Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Daily Sketch: Tucked In

"Tucked In", brush pen, 3.5" x 6" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
“Tucked In”, brush pen, 3.5″ x 6″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Bella is usually pretty vigilant even when napping, but after a particularly strenuous morning of squirrel watching she was absolutely exhausted, curled herself on the top shelf of the cat tree, tucked everything in, wrapped her paw over her face and nothing interrupted her nap.

I did an initial sketch, and she moved just enough to change her posture to one I liked better, which you see above. Below is my first sketch.

"Tucked In, draft", brush pen, 3.5" x 6" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
“Tucked In, draft”, brush pen, 3.5″ x 6″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

. . . . . . .

What else was I sketching on this date?

Mr. Sunshine’s Blue-green Bath, 2012
pastel sketch of cat bathing
“Mr. Sunshine’s Blue-green Bath”, pastel and charcoal © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

The colors don’t correspond to anything, I was just visualizing him this way while I watched him bathe. I did the simple charcoal sketch first, thinking I might just stop at that, but kept seeing the greens and blues and that yellow in this kind of rubbed-in style where the colors are blended together and you can see my swirled fingerprints. It is literally rubbed into the paper (except for what’s on my hands, my desk, Jelly Bean…) so that it loses the character of pastel and looks more like paint.

After I rubbed it in I retraced the sketch to hold the shape. For a while in my early experimentations as an artist I outlined everything, nothing looked complete until it had a black outline on it, and I still like the look of it now and then.

Then he needed to be somewhere so I added the pink and purple and tan in vague angled strokes to indicate vertical and horizontal planes. If I were to work on this yet more, which I might, I’d work orange and burnt orange into the pink, blue into the purple, and light pink into the tan, and rub them in like the blues and greens and yellows.

The drawing paper I use is fairly sturdy and though smooth has a little tooth to it, enough to hold a layer of chalk pastel though I could never add more layers and blend like Kelly in Warm Colors—that is drawn on paper with enough tooth and texture to hold lots of pastel.

I just love their baths, I love the shapes they make, the curves and the overall simplicity of their form, and I also love Mr. Sunshine’s completely relaxed tail and the details of his angled ears, his toes and whiskers. Even though he is blue, green and yellow, whenever I post him many people recognize their own cats in his shape.

I still like this sketch a whole lot!


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 Three Years of Daily Sketches, Awards and Collections.

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

"Spring" desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
“Spring” desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

"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 and on Amazon.com.


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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 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.


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Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
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Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
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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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