Featured Daily Sketch: Mimi’s Bath From the Back, June 23, 2012

June 25, 2026 Bernadette

sketch of cat bathing on book — Mimi’s Bath From the Back, purple colored pencil, 7″ x 8″, 6/23/12 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

From 2012: Mimi deserved this awkward and uncomplimentary sketch. She was lovely, gracefully bathing on a stack of books and papers, but as soon as she saw me ready to work she looked at me, then turned around. I sketched the book and papers, and her tail, waiting for her to turn around so I could sketch her. But she was being stubborn so I drew her looking like a lump. I finished, she turned around and began bathing her face.

But I think she had a point here. I like this pose, it’s interesting and makes you look at it a bit longer. Mimi always knew best.

Back to regular old colored pencil. I hadn’t used colored pencil very often but for some quick artist’s renderings of ideas. Since my sketches were supposed to be 15 minutes or less I didn’t want to tackle the highly detailed photorealistic style I loved to study from others. What I did like was the variety of line I could get with a colored pencil, different from drawing pencils or any other pencil-shaped drawing medium. I ended up pulling a color of pencil that I felt fit the moment, and for Mimi on this day, it was burgundy. I like that too—I think the dark warm color holds the sketch really well.

From 2026: One of the styles I enjoyed most about my daily cat sketches was gestural drawings, a line sketch that captures the action, plus the form or pose of the subject, like this sketch. It’s different from a sleeping sketch or even a sitting sketch because the subject is moving and even though you sketch one still from the many movements, you capture the feeling of movement, of a process. The shape of her front let, her tail, back, ears, whiskers, are all in process in this sketch, and I think the varied line and density of the colored pencil helps to capture that.

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.

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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.