Thursday, March 28, 2024
animal artworkblack catsdaily sketchmewsettepastel

Daily Sketch: Shadows and Light

pastel of cat in sunlight
"Shadows and Light", pastel on pastello paper, 9" x 12" © B.E. Kazmarski

Mewsette catches the bright warm flow of early morning sun trough the back door and into the kitchen. Both she and the shadows are fairly solid black and the light and highlight fairly solid yellow with very little secondary or reflected light.

Since most of the drawing was in shadow I decided in this case to use dark paper and draw the light. My pad of pastello paper didn’t have a good deep brown or green so I used black, which is a little stark but carries the idea well.


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Bernadette

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7 thoughts on “Daily Sketch: Shadows and Light

  • vscook

    I Iove the texture Bernadette – does that come from the paper?

    Reply
    • Vicki, yes, it’s the traditional texture for drawing paper–long ago when papers were handmade, the pulp of fibers and water was “laid” on a fine mesh screen to permit the liquid to drip through and pressed thin with a piece of “felt” to pull liquid from the other direction and the resulting fibers to dry in “sheet”. Some drawing papers are still made that way today and though they can be made without the woven texture it helps to hold the pastel and it’s so typical of a drawing surface and for this I wanted that patterned effect and often use it with my pastels and charcoals, sometimes pencil too. But you’ll still see the terms “laid” and “felt” when describing the finish of even writing and copy papers, and of course, “sheet”. More than you wanted to know, I’m sure, but that’s your art lesson for today!

      Reply
    • Thank you, Sparky! Fun to think in opposites for once!

      Reply

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