Featured Daily Sketch: A Dozen Shades of Gray, 2012

June 11, 2026 Bernadette

pastel silhouette of cat — “A Dozen Shades of Gray”, gray pastels, 4″ x 8″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

It’s still surprising to me that this has always been one of the most popular of all my daily sketches, and as of the second anniversary of creating and posting my daily sketches on 2013 it was the most popular. I’ve shipped it all over the country, into Canada, the UK, Poland, Hong Kong, Japan, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. It’s a thrill to know little Bean is so easily understood in so many different countries—art and cats transcend spoken language.

From 2012: I love, love, Jelly Bean’s shape. He’s not fat, he’s not even too round, but somehow when he sits in certain positions I just want to pick him up he looks so pleasingly rounded.

In this case he was simply sitting on the table in front of the window looking out. Very little direct sun was shining on him, but it was shining around him, so he was almost in silhouette and just a few swatches of direct light, but a lot of reflected light, described his shape.

I have a set of 12 gray pastels and decided to work with them for this after yesterday’s sketch when the white charcoal just would not sketch boldly enough. I also thought I’d jump on the “Shades of Gray” bandwagon. Everyone is using that phrase now.

My scanner over-scanned this, and I scanned it several times to see if I could change how it came up. All those little white specs are not actually there in my sketch, but they are thin areas in the pastel. When the scanner light shines on something that’s not quite opaque, it will shine right through it depending on its opacity, and so it did here. I find the little dots irritating because I worked hard to work them out of the sketch. But it think the relevant details are still visible.

From 2026: I love Jelly Bean for modeling this. It’s not just the shape, but the calm zen aspect. He was like that. I just want to cup one hand on each side of him and kiss the top of his head. And I’m not so upset about the white dots I mentioned above. This was fairly near the beginning of my run of daily sketches and it was something I just had to get used to, which I did in time,

Where to find this artwork

The original has been sold, seen at right in its frame. I still love the way this turned out!

I offer archival-quality digital, canvas and gicleé prints of “A Dozen Shades of Gray” on Portraits of Animals. Ask about custom framing as well.

Daily Sketches 2011 to 2015

I think I accomplished what I'd set out to do three years ago today, a challenge to me and entertainment and enjoyment for you: to create a quick sketch of my cats each day as a way to practice and experiment, and present the sketch on that day with no editing, no waiting, no excuses, just to do the sketch and share it.

Read more about the reason for the daily sketches in Daily Sketches: the Idea, Most Popular, Awards.

Click here to see other daily sketches.

For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit Portraits of Animals in the “Daily Sketches” section.

"Feline Style Sampler" book of sketches and portraits.

A collection of 34 images of feline artwork

**The award-winning* Feline Style Sampler**

Now in its third printing since 2013! 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 on Portraits of Animals. *Certificate of Excellence, Cat Writers' Association 2014 Communications Contest

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Above is the framed original, which went to a dear friend in Canada. Read more and purchase.

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.