Daily Sketch Reprise: Blue Purple Cats and More
I might come up with a better name for this if I took some time, but the blue highlights and purple shadows were what inspired me about Giuseppe and Mewsette atop the wardrobe by the window, though after the sun had moved away and the light was only reflected, mostly off the sky, and very cool. They were bathing, lazily, sometimes licking themselves and sometimes each other. Giuseppe’s paw above Mewsette’s head looks a little confusing, but it was kind of confusing to me!
I did the watercolor sketch first, just the lightest blue as a wash that laid out the two shapes together. When that was still damp but had no puddles, I added a light wash of purple in the darker areas. I let that dry completely, then added a heavier layer of richer, less dilute purple in the deepest shadows. Then I added the ink outlines, this time using one of my felt-tip drawing pens.
Of course, they had moved after the first quick blue wash but not so much that I couldn’t see my original visual in their postures, and I had my reference photo. Poor Mewsette’s lovely long, thick tail literally got short shrift when I couldn’t fit the whole thing in the sketch—it’s nearly touching the bottom edge of the paper.
Purchase a print
I sold this sketch matted and framed, and will be glad to make prints if anyone asks—that’s often how I determine which sketches to have prints made from.
“Blue Purple Cats” along with “Their Faces in the Sun” made their way to the same home, one of our friends in Canada, who has also purchased a few other sketches.
Prints are $15.00, and I’ll be happy to frame a print like the one you see at right with a 1.5″ white wood frame and triple mat in blue-core white mat board for $60.00.
What was I sketching a year ago today?
Jelly Bean and Mr. Sunshine were taking turns bathing each other as they lolled in the sun on the rug on the landing at the top of the stairs. Sweet, the two brothers then curled up to sleep.
What I love about them on the rug is their silhouettes. But silhouettes only work well when all the features of the subject are clearly enough outlined that you can tell what it is looking at the silhouette. The challenge was how to present these two cuddling, and Mr. Sunshine’s position where his head is over his body, while maintaining the integrity of the outline. In this case I decided to keep a strong outline but not fill them completely, and to have the stroke direction be different between the two. Wish I had done the pink fill on the rug in a horizontal line as a similarity like that in an image often indicates some sort of a connection between the two subjects with the same type of fill. When using lines as fill too, using different directions helps to define each subject. I only mention this for instructional purposes, and I decided to do that after I had finished the rug and begun on the boys. It still works okay.
I kept grabbing the red colored pencil instead of the purple, so you’ll see tinges of red in the pink.
. . . . . . .
The three boys were on the bed earlier yesterday, barely more than silhouettes in the dim light. If my marker had had more juice I may have captured the sense of silhouettes, but at least this caught the sets of ears. It’s Giuseppe, Sunshine and Bean.
This technique tries to capture the outline in one line, and for this I modified it to be one line per cat because of the way they are positioned. In one method the lines aren’t even supposed to overlap or backtrack, but I like to use loops and overlaps to describe details on the subject.
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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.
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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
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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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