Daily Sketch: Studio Window, Autumn
This really happened! Just this afternoon (Monday), and it’s both Mimi and Mewsette.
My studio is actually my spare bedroom, on the second floor. I call it “the treehouse” because outside the window are arching branches from my river birch coming in from the left and a tangle of branches reaching from my maple on the right, the neighbor’s dogwood as well, and behind most of it is my tall spruce. The house faces northwest, so in the mid to late afternoon the sun shines down on all those leaves, but the inside is in shadow; later the sun reaches to the windowsill and onto my drafting table.
I love to watch the change of daylight in all seasons, the pale greens of spring and dark greens of summer, the yellow, orange and red of autumn and the bare branches against the dark green of the spruce, and, of course, my cats. Today, first, Mimi joined me and sat on the windowsill to have a proper bath in preparation for an afternoon nap on my lap, and a little later Mewsette joined us and sat to watch the birds in the trees. They both sat in the same spot, but Mewsette is bigger, but Mimi turned her head the right way. So this is both of them.
I painted it later in the day, from photos and memory, applying the watercolor background first according to what I visualized—my trees are nowhere near that bright, only in my mind, but that is what I wanted, and the blue at the bottom for the cool shadow inside. The I referenced the photo for the feline figure, more or less, and the vase with brushes, more or less, since the cats and the vase with brushes are so familiar to me I barely needed the photos. I debated about the muntins in the window thinking they might be too harsh, but decided that was part of the charm of this old window, and would convey that idea to others who viewed it. My window has more bars, but they nearly crossed behind the feline face and went behind the brushes and I didn’t want that, so I moved them, keeping them a little off-center. I also used transparent layers of black instead of solid black as I have in other similar paintings—even though my first impression was of a silhouette, I could see it was not, and there was enough variation in the figures that I would leave some detail there.
And, as I like to say, that’s why we have art, so I can have it the way I want it. The doing of it ran very late because each layer of paint had to dry in between.
Here are a few others of my cats on the studio windowsill.
It’s also similar to Out the Front Door
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What was I sketching a year ago today?
Playing With the Chair Leg, 2012
Not enough toys in the house, Mr. Sunshine has to play with the chair leg as if it’s the best toy ever. Vivid imagination, these cats have.
It was a challenge to draw the twist.
. . . . . . .
Watching, 2012
Three black cats raptly attentive…the squirrel is raiding the bird feeder on the deck. This kept them pretty motionless for the better part of a minute so I could sketch in their outlines, and even when they moved the other details were easy enough to place. Love to hear their thoughts.
From the front: Mr. Sunshine, Giuseppe and Mewsette.
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.
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.
© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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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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When I clicked on.. other cats on the studio windowsill, I got database error
Maureen, try it again–I’ve been having database problems all day. It’s because the server my page is on is really busy, or my page itself is really busy. I think it’s because it’s election day and Pennsylvania is hot!