Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Daily Sketch Reprise: A Dozen Shades of Gray, 2012

pastel silhouette of cat
“A Dozen Shades of Gray”, gray pastels, 4″ x 8″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

It’s still surprising to me that this has always been one of the most popular of all my daily sketches, and as of the second anniversary of creating and posting my daily sketches it was the most popular. I’ve shipped it all over the country, into Canada, the UK, Poland, Hong Kong, Japan, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. It’s a thrill to know little Bean is so easily understood in so many different countries—art and cats transcend spoken language.

I love, love, Jelly Bean’s shape. He’s not fat, he’s not even too round, but somehow when he sits in certain positions I just want to pick him up he looks so pleasingly rounded.

In this case he was simply sitting on the table in front of the window looking out. Very little direct sun was shining on him, but it was shining around him, so he was almost in silhouette and just a few swatches of direct light, but a lot of reflected light, described his shape.

I have a set of 12 gray pastels and decided to work with them for this after yesterday’s sketch when the white charcoal just would not sketch boldly enough. I also thought I’d jump on the “Shades of Gray” bandwagon. Everyone is using that phrase now.

My scanner over-scanned this, and I scanned it several times to see if I could change how it came up. All those little white specs are not actually there in my sketch, but they are thin areas in the pastel. When the scanner light shines on something that’s not quite opaque, it will shine right through it depending on its opacity, and so it did here. I find the little dots irritating because I worked hard to work them out of the sketch. But it think the relevant details are still visible.

matted framed sketch of cat
A Dozen Shades of Gray, matted and framed © B.E. Kazmarski

Where to find this artwork

The original has been sold, seen at right in its frame. I still love the way this turned out!

I offer archival-quality digital, canvas and gicleé prints of “A Dozen Shades of Gray” in my Etsy shop. Ask about custom framing as well.

12 Sketches of Cats Calendar

"12 Sketches of Cats Calendar"
“12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Calendar”

I’ve always admired oversized “art calendars”, the ones where the art is foremost and the calendar just an incidental means of presenting it. Calendars are printed on quality text or cover stock and are only printed on one side of the page with plenty of clear space around the artwork because the image is intended to be framable with nothing printed on the back.

And so 12 Sketches of Cats is digitally printed in the same archival inks and acid-free natural 100# smooth cover stock I use for the digital art prints I sell. Each page is 11″ x 17″ so there is plenty of space to have the art at or near its native size with room for the name and information about the art with the calendar at the bottom. The calendar is spiral-bound at the top with a hole drilled just beneath the spiral so you display one page at a time.

In addition to keeping art near its native size I’ve also sized most of the artwork so it will easily fit a standard frame size. Some images, such as “Shades of Gray” and “World Cat” are smaller than the originals to fit the page. I chose sketches for popularity and narrowed them down for a variety of style and medium. All of the images but one are in color; none of the pencil, charcoal or ink sketches seemed to fit with the color art in the calendar, so of course that might be a calendar of its own someday.

And there are actually 14 sketches if you count the cover, and there’s a bonus sketch on the title page that’s the one pencil sketch, but because covers see more wear and the title page image is a little small I’m keeping the title at 12. The art included in the calendar is:

Cover: Mimi’s Sunbath

Title page: A Tangle of Cats at the Door

January: Winter Light

February: Shades of Gray

March: Catamount Brushmore

April: Two Cats After van Gogh

May: In Afternoon Sun

June: Lazy Saturday Afternoon

July: Stanley with Geraniums

August: Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol

September: Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground

October: Two in a Basket

November: Vigilant Nap

December: World Cat

This calendar costs a little more than the typical calendar because of the size and quality, and the value of what’s in it—I generally sell my prints for $10.00 to $25.00 each depending on the size, but in this calendar you get 14 prints if you count each image, for one price—$2.50 for each of 14 prints plus $10.00 to help FosterCat, Inc. house and support the cats in their system of foster homes, find homes for the cats they’ve rescued and help sponsor many cats rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement.

Order a calendar now

Calendars are $45.00 and as mentioned above I will donate $10.00 of each sale to FosterCat, Inc. Not only has FosterCat been doing its typical wonderful work in rescuing and finding forever homes for cats of all ages through its foster home-only all-volunteer organization, they have also been helping kittens and cats find homes who have been rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement, which allows all those who volunteer as a rescue to foster more cats and kittens.

Click here to order a calendar through my Etsy shop.

Click here to order a calendar through PayPal


NOTE: I will continue to sell this calendar until all I printed are gone, but because of the value of the art within it I will not discount it after the beginning of the year as I do others. The purchase price will always generate a $10.00 donation to a specified cat rescue or assistance organization.


Click here to find out how you can help homeless cats and get a gift certificate!

Treats For Homeless Cats And Caretakers


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 Two Years of Daily Sketches.

And download your free desktop wallpaper calendar for computer or mobile, usually based on a daily sketch.

White Cat Reflecting, 1280 X 1024.


"Feline Style Sampler" book of sketches and portraits.

A collection of 34 images of feline artwork

Feline Style Sampler

Daily sketches, illustrations, commissioned portraits all in a small coil-bound gift book.

Click here or on the image to read more

or find this book in my Etsy shop.


Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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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.


© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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