Thursday, March 28, 2024
animal artworkcat artworkdaily sketchdesktop calendarfeatured artworkfeline artworkmewsettemimiwatercolor

March Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar

watercolor of two cats
“Mother and Daughter, Sun and Shadow”, watercolor on paper, 6″ x 4″, 2012 © B.E. Kazmarski

The soft mixed pastels of this watercolor sketch welcome spring for me, and I hope they do for you as well for this month’s featured artwork and desktop calendar.

These two were curled up together on the rug on the landing, in very diffuse sunlight, not the bright morning light we often have, but it reflected off the white walls and created some interesting color combinations in their fur as well as reflected areas. Nice composition they made, and I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it at first, but I’m glad I chose watercolor for its opacity.

“Mother and Daughter, Sun and Shadow” is one of my daily sketches from last June when I was still experimenting with my watercolor pencils, mixing my love of simple sketches with the ability to blend colors, though not with my fingers as I am accustomed with my other familiar dry media of pastel, pencil, charcoal and the like. I sketched the basis of this, Mewsette and Mimi curled together on that pink flowered rug in a patch of sun on the upstairs landing, then ran a wet watercolor brush over it, just water, and let the colors blend as they would, magically turning my sketch into something I had not visualized.

How fun! Unplanned colors and textures blended to enhance the sketch, the shapes and open spaces, the reds, blues and yellows mingling just enough to add to the spectrum of colors and softening to a gentle pastel. Stopping after that first wash, I let it dry, then decided to reinforce the outlines of the two cats in a color I had not initially used, a dark green. And there I stopped. That’s often the most difficult part.

For me, this is the fun and the importance of creating my daily sketches. I don’t get the opportunity to experiment as often as I’d like, it’s best for me to use a subject I’m familiar with. When I was learning calligraphy and mastering the different pen tips and inks, I used my name, all 25 letters of it and including some atypical shapes and combinations, lettering it over and over so that I could focus on just the skill. Years ago, when I’d decided I was finally going to learn to draw I decided to use my cats as models for the same reason, and today it is the same; rendering things I see all the time in my familiar space I am able to focus on the medium and explore its capabilities without worrying if my subject is correct.

This month’s desktop calendar

And just as it’s entertaining and instructive for me to create daily sketches, in my life as a graphic designer it’s also fun for me to design something just for me, and to work out creative ideas with these desktop calendars each month.

MotherDaughter-1920x1200

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy during the month of March. Reading statistics and knowing that more than half of my readers view this site on a mobile device, I also offer the dimensions for desktop images for mobile devices from iPads to Smartphones.

  1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
  2. Right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.

Desktop and laptop computers

2560×1440 (16:9 for large monitors)MotherDaughter-2560x1440

1920×1200 (16:10 and HD monitors)MotherDaughter-1920x1200

1920×1080 (16:9 monitors)MotherDaughter-1920x1080

1280×1024 (4:3 monitors)MotherDaughter-1280x1024

Mobile Devices

800×1280 (Samsung Galaxy, etc.)MotherDaughter-800x1280

768×1024 (iPad)MotherDaughter-768x1024

720×1280 (Android phones)MotherDaughter-720x1280

640×960 (iPhones)MotherDaughter-640x960

600×1024 (Nook Color, Blackberry Playbook)MotherDaughter-600x1024

600×800 (Kindle)
Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.
MotherDaughter-600x800

480×320 (Blackberry, HTC)MotherDaughter-480x320

240×320 (smartphones, texting phones)MotherDaughter-240x320


 

Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.

Read about other artwork and portraits and read their stories

Read articles here on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Commissioned Cat Portraits

portrait of black cat on wicker chair
Samantha, pastel, 1994 © B.E. Kazmarski
Commissioned Dog Portraits

portrait of two dogs
Sophie and Ellie, pastel, 2009 © B.E. Kazmarski
Portraits of
My Cats

pastel painting of cat on table
After Dinner Nap, pastel, 1996 © B.E. Kazmarski

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.


Click here to see other daily sketches, and for a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit my Etsy shop in the “Daily Sketches” section.

If you are interested in a print of 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.

 


 


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.

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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