Thursday, March 28, 2024
black catsdaily sketchgiuseppepastel

Daily Sketch: Barely There

    "Barely There", pastel on forest green pastello paper, 8" x 10" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
“Barely There”, pastel on forest green pastello paper, 8″ x 10″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Ah, these late summer/early autumn mornings when the sun, at a lower angle, fills the upstairs with light for the first time in months.

Giuseppe was enjoying a sunbath and in the contrast of bright sun and deep shadow with black cat, all I could really see were his highlights and his eyes. It’s an exercise to leave your subject as negative space when subjects are usually positive elements, and to work the negative space or background along with just enough detail to describe the shape of your subject, kind of like thinking in reverse.

I didn’t realize I was out of black paper, so I used forest green, which actually confused me while I was drawing on it—I wanted it to be darker. Also, is not so dark as I would like for the effect, but I think it comes across well enough.


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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.

6 thoughts on “Daily Sketch: Barely There

  • This is so good, love it!
    I think I prefer the result of the forest green than black in this case.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Maru! the original view with the contrasts on the black paper would look more like what I saw, but this comes close.

      Reply
  • Paulette Smith

    Bernadette, I love it. I think it has a very mysterious quality.

    Reply
    • Paulette, that’s part of what I was striving for.

      Reply
  • Tiger

    Wow, b, that’s really cool. Very well might be another one that gets added to my wish list. Hope all is well with you!

    Reply
    • Interesting! I guess we’ll have to see! I still haven’t resolved the scanner/printer issue because in part it means reorganizing part of my studio! If you look closely at this one you’ll see a vertical white line a little off center in this piece, sometimes it’s more apparent, but I may just do several scans of yours and see if I can layer them to get rid of the lines. I want to get your stuff off to you!

      Reply

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