Thursday, March 28, 2024
animal artworkblack catscatsdaily sketchgiuseppejelly beanmewsettewatercolor

Daily Sketch Reprise: Lazy Saturday Afternoon

watercolor of three cats
“Lazy Saturday Afternoon”, watercolor, 9″ x 12″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

From 2012, and still a favorite, especially on a lazy Saturday afternoon like today! Well, for the kids at least. Though I painted this in June, this painting was the featured artwork and desktop calendar for August in 2012 and it is so perfect for August.

. . . . . . .

It’s Giuseppe in the front in teal, Mewsette draped off the edge in green, and Jelly Bean in purple. Rather than use the colors I associate with each of them, these colors came about because of the reflections on each of them from the window light, the mirror behind them and the walls. I hadn’t intended to do them in different colors though! This time I actually wanted them to be purple, maybe, with tints of other colors, but here we are again.

No watercolor pencils this time, no pencil lines, just the colors and a brush and three cats having a really good afternoon nap on top of the wardrobe—so good they stayed still long enough for me to paint the basics before they moved. This is a first for me (not them, they nap all the time)—I have never been able to watercolor without an underlying pencil sketch. I’ve never put the brush to paper and felt I had enough control to just paint in watercolors. I have to credit all the daily experience of my daily sketches with giving me this confidence and control. My goal was this loose quality, though, just enough to indicate their shapes and positions, no more.

I have also set up an all-in-one scanner/printer etc. in my studio with much better scan and print quality than the cheap thing I have downstairs. A friend “donated” it to me when they went wireless, and all the better for me! Aside from a little shadowing and distortion from the slightly rippled watercolor paper it’s spot-on for color. The scanner bed is a little small, but I’ll be happy to quit complaining about how bad my scanner is and apologizing for inaccurate color!

I spent more time than I’d planned in playing around with the new printer and haven’t downloaded today’s photos…I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow. That and Giuseppe rolling around all over my work table, and of course I couldn’t move him, so not as much got done as I’d have liked. But I got a nice painting.

. . . . . . .

matted and framed watercolor
Lazy Saturday Afternoon, matted and framed watercolor © B.E. Kazmarski

Where to find this artwork

The original has been sold, seen at right in its frame, but I can frame a print just like it and also offer this print in other styles—archival-quality digital, canvas and gicleé prints of “Lazy Saturday Afternoon” are available in my Etsy shop.

It’s also the featured June artwork in my 12 Sketches of Cats Calendar!

12 Sketches of Cats Calendar

"12 Sketches of Cats Calendar"
“12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Calendar”

I’ve always admired oversized “art calendars”, the ones where the art is foremost and the calendar just an incidental means of presenting it. Calendars are printed on quality text or cover stock and are only printed on one side of the page with plenty of clear space around the artwork because the image is intended to be framable with nothing printed on the back.

And so 12 Sketches of Cats is digitally printed in the same archival inks and acid-free natural 100# smooth cover stock I use for the digital art prints I sell. Each page is 11″ x 17″ so there is plenty of space to have the art at or near its native size with room for the name and information about the art with the calendar at the bottom. The calendar is spiral-bound at the top with a hole drilled just beneath the spiral so you display one page at a time.

In addition to keeping art near its native size I’ve also sized most of the artwork so it will easily fit a standard frame size. Some images, such as “Shades of Gray” and “World Cat” are smaller than the originals to fit the page. I chose sketches for popularity and narrowed them down for a variety of style and medium. All of the images but one are in color; none of the pencil, charcoal or ink sketches seemed to fit with the color art in the calendar, so of course that might be a calendar of its own someday.

"June" from "12 Sketches of Cats" calendar.
“June” from “12 Sketches of Cats” calendar.

And there are actually 14 sketches if you count the cover, and there’s a bonus sketch on the title page that’s the one pencil sketch, but because covers see more wear and the title page image is a little small I’m keeping the title at 12. The art included in the calendar is:

Cover: Mimi’s Sunbath

Title page: A Tangle of Cats at the Door

January: Winter Light

February: Shades of Gray

March: Catamount Brushmore

April: Two Cats After van Gogh

May: In Afternoon Sun

June: Lazy Saturday Afternoon

July: Stanley with Geraniums

August: Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol

September: Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground

October: Two in a Basket

November: Vigilant Nap

December: World Cat

This calendar costs a little more than the typical calendar because of the size and quality, and the value of what’s in it—I generally sell my prints for $10.00 to $25.00 each depending on the size, but in this calendar you get 14 prints if you count each image, for one price—$2.50 for each of 14 prints plus $10.00 to help FosterCat, Inc. house and support the cats in their system of foster homes, find homes for the cats they’ve rescued and help sponsor many cats rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement.

Order a calendar now

Calendars are $45.00 and as mentioned above I will donate $10.00 of each sale to FosterCat, Inc. Not only has FosterCat been doing its typical wonderful work in rescuing and finding forever homes for cats of all ages through its foster home-only all-volunteer organization, they have also been helping kittens and cats find homes who have been rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement, which allows all those who volunteer as a rescue to foster more cats and kittens.

Click here to order a calendar through my Etsy shop.

Click here to order a calendar through PayPal


NOTE: I will continue to sell this calendar until all I printed are gone, but because of the value of the art within it I will not discount it after the beginning of the year as I do others. The purchase price will always generate a $10.00 donation to a specified cat rescue or assistance organization.


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Petties 2014
Petties 2014

Read more about the Petties in this post.


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 Two Years of Daily Sketches.

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

"Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground" desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors
“Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground” desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors

"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.


Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.


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 or Fine Art America profile 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.


© 2014 | 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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