Daily Sketch: Purple Cats, Red Blanket
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: animal artwork, black cats, cats, daily sketch, jelly bean, mimi, mr. sunshine | Tags: black cat, cat art, cat sketches, cats, painting of two cats, purple cats, two cats, watercolor of two cats 5 Comments
Purple Cats, Red Blanket, ink and watercolor © B.E.Kazmarski
This was yesterday’s daily sketch, which I didn’t get a chance to finish even late in the day, so I finished it today and posted it. I needed to spend some time color balancing it and it’s still not quite right; my scanner tends to be overly red and my camera overly blue and neither one was too accurate, and it was already 9:00 at night, so this is close enough.
Black cats, like white cats, have all sorts of colors in their fur, and in yesterday’s filtered sunlight their fur glistened with all sorts of highlights and shadows. The randomly shaped and wrinkled red blanket heightened the range of colors in their fur and even the neutral wood floor held random combinations in its old unfinished grain. Mostly, the composition was what attracted me in the first place: two similar heavy rounded shapes, the random soft shape and the smooth shape brought elements together in a very pleasing way.
I think cats are very aware of how they can create beautiful compositions simply by being in them.
Sometimes I’m not sure which way to go with an idea. Part of my quandary was that I had two ideas, this one of ink lines with watercolor and another of black sumi-style cats on a solid red blanket, just absolutely simple shapes. I think I’ll also do that one, but I’ll do it from the photographs I took.
You may recognize this as being similar to a few of the images in today’s photo, “Mimi Photobomb“, and that’s exactly what I was doing before I was photographing—sketching in ink the view from behind which I found absolutely dear. Normally I would have moved into my studio and gotten the watercolors immediately, but then I saw the photo op and spent some time on that, and then the phone rang, and it was getting late in the day and I was still in my bathrobe and all I’d done was sketch and photograph my cats. Fun and fulfilling, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
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Click here to see other daily sketches.
For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit my Etsy shop in the “Daily Sketches” section.
Read about the reason for the daily sketches in The Artist’s Life: Daily Sketches.
And read about purchasing them and requesting them as a donation item for your shelter or rescue group in The Artist’s Life: Daily Sketches for Sale and Donation.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
Up to No Good: From A Year Ago Today
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: black cats, cat photographs, cats, daily photo, jelly bean, mr. sunshine, photographs | Tags: cat photographs, feline photographs, pet photography, photo of two black cats, photography 3 Comments
Jelly Bean and Mr. Sunshine up to no good.
I prepared this photo to post last year on January 4, but I already had one so I never posted it; hence, it’s not a post from a year ago today, but it is a photo from a little over a year ago today. A mere technicality.
I have the feeling I caught Jelly Bean and Mr. Sunshine in the middle of a strategy session. I can never tell by Jelly Bean, who always pours on the charm and therefore always looks guilty, but Mr. Sunshine looks quite alert there in the background so I’m not sure what to think. It just looks as if they were in the middle of some sort of cat event planning.
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To see more daily photos go to “Daily Images” in the menu and choose “All Photos” or any other category.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
Waiting at the Window: From a Year Ago Today
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: black cats, cat photographs, cats, daily photo, giuseppe, jelly bean, mewsette, my household of felines, photographs | Tags: black cats, cat photographs, cats, feline photographs, pet photography, photography, three black cats in window Leave a comment
Waiting at the Window
What a welcome sight to come home to! Mewsette, Jelly Bean and Giuseppe watched as I walked down the street from photographing the new moon; I could see their silhouettes as I came down the hill with my camera.
But photograph three black cats in the window of a darkened room with one bright light in the center of the photo to throw off all the levels, that’s enough to test both me and my camera. I had to use my flash, which I rarely do, especially with the black cats, but it was worth it for this.
Darn it, though, every time I wash the windows because I know I’m going to come home to see at least one of them in the window and want to photograph them (and birds and other outdoor things from inside), it rains or snows again and the windows are covered with water spots.
How much are those kitties in the window? Priceless!
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To see more daily photos go to “Daily Images” in the menu and choose “All Photos” or any other category.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
Mimi Photobomb
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: black cats, cat photographs, cats, daily photo, jelly bean, mewsette, mimi | Tags: black cats, cats, pets, photography, two black cats 1 Comment
Mewsette gives Bean a sisterly bath...
Now there’s a sweet shot, Mewsette and Jelly Bean cuddling and bathing each other on the red blanket on the landing. Want an instant cat bed? Fold anything and set it anywhere. It will be a cat magnet.
The two of them kept at it, and knowing their habits as I do they were only going to get cuter each moment until there was a crescendo of absolute sweetness. So I stuck around. My cats are pros at this and if they are involved enough with what they are doing, my preparations for a great shot don’t inhibit them at all, even if I prowl around them on all fours and end up in a partial headstand in the corner in order to get the best angle.
In this case, they were on the landing, I was on the steps, actually laying on the steps in my bathrobe with my elbows on the landing but leaning way back in order to get enough distance between the camera lens and my subjects, camera focused and finger on the shutter. My digital camera is rather big and somewhat heavy, but I do this all the time and know that if I give up waiting for the perfect shot, I’ll stand up and shut off my camera…and really regret it!
I took a few other shots…
Then they pause and look down the stairs, still a little blurry, then they look up at me and I focus and make the shot and...
…cute, but while it seems bright the light isn’t the best, plus my hands were getting tired. I had also gotten a few shots that were too blurry.
I gave my hands and elbows a little break, then get back to my pose.
Then Bean gives Mewsette a little brotherly bath.
Aha, too blurry on the Bean, but every so often he pauses and I can get this one! I time his movements, I’m all ready to capture to perfect moment and…
Mimi Photobomb!
Mimi says, “What are you doing down here on the floor?”
Well, my subjects may pay no attention to me, but other cats do—and they love it when I’m on the floor! I often get tortured while I’m lying on the floor or other surface trying to get a good shot with cats walking all over me, including my head, walking under my chin, dragging a tail across the camera, settling in for nap on my back. And, of course, the photobomb.
Here are the four images in a slideshow. Enjoy!
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To see more daily photos go to “Daily Images” in the menu and choose “All Photos” or any other category.
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 purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
The Creative Cat 