cabinart | Cabin Art

Chasing a Tree

During a recent drawing lesson, I opened up my envelope of just-in-case snapshots, and this one was on top. Why not draw it? Demonstrating is a good method of teaching.

Both the trunk and branches are confusing to me. If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it. I can make stuff up, but since this was on The Captain’s property, we decided to go see it.

I told her it which flowers were blooming in my photo, which informed her of the location. This involved a rather messy slip-slide through very slick cow poo, hidden under leaves, with apologies to my jeans for the damage done. (Sometimes art is a dangerous profession.) I recognized the tree, or felt fairly certain when we got there.

Using a sketch book along with my camera, I began sorting out the twisted branch pattern to understand which was connected to which.

Photographing it at various angles was helpful.

No wonder I am confused. Look at this mess.

See how this one big branch turns behind the other? In my original photo, I couldn’t tell if I was looking through a gap or if the green was the beginnings of leaves.

Really, come on, now. It is a TREE. How can it be wrong?

My goal is to make my work believable. Another goal is to keep pushing myself to understand what I am seeing, to not coast and make things up. Other times the goal is to push myself to make things up.

Sounds as if I am perpetually confused. . . What am I seeing and why am I drawing it?

Right after sketching it, I flipped to another page in the sketch book and saw that the original photo was taped inside. I planned ahead and then forgot. The Captain and I got a good laugh. We need good laughs to get us through losing The Cowboy.

I didn’t hit my head when I slipped on the cow poo. This is just how I am these days.

Mineral King in January

It might be springlike in Three Rivers in January, but it is winter in Mineral King. Trail Guy made a day trip up there to check out the snow and the cabins. The photos look almost like black and white; I’m into green more than into white so I went walking up Salt Creek that day.

Mineral King

7 Things I Learned in January

I learned some hard things in January, but will only share a few because many are too personal for the World Wide Web.

Unexpected death creates a ton of work.
The more animals you own, the more you will spend in time, feed, and vet bills.
It is horrible to lose a close friend. Horrible horrible horrible, like losing a family member.
Cow poo is very slippery. (I hope those jeans will come clean. . .)
Cowgirls don’t wear leggings, pointy-toed boots, or cowboy hats.
When you feel an urgency to clear your schedule and complete tasks, follow that prompting, because it is probably God helping you be ready for an emergency.
If you bake bread and undercook a batch, there is no need to put it back in the oven later. It won’t fix the raw center, even after another hour at the original temperature.

Spring in January

When we have had rain and the sun is out in January in Central California, it seems like spring. Sure, we think it is cold out, but compared to places with real winter, this is very springlike.

On a walk while visiting my friend, AKA The Captain, this was our view.

Look at this classic barn, still in use, not leaning over.

Same neighborhood, this barn is both retired and tired.

And here is another barn, very picturesque. Wooden barns beat metal barns or pole barns for paintability and photogenicness. (Is there a real word that means that?)

There are several streams in this area of the Central California foothills, which is about 1000 feet higher than Three Rivers.

Gotta dig this unit out before a horse eats it and dies. Horses are fragile creatures with delicate digestive systems. (Seems that way to this non-cowgirl. . . )

Ernie is beautiful, but a little bit rude to me, except when I am feeding him little pieces of peppermint. When I feed him hay, he jerks it out of my arms before I can drop or throw it. Rude.

The chickens are not rude; they provide lots of eggs (not the rooster, of course, because he provides beauty and noise.)

These paperwhites are blooming profusely in my yard back home in Three Rivers. See? Spring in January!

Regreening a Mural

I had a little encouragement and companionship while working on the regreening of the Mineral King mural. It wasn’t the normal type, with questions and requests for business cards.

Winchester closer to me, Cliffie here in the foreground.

You can see how the willows on the right look grayish bluish by contrast.

This might be finished, or maybe after letting it mull for awhile I will see ways to make it better. At least the greens are back to their correct colors now.

