in yellow yoroi and a brown kabuto brandishes his katana as he is startled by the rider and mount. In the far distance the coast can be seen and a Mongolian boat is anchored off shore.)
​