Month: March 2012

Sequoia Mural Completed

(Happy Birthday, Younger Sister!)

Here is Three Rivers’ latest mural on the building that is to soon house Sequoia Outdoor Sports. Right now I am thinking YIPPEE SKIPPEE! I usually really like my murals when I see the photos at the end of the day. If not, I go back and paint some more. If I can’t find anything else to do, then I decide that the mural is finished.

As of 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, 2012, this Sequoia mural is completed.

I know, close the car door. Better yet, move the car! (Is it immature to like your car even when it is a ’96 Accord with many miles, scratches and a few rattles?)

On Monday, I will show you the oil painting from which this Sequoia mural was painted. Sort of. It inspired this mural. I will study the photos of it over the (hopefully rainy) weekend and decide if anything can be improved. It isn’t as if I can get into my Accord and leave the scene – Nope, I live in this town. and I want this to be the best possible. (Don’t worry, I felt the same about the Exeter murals even though I’ve never lived there.)

Sequoia Mural

(I wanted to call this Big Trees, Little Mural, but the word Sequoia is more likely to be found by Mr. Google. Is Mr. Google the new version of “the Man”??)

This white panel is about 6 feet wide and 7 feet high and it is READY to be painted!

This is the entire gonna-be-a-business, called Sequoia Outdoor Sports in Three Rivers. (Not my car – I drive Honda Accords. Now on #4 (since 1981) Love ’em!)

Here is the whole building, including the Yoga studio on the right side. (I know, shut the car door!)

Here it is with the Chevron station so you really know where it is in Three Rivers! And look at that fabulous tree – it dropped lots of nice little twigs that were just perfect for stirring paint.

First I taped the edges so it will have a nice white frame. Then I drew it. Pretty sketchy drawing!

Back to front coincides with top to bottom. What am I painting? It is based on an oil painting that the owner of Sequoia Outdoor Sports really liked. He asked that I substitute Sequoia trees for the red firs. That threw me into a mess of confusion because there are no redwoods in Mineral King. But, I’m not painting Mineral King, I’m painting an illusion, a summary, a feeling, a sense of being on a trail in Sequoia National Park.

End of the day – staring to look okay, but still best viewed from the back of a fast horse. I will refrain from showing you the closer view. Tomorrow the detail will take place and THEN I will show it to you, along with the oil painting that inspired it.

mural Sequoia National park Sequoia painting Three Rivers

Painting the Primary Books Alla Prima

I added “alla prima” to the title today because yesterday we learned what it meant. A little review is good for the memory.

This style of painting has never appealed to me unless it is just WHAMO briliant.

Want to know why I don’t like this style of painting? Good question – glad you asked. It is because I’ve spent my entire life with myopic vision. That means if it isn’t a few inches from my face, it is blurry. Alla prima painting is BLURRY! The detail is fuzzed out, the edges tend to be indefinite, and personally, I’m sick of seeing the world that way.

Anyway, I digress.

After getting the yellow book painted, I thought it looked plain. Boring. Lacking in detail. Fuzzy edged. Well, duh, it is alla prima’d up – that’s the way it is.

Nope, not in my studio, it ain’t! I put down the short square stiff brush (called a “bright” in Artspeak) and picked up a smaller brush that could be used for better edges. Not my best brush, because I was trying to stick to the program of being an alla prima painter. My best brushes squish to a nice point so I can try to draw with them as with a pencil. (Drawing with a paintbrush is considered a crime in ArtWorld. As I said yesterday, I am trying to be a law-abiding citizen of that place.)

What do you expect from a pencil artist of 30+ years? (time spent drawing, not my age, which does exceed 30 but by more than a single plus sign)

Sorry. Still digressing. Have a look at the finished painting. All the edges were wet so I had to hang it up and then the shadow from the bars of the window crossed it. (What do you expect when I am so darn rushed with this alla prima method??)

Then I went outside for a cigarette.

Just kidding! But if I was a smoker, that would have been a good time to smoke. I wasn’t able to do any therapeutic knitting because there was oil paint on my hands and I didn’t want to get it on my sweater in progress. So, I took it out on the blog.

Are you still wondering what the titles are? Any guesses?

oil paintings

Painting the Primary Books

After that last post I decided to paint the books. I carried them out to the workshop, photographed them in 29 different arrangements (yes, I counted), then decided to just see if I could slam out a small painting in one sitting (standing, actually).

Could I apply the paint thick enough? Could I make it look accurate in just one pass over the canvas? “Everybody else is doing it” – many of my painting friends, many of the artists whose work is selling on daily painting sites, many many artists paint “alla prima”, which means all in one session, wet-on-wet, single application with bold brush strokes. (that is not a literal translation – I don’t know Italian or Latin or whatever that is)

Here is the painting, step by step.

First, I mixed the colors (but didn’t photograph that step).

Then I drew it on the canvas.

I painted the background with the mixed color that passes for black. It is against the law in ArtWorld to use black. I try to be law-abiding. (But I want to know why it is manufactured if you aren’t supposed to use it??)

The common wisdom in painting is to go from back to front. That is why the background came first. The blue book is second because it is underneath (behind?) the other 2 books.

The red book sat upon the blue book.

And then it was the yellow book’s turn to get painted.

Nope, not finished yet. To be continued tomorrow. . .

Anyone wondering what the books’ titles are?

oil paintings

More Drawing Lessons

On Tuesdays, I teach people how to draw. You can read a bit more about it here on my website.

I love to help people draw in pencil. The only people who haven’t learned are the ones who quit too soon. Why did they quit? Because it wasn’t instant. or it was too hard, or it wasn’t what they really wanted to learn.

