The Lost Sketchbook, Cookie Again

Cookie Sitting, pencil © B.E. Kazmarski

I knew I had a few sketches of Cookie and until I found this sketchbook I wondered where they had gone. She appeared before now and will appear again tomorrow.

These are on the next two pages in the book, the more detailed one first, then the simple outline. I think I was in the mood for the detailed style, I can tell by my lines and how much detail I’ve worked into her markings, especially the sure, straight lines of shadow around her; I can actually feel the certainty in my hands while I look at the sketches. The sketch in simple outline is a build from the style of Nikka, which may have been weeks or even months before this, but I probably flipped through the pages.

Here she is mid-bath, sitting in her somewhat roly-poly position where it’s easiest to get her belly. I’ve got more of her markings than in other sketches and I may have rendered some of them from memory, but because another version of her in the same position appears on the next page, likely I was working quickly and Cookie was holding more or less the same position for several minutes.

Nearly all of the first sketch is drawn with the side of the pencil, where nearly all of the second sketch is drawn with the point of the pencil. Pencil is so expressive: as I said above that I can feel the certainty in my hands while I am looking at these sketches, and I can see the next place I would have gone if I had had the time that morning, using the pencil as a brush stroke, pulling it along the paper, letting the varied line form from the tip.

Cookie Outline, pencil © B.E. Kazmarski