Daily Sketch: My Desk Tonight
They piled up under the kitty keep-warm lights again, four of them gathering one by one, all tucked together as if they house was freezing and they needed to cuddle together for warmth. After trying to work around them for a while, silly me, I decided they’d be a nice subject for a sketch and instead of working spent my time trying to determine the best way to represent this large pile of blackness with a few highlights here and there.
So here we are, soft pastels on soft pastel paper, Mr. Sunshine, Mimi, Mewsette at the top and then Giuseppe.
What was I sketching a year ago today?
Settling In for a Nap
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And other art to see…
The Pet Museum shared an excellent little sketch by Jean-Francois Millet entitled Le Chat or The Cat in the Window.
Charcoal and “chalk” (usually pastel), it is so lovely with diamond-pane windows and a house panther just gliding in.
Click here to see other daily sketches.
For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit my Etsy shop in the “Cat Art and Prints” section.
Read about the reason for the daily sketches in One Year of Daily Sketches.
And download your free desktop wallpaper calendar for computer or mobile, usually based on a daily sketch.
Browse some rescued cats and kittens!
Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Bernadette–I love love your website The Creative Cat. I have two questions for you. Number one–do you think if I start drawing a cat or two (or many) per day, that I will learn the secret of how to draw cats? Even if it takes years? I get frustrated and stop, because I do not know. if it will happen. Number two–what type of kitty keep-warm lights do you use? Thanks for sharing your gift of cats.
Sue
Sue, thanks so much! One of the reasons I post my sketches just as they are and write about my art is for others who are working on their own art. I’m thrilled to know you are working on sketches too!
1. Yes, if you draw cats each day you will improve. Practice makes perfect in everything, and it also develops your skills like nothing else, and everyone gets frustrated when what you are visualizing isn’t appearing on your paper. Remember, one of the reasons I do daily sketches is so I keep in practice, and without it I lose my touch between bigger works, and by doing it I can experiment and create in ways I’d never otherwise be able to. Initially, it took me about two full years of constantly drawing cats to get to where I was somewhat pleased with a pencil drawing I did.
The biggest part of visual art is visualization, your skills are the support to your visualizations.
Here are a few tips for things I did to get myself started:
+Study all the art you can find, just take it in, fill your eyes and your head with it. Go to the library and check out cat breed books that use illustrations and study how the artists created what you see. Buy the ones that help you most. Go to the children’s section and find all the children’s books about cats, study the styles and media and decide why and how it does or does not work for you. Find any other cat art and study, study, study.
+Get photos and tracing paper, and trace out the outlines of the cats in your photos to learn how ears and eyes and paws are shaped until it’s totally familiar to you, and learn to control your hand with whatever medium you use. Try several media. Figure out how to render hard and soft edges in pencil, ink, brush marker, whatever you want. Keep your attempts and look back at them as you go forward. Practice practice practice.
=Let yourself draw freehand once in a while to see if you are getting closer to what you are visualizing.
When you produce something, email it–a few others do. I love to see them. Good luck!
2. Kitty keep-warm lamps are two ancient halogen task lights, they have to be about 15 years old! But they are very warm, and have been keeping kitties warm for all that time.
If I can figure out how to upload a pic…I have a few of my senior cat Purrfessor sleeping near his kitty-keep-warm light. It is a full-spectrum SAD light I bought, but he uses it more than I do!