Daily Sketch Reprise: Mewsette in Sun
I still like this one, so much that I’ve had her up in my studio since this date last year!
Mewsette lets the warm sun wash her back while she sits and simply looks lovely.
I was in the mood for a more detailed pastel today, and decided to also use the Tiziano paper for its texture and working it out on a mid-range background instead of a white background in my sketchbook. I’ve also taken a break from pastels for a while and wanted to revisit the comfortable nature of an old friend.
I’ve been watching them in the morning sun in the kitchen, looking for shapes and colors and compositions. In these images you see as much reflected light as direct light, and while direct light is pretty reliable in tone and color, and direct sunlight generally has hard edges, reflected light takes on the color of whatever it’s reflecting from and can be very difficult to match, not because the colors are hard to determine but because you want to paint the color you think you see. In this case the direct sunlight is reflecting from both a rich pine cabinet from the left and the white floor from below Mewsette.
I was probably ready for this today because I’ve been studying her and the rest of them and seeing all these beautiful bright and subtle tones, planning my techniques and colors. I sketched her outline in black, a challenge for the angle but that was what I wanted, and made sure it was correct. She sat in the same spot but kept turning her head and moving her tail; I had to keep getting her turn her head to approximately the same angle. Then I blocked in color areas, then I blended, and reblended, and reblended again. Eventually she came out to this long after the sun had gone—it disappeared behind cloud cover quite quickly this morning—and added her whiskers from the reference photo I’d taken.
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What else was I sketching on this date?
Three Cats In A Line, 2011
Now for something a little different: one single line for three cats. I admit that it took me a few tries to warm up so I had the control to follow my eye with my hand and create one single line without stopping or lifting my pen that approximated Mewsette, Jelly Bean and Mr. Sunshine.
I’ve moved up from the gel pen, but even the quality felt-tip drawing pen isn’t quite what I want. That’s what the sketches are all about. Experiment, see how it works, and try something new as well as plain old practice.
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.
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 and on Amazon.com.
Gifts featuring cats you know! Portraits of Animals on Etsy.
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 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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