Daily Sketch Reprise: The Sunny Upstairs Window

I have a sketch for later today, but I love this one so much I thought it should stand alone.

If you’ve been following my sketches for any length of time, you’ve probably seen gradual changes that begin with a particular sketch—adding new media, using a new color palette, finding a new style, even using a new and different paper. In my everyday life as an artist I took the time to experiment far lest often, in part because I did less art, and because my visualization and aesthetic senses moved more slowly. With this daily practice everything happens faster, and with more daring I’ll add.

Up to this point I’d done most of my sketches away from my studio, with my toy bag full of older, lower-quality and well-used pencils, pastels, charcoal, pens and even sketch pads. The sketches were just for practice after all, and I didn’t want to use “good” materials on what was basically a quick and temporary item.

But leading up to this with oil pastels and ink and watercolor, this particular morning I picked up my imported pastel paper and my really good pastels and quickly came up with this sketch, and it was truly inspired and enhanced by using the better materials. The two girls have such dimension and interest all over their tiny figures, the light streams in and changes tone and color just as natural light tends to do, and even the shadows have dimension. Let that be a lesson to me.

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Mimi and Mewsette enjoy the morning sunshine in front of the sunniest window in the house.

Friday morning was the first of several completely sunny mornings after a row of somewhat dark and rainy ones. All the cats were gravitating to the back of the house, facing east, as the sun streamed in the back door into the kitchen, and in the windows at the top of the stairs and in the bathroom.

I also recently took all the geraniums outside, so this top level of the wardrobe is now accessible, and a perfect spot to enjoy a sunny morning.

In my studio for part of the morning, I used the very Italianate Fabriano Tiziano Pastello drawing paper and a small set of my Sennelier pastels. Typically, what I have easily available downstairs in my toybox of art materials is not this quality of stuff, but in my studio I can play around with other things.

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Purchase this original or a print

This sketch, matted and framed, is available for sale in my Etsy shop.

I found a solid wood frame with a soft blue finish that pulls exactly from one of the shades of blue in the sketch, and used my favorite shade of purple mat board as an accent. These two soft, dark colors frame the tiny sketch and let it glow from the frame.

Right now, I get to look at it right next to that window at the top of the stairs—you’ll even see it in some photos of my cats atop the wardrobe or reflected in the mirror.

I can mat and frame a print identically to this for $50.00, please ask!

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 One Year of Daily Sketches.

Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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.