Daily Sketch Reprise: Here in the Shadows, 2013

Bernadette July 9, 2019July 12, 2019 0 Comments black cat, black cats, cat art, cat artwork, cat sketches, cats, pastel portrait, pastel sketch of cat

June was (supposed to be) sunny, July is usually a little too sunny—and hot. But a shady corner next to an open window is a respite from midsummer heat, and sable house panthers tend to melt into the shadows. Seeing my daily photographs you can probably tell I love this mirror and using the reflections in it. In this sketch I had the chance to paint the reflection, so much fun to render mostly with the pastel remaining on my fingers after sketching the Bean.

Here’s what I had to say from 2013:

A very good place to be on a hot day. Jelly Bean is in the shadows behind the curtain, dozing on top of the wardrobe by the open window. He was really the only part I was interested in, his deep blackness with the few intense highlights defining a few features. It’s how I see him when he sleeps there. Pastel carries this off so well, even the texture of the paper.

And then there’s that red velvet highlight across his mid-section. Sometimes I’m less specific in my sketches and I don’t always remember which black cat was the model, but in this case only Mimi has red velvet highlights like this—that’s where Bean got them. But she is much smaller and while she sits there to look out the window all the time, she rarely stretches out for a nap. That’s a bean thing, and he was at it a little earlier today.

In 2014 when I posted this image again, I said this:

Over the year I’ve grown to like this simple pastel more and more. The simple shapes in the shadowed warm amber tones of a hot summer afternoon with the blinds pulled halfway, the way the natural texture of the paper became the pattern of the lace curtain, Jelly Bean’s fur, dense black in the shadows but with its natural red velvet cake tones in the mid-range, the highlight on his face and whiskers, and the reflection in the mirror, softened, blurred, natural. It’s one of those I look at later and think, “I don’t remember doing that, as I walked right past my logical mind choosing colors and planning how I’d put the pastel on the paper to my intuitive mind that just went ahead and did what it pleased.

All that comes with practice, and again it’s one of the reasons I am glad for my daily sketches, even if I don’t do them each day; right now I’m working on other art that you’ll see at some point.

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Where to find this art

The original is still available for purchase framed or unframed as well as prints in various sizes and styles on Portraits of Animals.

Click here to see other daily sketches.

For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit Portraits of Animals in the “Daily Sketches” section.

Read about the reason for the daily sketches in Three Years of Daily Sketches.

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

Desktop calendar 1280 x 1024 for square screens.

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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 on 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.