Daily Sketch: Curled on the Bed
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: animal artwork, black cats, cats, daily sketch, jelly bean, mimi, mr. sunshine, pencil | Tags: black cats, cat art, cat sketches, cats, pencil sketch of cats on bed, three black cats, three cats 6 Comments
Curled on the Bed, pencil © B.E. Kazmarski
What else to do on a lovely sunny afternoon but curl up in the sun on the bed? Well, some of us have to work, but kitties need their beauty sleep. They gave me a break from the computer when I decided they’d be today’s subject.
This was just as much about capturing all three, each of whom moved enough that they needed extra sketching, as it was about the bedding. I enjoyed the challenge of depicting the pattern on the postage-stamp quilt, each little square with its own pattern and color and the squares arranged in a repeating geometric pattern, as well as the pillow shams with the ruffled eyelet edging. How to render the details in pencil when much depends on color, and how much detail is just enough without drawing every little eyelet opening and every flower and line on each square? Very fun to let my hands figure it out without overthinking it, which is how I end up overdoing it.
I added a little more shading to Mimi, Jelly Bean and Mr. Sunshine since they are black, and I also liked their contrast against the quilt.
I love this particular vintage quilt because I love handmade things, and I use it as much for the background in photos and eventually paintings as just to enjoy its springtime feel. But I have to be careful with it and soon it will be gently soaked in the washer and dried outside in the shade on a warm sunny day to be put away for another spring.
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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.
Kelly With Squashes
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: cat photographs, cats, daily photo, kelly, photographs, senior cats, tortoiseshell cats | Tags: cat photographs, cat still life, cats, feline photographs, pet photography, photography, tortoiseshell cat 4 Comments
Kelly With Squashes
Kelly steps out again today after a week or so in the bottom shelf of a cabinet. She’s been trying to figure things out, and I am just letting that happen. And she didn’t step out voluntarily—I placed her in the sun on this cabinet and gave her lots of love, just her, and she decided it was such a good idea that she is still on that cabinet, even though the sun is long gone. Just a little encouragement goes a long way with a delicate sensibility like Kelly.
She also graced me with a lovely multi-part bath session resulting in about 2GB of photos of Kelly bathing.
But they were each very much worth the time. I will have to share them in groups somehow, but for now I am exhausted by the excitement of a one-hour photo session (after a day of much photography, it was just so beautiful) and downloading and reviewing the photos, trying to choose one to share tonight.
I chose this one because of its multiple interest points, color scheme and resemblance to a classic still life though it has a certain oddness about it that I find intriguing. Those squashes are a few acorn squash I didn’t realize I still had, having faded to yellow from the rich deep forest green of autumn. The decorative dish is avacado green tempered glass and gracefully formed, the base is a brass-tone composite metal, the two colors and textures, or lack thereof, contrasting nicely.
As far as still lifes with cats go, it’s not quite Kelly With Apples for peace and contentment, though there is one similar to that in this series that I took intentionally, but it is certainly interesting to look at. Looks like another painting to me, and perhaps the other still life too.
And though Photoshop’s artistic filters don’t resemble any styles that I know of I like to play with them just to see what and image might look like. I used “dry brush” because I think it looks more like a watercolor than the watercolor filter does.
Kelly With Squashes, dry brush filter applied.
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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.
Lassie
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: animal artwork, collie, commissioned portrait, dog, original artwork, pastel, pastel painting, pet portrait, portrait | Tags: animal art, collie, commissioned pet portrait, dog, pastel portrait, pets, portrait of collie Leave a comment
Lassie, pastel, 23" x 16" © B.E. Kazmarski
I was working on Lassie’s portrait when I initiated The Creative Cat, so she was the very first I featured just about three years ago today.
Detail of Lassie's face.
Lassie was with her mom for 15 years and had just passed when her mom first called me. She was in nursing school and would graduate in the spring, and would like Lassie’s portrait for her graduation when family would be in town. A very special collie I could see by her photos, the two of them side by side into the college years and a new city.
Details like Lassie’s head tilt were very important. This face is the expressive, intelligent face her mom always remembered, when Lassie knew just what she was thinking. I just wish I’d had a slightly better digital camera then to show more of the detail here.
Lassie’s mom decided she wanted to remember Lassie in the outdoors so the portrait would have a scenic background, and its final shape would be determined by the scene. She didn’t have a photo of a favorite place, but they both enjoyed visiting parks and trails, and I have plenty of photos of places like that I began designing with autumn backgrounds; colorful and familiar, they are very popular in canine portraits and I’ve added my autumn scenes to several other dog portraits.
One of the autumn ideas.
However, Lassie kept blending into the background colors because her fur is primarily amber to brown, the same as the leaves we see, so I chose a late summer background of a rocky little stream and a row of trees in the background. The deep green of late summer grass shows off her fur to perfection and the glow of evening sun warms the scene. There was originally a tree in the near background, but I needed to get a little more detail on Lassie before I could find the best placement for the it so it won’t be distracting, and in the end we decided to leave it out.
Painting portraits of animals is plenty fulfilling and enjoyable, but I also love to paint my local landscapes so here was a painting that would be exciting in both respects, a landscape, and an animal. Not only have I worked for years to learn my palette and techniques for fur and wet noses, but also for landscapes. Here is a detail of the strip of woods from the top of the painting.
Detail of edge of woods.
I thought I’d include a progress photo where the background is half done, moving from left to right, and Lassie will need her last details done, but that will be after the background is completed. Working in pastel, the colors dust over each other, especially with heavy coverage like this background and the contrasting colors.
Lassie's portrait, second proof
The rocks in the stream on the left.
In addition, here are two detail areas that I particularly like, the rocks on the left, and the rocks and grass on the right.
While the original portrait may look completely detailed in Lassie and in the landscape, a close-up look shows that many of the details are literally sketchy, just soft indications of light and shadow that when viewed together appear as they should.
Again, I wish I’d had a better digital camera then! I like to show these details not only for your enjoyment, but for those who have told me you are learning from these portraits as well.
Detail of rocks and grass at right.
Reading things like this, in books and magazines in my day, and I still have many, was largely how I learned to do some of the things I do. I’m glad to pass it along.
Take a look at other portraits and read other stories
Read articles here on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.
Read about how I create commissioned portraits.
Commissioned Cat Portraits |
Commissioned Dog Portraits |
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.
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.
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