Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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February Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: Dusk

"Dusk", blue soft pastel on black pastel/charcoal paper, 6" x 11" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
“Dusk”, blue soft pastel on black pastel/charcoal paper, 6″ x 11″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I must be on a roll with blue these past few months with my desktop calendars—January’s cats were blue and February’s nature calendar is blue as well. But it’s one of my favorite colors in nature in this season and I’ve finally decided to feature this little sketch as a desktop calendar to share with everyone, even though its dimensions don’t fit well in most formats, and this particular month is a good one for this art.

It’s really some of my smaller, quick sketches that are deceptively simple where I feel I both captured the moment and my technique was right on spot, and this is one. Working quickly from life with light blue on black there is no room for “error”—marks can often be integrated into a composition, but can’t be removed or covered up in a sketch like this. I’ve got to trust the communication between my hand and my eyes to put down on paper what I’m seeing…that doesn’t actually exist.

But I captured not only the three sections of the old metal casement filled with blue light along with the light on the walls around, but also Mimi’s familiar little shape by not actually drawing her, but leaving her space open as negative space while filling in the windows, only to apply a few fingertips of pastel where soft highlights touched her fur to give her dimension.  The highlight on the cabinet top that faded into the darkness, too, and her shadow were quick guesses and blending out with the tip of my pinky finger.

If I stand there and think too much about the creation of a drawing like this, I chicken out. I have to jump right in.

(March 8, 2015) We spent so much time in the last few days enjoying the sun at this upstairs window that it’s only fitting we enjoy a sketch at this window to end the weekend—but not a bright sunny day. Just now as I carried the laundry upstairs Mimi ran ahead and jumped up onto the wardrobe, and crouched to watch the back yard gather darkness in a pose very characteristic of her. I dropped my laundry and grabbed the charcoal/pastel pad and a blue pastel that approximated the color of light and quickly sketched. She got up and came over to see what I was doing, but obliged me in returning to her spot in the approximate posture she’d been in. Now that’s a professional.

 


A New Member Thank You

You can get a free matted print when you register for an account on Portraits of Animals.

Register for an account on Portraits of Animals and get a free double-matted print of “Winter Cats” or choose from several other sketches, paintings or photos of cats and other subjects.

The New Member print is a signed digital print of “Dusk”. This print is 7″ x 11″ and is matted to fit a 12″ x 16″ frame with a pure white mat..

This print is only available as a new member gift during this month while it’s the featured artwork and desktop calendar, so make sure you sign up before the end of the month!

Or purchase the original or a different print or item

I also offer a variety of digital and canvas prints, a greeting card and a note card, find this on Portraits of Animals. And if you are interested in the gift items I’m making with this art, you can search Portraits of Animals for “winter cats” and you’ll find what’s available. I’ll also be featuring them here too.


This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month. Looking at the downloads from previous months and averaging out which dimensions fit which devices, I have reduced the number of variations from 12 to three. It was very time-consuming to create all the variations with new devices arriving all the time, so I have one for horizontal monitors/screens, one for square monitors/screens, and one that should fit the dimensions of nearly all mobile devices.

If these sizes don’t work for your device, or if you have problems, please let me know. Often I can troubleshoot the reason an image won’t download or won’t load on your device, but if I just can’t figure it out I can just email it to you and hope that works.

 

How to download and use your desktop calendar

  1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
  2. For desktop computers and laptops, right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.
  3. For mobile devices, download the image to your gallery then choose it as your wallpaper—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

. . .

Square monitors and screens

Desktop calendar 1280 x 1024 for square screens.
Desktop calendar 1280 x 1024 for square screens.

. . .

Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.
Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

Cell Phones and Smartphones

Desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones
Desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones

Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.


Click here to see daily sketches, click here to see daily photographs

click here to see other artwork featured on The Creative Cat

or visit Feline Artwork on my main website.

If you are interested in a print of this image, check Portraits of Animals 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.


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

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Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals 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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© 2022 | 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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