Marketplace AND Featured Daily Sketches: Sunny Ink and Watercolor Pencil note cards

May 8, 2026 Bernadette

Sunny Ink and Watercolor Cats Note Card Set

I created each of these four sketches within a month of each other from April 29 to May 18, 2012, five months into my series of daily sketches. This technique and style, sketches with watercolor wash, was one I had liked all my life and wanted to learn for years. I used those daily sketches to learn and practice many different techniques and styles, but I’m a little surprised that this came so quickly in that series—I guess I really wanted to learn it!

And it was a sensitive time for the two models, Kelly and Mimi: we had just lost Cookie who had been the gentle lead cat in our household. Kelly was 19, kind of lost without her fur sister, and I’m glad I had the chance to capture her in quite a few sketches that year especially these unique sketches. Mimi had enjoyed being a regular indoor kitty after her life primarily outdoors, but I missed my backyard kitty Cookie and one morning that April I took Mimi outside and it was as if she had gone out there with me all along, so our relationship was deepening as we two enjoyed that time together outdoors—for the next 12 years. She became part of all the product photography I did outdoors. I designed and photographed these note cards in May 2024, Mimi’s last spring, and there she is, my constant art director and advisor, searching out the best spot to photograph the note cards.

Mimi searches for the best spot to photograph the note cards.

About note cards and correspondence

Note cards and other correspondence seem to be making a comeback and one of my goals this year is to publish more designs now that I can print small quantities in my studios. Though I had small quantities of these designs printed when customers requested them, I’ve always intended to formally set up these designs but held back until sales of cards increased. Now I’m really happy to introduce this particular set of sketches as cards.

Note cards were my first products to sell after commissioned portraits and original art. As I attended cat shows with my portraits in the early 90s I realized two things: I’d never have any take-home income from a show because no one was going to book me for a portrait right there, and aside from my brochure and business cards people had no other take-home from me. I printed my first set of note cards in 1993, “Kitties Being Kitties,” so that customers would have something to buy that they could use and remind them I existed.

That was the start of a lot of cards! But about a decade ago sales of cards began to dwindle as electronic communication became more common so I slowed down on production; having large quantities printed wasn’t reasonable and smaller quantities weren’t cheap. Now that I have more control over the process I’m really happy to see written personal correspondence becoming more popular again.

black cat with cat notecards — Art director is sleeping on the job. It’s also a tradition that Mimi be included in my outdoor photos.

About my Sunny Ink and Watercolor Pencil note cards

I have so many similar sketches that titling sets can be both tricky and confusing, even to me. I love ink and watercolor and have sketches that fit in that category, but I came to love watercolor pencils for small sketches and the versatility of line and texture. These cards have that distinction over my watercolor and ink, and watercolor, then I realized all four subjects are in the sun, kind of typical for me, so a little more distinction from other styles and sets with “sunny.”

I gathered four similar small sketches done with ink and watercolor pencil, and I left them with their natural irregular edges. In this case I did the ink sketch first, then scribbled into it with watercolor pencil. The watercolor pencil is a two-part technique, first the drawing, then the watering. In this case I knew I’d want to leave some of my sketching lines and in other cases I wanted to obliterate them.

They come from my collection of Daily Sketches, a three-year period during which I painted my cats nearly every day in a huge variety of media, just a quick sketch, no masterpieces, finding the inspiration and capturing the moment.

Images and design names included

I sketched these in April and May 2012 and it just so happened that Kelly and Mimi were convenient subjects! Sweet memories.

Kelly on the Windowsill

Kelly enjoys the sun on her back on the bathroom windowsill, and also likely the reflected heat from the deck roof, just below. It’s not all that warm outside, but just warm enough to have the windows open in mid-afternoon. The pussy willow is right outside the window and the dappled leaves were charming, and the blue sky beyond.

