Thursday, March 28, 2024
black catsdaily sketchjelly beanmarkermimi

Daily Sketch Reprise: Sunny Windowsill

marker sketch of two cats
“Sunny Windowsill”, brush markers, 8.5″ x 6.5″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

The sun is so b right at this windowsill the cats who sit there are nearly always silhouettes, which I enjoy experimenting with. I don’t even mind that my marker isn’t as juicy as it could be; I used its relative dark and light abilities as part of the sketch, since Mimi and Bean aren’t completely silhouetted but have direct and reflected highlights on them.

Definitely should pick up a juicer black brush marker, though.


What was I sketching a year ago today?

Perfect Fit

brush sketch of two cats
Perfect Fit, brush pen © B.E. Kazmarski

It’s perfect because Mimi fits perfectly into the curve of Mr. Sunshine’s shoulder as she has her bath.

Well, I found a wonderful new pen, and didn’t even know I’d done so! This is a brush pen, as opposed to a brush marker. Instead of the tip being a shaped felt tip like a marker, this is a fine-bristle brush. The body of the pen opens to insert an ink cartridge. It took a while for the ink to begin to flow and the bristles to fill with it for drawing, but now it works as if I had dipped my brush in a bottle of ink to draw. The brush is amazingly sensitive and produces a highly variable line as you can see.

The variable line is interesting to look at, just as simple as that, but it can also be very expressive where the thick and thin areas actually help to describe the shape of the subject. I’ve done this with a crow-quill drawing nib on a dip-style pen which is a little easier to control, and I’ve been looking for that line quality since then.

This is exciting! The brush markers have been fun to play with, but they are not terribly sensitive to the movements of my hand—and how do you make the strokes on paper but with the movements of your hand, light and heavy pressure, tilting one way or another? In drawing with this I kind of felt as if I was on ice skates for the first time in a long time—moving whether I wanted to or not, but afraid to stop or I’d fall down!

This is made by Pentel Arts and I remember finding it on a special sale at the art store (one of the cool things about shopping at an actual store, picking things up and looking at them in life), and along with this came the little ink pen I used to draw my one and only cartoon yet, “Being Used as a Fort”. I was very pleased with the performance of that pen as well, much moreso than any felt-tips by any means in both pen styles.

. . . . . . .

Find this art and more of my brush marker styling

Creative Cat Coloring Book
Creative Cat Coloring Book
Creative Cat Coloring Book

This sketch is one of the sketches included in my new Creative Cat Coloring Book.

The 12 sketches in this book, plus the one on the cover, each offer a compositional challenge as well, with irregular figures and negative space that just begs you to add your own brush pen marks or make the most of a color technique, glue beads and crystals and flower petals to it, or just leave that space to speak for itself.

The book is 4.25” x 5.5” spiral-bound booklet of 12 daily sketches in brush pen printed on 120# card stock, book only or as a set with watercolor pencils and a sponge.

Read more about it on Portraits of Animals.

Feline-themed “Brushy Kitties” wrapping paper and art paper
art paper with ink sketches of cats
“Brush Kitties” art paper

This pattern is a collage of all the kitties I’ve drawn in this same style with the above-mentioned brush pen, singles, multiples, smooth lines, sketchy lines, just a bunch of busy kitties in black on white. The text-weight paper is printed on one side of 60# uncoated text weight paper—in case you want to add color yourself—the cover-weight is printed on 100# Lynx Bright White cover.

I’ve had this idea in mind for several years trying to find the best way to put it together. Seeing text-weight and cover-weight art papers for scrapbooking and creative crafts I decided this was a good way to give it a try. These papers are designed from my portraits and sketches and printed digitally.

Use these papers for scrapbooking, wrapping gifts, decorating keepsake boxes or any creative project you can think of that needs a bunch of cats on it! I ship them flat between sheets of cardboard. I’ve included a photo of keepsake box I made as an example–this box is not for sale.

I’ve started with three different designs and two different paper stocks, text and cover, to see how popular they are. I have many more ideas in mind for these papers—consider the number of daily sketches and portraits I have, plus holiday designs, and artwork yet to come!


Click here to see other daily sketches.

For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit Portraits of Animals in the “Feline Artwork” 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.

"Leaves and Shadows" desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
“Leaves and Shadows” desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

 


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy


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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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© 2016 | 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 | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | STUMBLEUPON | GOOGLE+ | EMAIL | PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE

HOME


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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