Nothing worth learning is done well without practice.

Actually, I can’t think of anything that can be done right the first time. Malcolm Gladwell says in his book Outliers that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. He is talking about intentional focused practice, with the purpose of improving rather than mindless repeating.

Jennifer has been drawing since she was a little girl. I don’t think she had any specific instruction, just some practice, some natural talent, and lots of desire. She is careful, and listens well to directions. This is her first drawing with me, and it is almost finished.

The photocopies are so that she could try various methods of drawing the mane. I showed her one, and she tried it. She thought of another, and tried that. Suddenly, she got it, she was ready, and now her horse is finished!

Great work, Jennifo! (please excuse the inside joke)

drawing drawing lessons pencil drawing

3 Little Known Factors that Could Affect Your Ability to Draw

Pencil drawing from the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia

I have a theory about people who draw. It is based on teaching people how to draw since 1994. In addition to teaching people how to draw, I draw myself. (Oh? You didn’t know that about me?) I have also spoken to many people who draw for fun and those who draw for profit.

If you have the following three qualities, I believe you might be able to really draw well:

Perfectionistic tendencies
Nearsightedness
Lefthandedness

None of these things are necessary, but each one has its strength.

Perfectionism

Perfectionists seem to do well with the finicky detailed nature of pencil drawing. Detail is hugely important in drawing well. So are values (the lights and darks), composition, hard edges and soft edges in the appropriate places. And proportion – oh my goodness – gotta get those shapes and sizes right. Getting the idea yet? There are many things that have to be Just Right in drawing, because there is no color to distract.

I am not a perfectionist and have to work hard to remember to stop the “get-er’dun” tendencies. It is fun to finish things. It isn’t fun to think I am finished and have to return to fix something.

Nearsightedness

If you are nearsighted, you are more tuned in to detail. Sometimes it is all a myopic person can see! I think of it as an asset for a pencil artist. (Glass is always half full!)

Up until a few years ago (ahem) I was able to put my nose a few inches from a pair of ants playing checkers and know who was winning. (What? You’ve never seen ants play checkers?) I might still be able to do this if I pop out my contact lenses. Now, with the contacts, I have to wear old-people-sit-on-your-nose magnifiers. Sometimes they aren’t strong enough. And have you noticed that all the lights are dimmer than they used to be?

Left-handedness

There is a connection between the left hand and the right side of the brain. (There is a book about it called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards.) The right side understands the non-verbal things in life such as proportions, perspective, and values. The theory is that left handed folks are right-brain dominant and thus more naturally equipped for tasks such as drawing.

I am right handed. Oh-oh, I can hear you wondering how I could possibly be an artist with 2 strikes against me. Here is the answer: I am left-eyed. A dominant left-eye is almost as good as a dominant left hand. (Phew, had you worried there, didn’t I?)

If you don’t have a single one of these three qualities but you want to learn how to draw, I can still teach you how.

The only people who haven’t learned to draw from me are the ones who quit too soon!

drawing drawing lessons pencil drawing Wilsonia

A Drawing Success Story

I have a favorite customer named Bob. In Artspeak, he would be referred to as a “collector”. (I try to avoid Artspeak in this blog, because I think it is read by more normal folks than those who use Artspeak.)

Bob has a wonderful wife, with whom I have been acquainted since 1973. Really! She began taking drawing lessons from me last fall, and was just sure she would be the exception to my assertion that I can teach anyone to draw. Bob was also sure she would prove me wrong.

Mrs. Bob worked her way through the beginning exercises. She did well. She likes to get an A on her work, so in spite of the fact that drawing lessons come with no homework, no grades, no tests and no deadlines, I happily gave her As. She earned them, too!

When it was time to start, she chose a hairy dog. It scared her a bit. (No, it didn’t bite her!) All my reassurances that it was only paper and we could erase didn’t help.

I realized that she needed a subject that meant less to her. Many of my beginning students have found it easier to draw old wood than anything else, so I found a photo of a window on an old shed wall.

Bob My Favorite Customer occasionally asked Mrs. Bob about her progress. He wasn’t encouraging. He is still My Favorite Customer. They are still married.

Mrs. Bob was very determined, and we slowly worked through many of the techniques that a good pencil drawing requires. She stopped showing Bob her progress, and he stopped asking.

Bob’s birthday was a week ago. Mrs. Bob presented him with this:

Want to know what Bob said?

“Who drew this??”

Isn’t that just the best ever drawing lessons story?? 😎

Here is a closer version, and it really looks better than it photographed while under glass.

Texture, depth, contrast, detail, and precision – WOW! Congratulations, Mrs. Bob!

drawing drawing lessons pencil drawing

Peculiar Sight

One recent afternoon my husband called me into the living room to see something. I could tell from the sound of his voice that I should hurry and bring a camera. (25 years of marriage teach all sorts of non-verbal communication.)

Outside our living room we have a ladder leading up to the roof. I don’t know why. Michael wants it there, so there it is. He is a great husband – bit of a neatnik, loves to putter around the property, and an awesome BBQer, so if he wants a ladder outside the living room window, he may have his ladder there. (Why am I digressing into his good qualities? It is at the suggestion of my friend Jennifer in her blog.)

The raccoons like the ladder. The cats do too. This is Kaweah and Perkins. If Zeke was there too, all three might not have fit into the frame (or the ladder might have collapsed).

Isn’t it odd what amuses a California artist? Not much going on in Three Rivers (outside of planning for the studio tour or working on The Cabins of Wilsonia)

“Get a life”, I hear some of you thinking. (Yes, occasionally I can hear your thoughts.) Guess what? I have a life and I love it!