In other cases, such as the sky and the wall beneath her, I wanted both and I was very pleased with what happened when I just brushed a water-filled brush over my lines. I could achieve a multitude of techniques this way, with just random washes in the sky where I used the brush on its side, but patterned washes in the shadow on the wall where I used the tip of the brush (that’s a white sable no. 4 round, students, you know who you are) in straight parallel lines running through the angled watercolor pencil lines in green and blue.

Click here to read more about this sketch and options for prints.

Mimi’s Sunbath

I really liked this as an ink sketch and almost left it with just Mimi, but when I had looked at Mimi in this very spot I envisioned an ink drawing with watercolor washes. I began the sketch on watercolor paper, and so I finished it. I like it just as much.

This has both deep shadows and bright highlights, and both direct and reflected light, a challenge for me in ink, for sure! But while Mimi did move her head to face front, look up at me and look behind herself, she sat for long enough for me to get the light and shadow on her torso sketched in with pen, then a bit of watercolor pencil scribbled on top.

Click here to read more about this sketch and options for prints.

Top of the World

Mimi again enjoys the warmth of the sun on her one side, this time on top of the wardrobe at the top of the stairs, her new favorite spot.

This is another one of those complicated sketches that I did quickly, then filled in later, though Mimi spent quite a bit of time up there.

Click here to read more about this sketch and options for prints.

Kelly with Grapes and Apple

When the sun moves around to filter into this window, Kelly hops over to enjoy it and have a nice bath on the cabinet. In a rare moment of repose, she sits still and lets the sun warm her back, the light reflecting back from the pine wood cabinet warming the tones of her tortoiseshell fur.

I let Kelly bathe and find a comfortable spot, sketched her torso and tail and paws, then watched her as she moved her head to a position that worked well and quickly sketched the outline of her face and ears; I had wanted more sun on her face, but that was not to be.

While I waited for Kelly’s tail and face to find a moment of stillness for at least ten seconds, I began on the objects in the background, the mid-century brass and tempered glass raised fruit dish with its olive green glow cast on the table, the apple and green grapes which I’d kept replenishing to continue photographing and hoping to get time to sketch or paint, and the simple shapes of the curtains and shadows on the tabletop.

Click here to read more about this sketch and options for prints.

I prefer to photograph merchandise outdoors for the warmer light and choice of backgrounds. In one of the photos I took I couldn’t resist including one of my decorative cat figures outside on my front porch, so in this photo find the cat face—not a real live cat, but a decorative one!

Order a regular or custom set of my Sunny Ink and Watercolor Pencil note cards

If you want all torties or all black cats, all of one design or two of this one and four of another, there’s a box to list the design and quantity you want.

Cards are A2 (4.25″ x 5.5″) printed on felt (lightly textured) white 80# card stock with a matching felt 80# text envelope that coordinate with the texture you see in the art.

Available in a set of four or a dozen packed in a greeting card box.
Regular set includes an equal number of each design, or choose a custom set and list your choices.
Cards are blank inside.
These cards do not assort with any other cards.
Price includes shipping.
Cards are available individually under the listings for the artwork.

Create a gift set

Also, you can make up a gift set: each of these paintings is available as a print on paper or canvas, print only or matted and framed, and in many cases I have used these images on gift items in my Handmade Gift Gallery such as tiles, keepsake dishes, refrigerator magnets, and more. If you’d like to explore more, use the search box on www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net and search the title of the image.

Click here to order from Portraits of Animals.

"Sunny Watercolor and Ink Kitties" nesting keepsake box set. — “Sunny Watercolor and Ink Kitties” nesting keepsake box set.

Find the tiles here and the set of keepsake boxes here on Portraits of Animals.

Marketplace

black cat napping on walk in shade — It’s about to get too hot

Art director takes time for a nap after all that work!

Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.

Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop”, whether that’s here on The Creative Cat, on my main website or even at one of the bricks and mortar shops that carry my work.

Read about creating custom items

Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.

Find out about events and festivals where you can find me and my work.

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It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!

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.