One of the most difficult parts of painting a mural for me is that the brushes don’t hold their shape. They get clogged up by paint, the ends splay out, and it is just impossible to draw with them or make edges look clean or accurate or anything at all like I want.

Sigh. Best viewed from the back of a fast horse. . .

mural

Unfading a Mural

The primary colors of red, blue, and yellow plus white are how I mix colors to paint murals. The paints are supposed to be highly pigmented and lightfast, but yellow ALWAYS fades first. Since green is made from blue and yellow, greens turn to grayish blues.

Two years ago I repainted the big Mineral King mural in Exeter because of this problem. When I ordered paints for the job, the paint company said of my yellow choice, “We no longer recommend that yellow for outdoor use.” Well, that certainly explains a lot. So now I am refreshing murals a little at a time, as I am able.

This mural was looking very tired to me. The owners weren’t unhappy with it, but it was hurting my eyes and my pride.

See how faded the greens are? The mural looks sort of okay, because the values (the darks and lights) are intact.

After pouring out the greens, I looked down and saw the green leaf from a Live Oak tree that matched almost perfectly. (That’s what color junkies do.)

The distant mountains, trees and basic landscape stuff can be left in their bluish state because that helps them appear farther away. (I started on some of the trees – that is why they are brighter green.)

Here is a good example of Before and After of the same area.

Tomorrow I’ll show you more of the repainting session. Meanwhile, I have to go scrape dried paint off my knuckles.

mural

Pencil Progress

If I draw from top to bottom, left to right, it cuts back on the opportunities for smearing. The background hills are very forgiving, a good place to begin this commissioned pencil drawing of a very fine house in a serene setting.

In addition to this poor quality photo from my poor quality printer, I look at a high quality photo on my high quality laptop for more details.

Sometimes I break my own rules about direction of drawing.

Here I have added more layers and begun shading the roof shape. My new favorite pencils are Tombow, a Japanese word that means dragonfly. They are dark and smooth; usually dark means grainy, but not in this brand.

Enough for today – life (and death) is still keeping my work time to a minimum.

Back to the Drawing Board

I love to draw, and it is good to just sit quietly with pencils and paper, doing something simple that has no sadness attached.

In December, I took photos of a house. It took 2 sessions, much conversation, lots of thinking, and finally narrowing it down to 3 views.

Something about my blog has changed, forcing all photos into a square format; I don’t know why it changed and can’t figure out how to fix it. So, these photos are cropped here in spite of being rectangles on my camera and computer—more evidence of “upgrade” as a euphemism for “complication”.

The customers chose Option B. Tomorrow I’ll show you the beginnings of the drawing.

Cowgirls

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of hanging out with cowgirls over the past several weeks and have made these observations:

They are very practical (Cowboy Bert always called this “cowboy logic”.)
They are strong, capable, and willing to work hard.
They can handle heavy feed sacks, bags of wood pellets, and maneuver heavy hay bales with hay hooks like a boss.
They can drive manual transmissions, little “mules” and ATVs, and haul trailers of live loads; they prefer diesel trucks.
They aren’t afraid of gross things, none of which I will explain to you out of sensitivity to your non-cowgirl selves.
They are crazy generous, protective, helpful, and loving toward their friends, ready to feed animals or people, always hugging and proclaiming their love for each other.
They are modern, texting as a way to stay in touch and ready for any emergency.
They LOVE their horses (and miniature horses, mules, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs and cats.)
Cowgirl fashion: They all have hair long enough to put through the loop of a ballcap, wear all manner of boots, but never the pointy-toe types for work, and always wear bluejeans, never the skinny kind and NEVER leggings, because leggings are NOT pants.

And sometimes cowgirls like to go to the beach.

Eventually I will get serious about work again; I can’t count on those cowgirls keeping my face fed forever.

Little Things Can Help

When we have big bad sad occurrences, sometimes little things can help. They distract us, remind us what remains, help us be thankful for so many good things in life. Here are a few that have helped me recently.

Author: cabinart