Daily Sketch Reprise: Inscrutable

They all look at me like this, but this is more patterned after Jelly Bean, who sat by the window atop a box so that his face and front body was entirely in a deep shadow. Resting, his eyes are slits, and sometimes he simply closes them and takes a nap, but sitting up.

I looked at him and thought, “Inscrutable”, as his expression seemed to be, and actually was since I really had no idea what he might be thinking. I liked his shape and thought how similar the others look when they do the same. I liked the silhouette with just the eyes, but I needed something to soften up the edges because he was not hard-edged except his ears and his tail where it laid against the surface. Hmmm…I don’t want to draw every hair, I don’t want to be that definite. Dry brush? Maybe another time. I roughly sketched his outline, firmed it up and painted it in with Higgins black drawing ink and a wide brush, then a narrower one. For the finish I drew lots of dots with felt-tip technical pens in two sizes.

I’m not entirely pleased with the shape—his head is too wide, but other than that I can see Mewsette and Sunshine and Giuseppe and even Mimi as well as Bean. But most of all, it reminds me of Mr. Sunshine. I’m going to explore this style a little more, too. I had used it years ago in my sketches for “Kitties Being Kitties” and for “Sally’s Profile” and even in “my first greeting card” (scroll down to see) and drawing the dots is truly mesmerizing.

. . . . . . .

Where else will you find this artwork?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, making a colorful pattern using line art. When I first did this sketch I thought it would be a good candidate for a repetitive pattern, and it’s been on my mind the past few days so I decided to finally see how it would work out. I began with a palette of about eight colors, which is more than I’d wanted, and then I kept adding more! Never too many colors.

Initially I liked all the cats’ eyes to be different colors when the color beneath showed through each cats’ eyes. Then I began shuffling the pattern so both eyes were not on the same color. Not sure I like that, it may be a little too random, so I think on another attempt I’m going to make all the eyes one color for a little bit more symmetry and see if it holds it together.

Above is a “full sheet” of pattern. Coloring the art was easier in my graphic design program so that was what I used to put this together, and I’m so accustomed to designing printed materials I always start out with a letter-size page, so that’s the base size of that layout. Below is a half-page, I just cropped off the top half.

Yes, fabric, yes, wrapping paper, yes, art paper. What have I started?! It’s going to be really fun.

Mr. Sunshine is going to be insufferable.

. . . . . . .

Inscrutable Patterns Art Paper

Yes, I went ahead and did it, in part because I have some projects for Valentine’s Day that use this paper! So here it is, available:

• 11×17 on 80# gloss text
• 11×11 on 100# matte cover

I’ve added them to the post for text-weight art papers in my Etsy shop and the post for cover-weight art papers in my Etsy shop so you can choose from all four.

---

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.

---

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.

---

© 2015 | 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!

—

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | ETSY SHOP | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | STUMBLEUPON | GOOGLE+ | EMAIL

HOME

---