In 1996 or thereabouts, I drew this in pencil. It is a compilation of photos taken in Pauma Valley, Lemon Cove, and maybe even in Ivanhoe and Exeter. For some reason, a reproduction print was still around during my show last fall. It sold quickly, and a friend asked me to paint the scene for her.
I’ve never painted from a pencil drawing before. Since I have experience in the subject matter, and I can still locate most of my reference photos, I said yes. (Everything is easy compared to those miniature faces.)
First pass over the canvas.
Second pass.
Third pass.
I will be taking my time on this since my friend said she would like it some time in April. This remains my current favorite subject matter, and it brings to mind all the phases of favorites that my art has gone through. More on that later. . .
Here are a few thoughts about drawing with pencils. First, have you noticed that when galleries tell the medium used in making a piece of art, they say things like “oil”, “watercolor”, “acrylic”, or “pencil”? “Pencil”???? Isn’t that actually graphite? In a sense, calling a pencil drawing “pencil” is somewhat like calling a painting “brush”.
Never mind.
The drawing has been temporarily removed from the blog because it is going to be a surprise for some people.
When the customers retrieved their pencil drawing with all those little bitty faces, they wanted to know how in the world I was able to make those tiny visages legible.
The way I got those tiny faces was with little itty bitty adjustments while working under a magnifying glass using these tools, working for many hours on nothing but those faces, refining with each pass, turning the photos and the drawing upside down in order to evaluate the shapes, the darkness, the blurry quality, and then mimic what I saw.
That teensy eraser came into being about 5 years ago. (Okay, if it feels like 5, it was probably 8 or 10 years ago.) How were we able to draw without such a tool?? There were other eraser sticks, but none so tiny. We relied on erasing shields to isolate small spaces, which were never small enough. Now, with the Tombow Mono Zero, we sometimes want an even smaller eraser.
Those sharpeners by Blackwing are designed to give a long point, using 2 different blades. First, use the hole on the left for a looonnnng lead (not actually lead—Pb—but graphite). The hole on the right makes an extremely sharp point, unless the blades have worn themselves dull, which mine have. I had to break out my new one, which I had been holding back on using because it cost $14!! For a pencil sharpener??
Since I no longer have one in reserve, it seemed prudent to buy another backup. Now they are $16 on Amazon. SIXTEEN DOLLARS FOR A PENCIL SHARPENER!
Sometimes it feels good to just sketch quickly, without anything other than a Blackwing pencil I usually keep with me, using any available blank piece of paper. It is a different kind of challenge, which is probably good practice.
Yeppers. Time to raise my prices.
P.S. SIXTEEN DOLLARS FOR A PENCIL SHARPENER?? I’m struggling with this concept, which you may have noticed.
For the first time in many years, I kept track of how long this took. Getting these little people to be themselves took a very very long time. (Don’t ask—not telling). It is probably (past) time to raise my prices.
… I am working on several art projects at once. That is, IF I am actually working.
The little beach paintings are still progressing. I have enough boards for twelve of these. Six are now completed, three more are in the messy first layer stages, and three more are waiting for my decision to either paint more beach scenes, or paint some oranges.
I like these little boards.
Pacific Ocean IV, 5×7”, oil on gessobord*, $75
There are also three unfinished oil paintings in the painting workshop, but none have deadlines. The beach paintings don’t have deadlines either, but their small size gives me the illusion of productivity and progress.
Meanwhile, I have two very complicated pencil commissions to complete. One is now in progress; the other is awaiting my thumbnail sketches for the customer to choose from.
“Bad things happen quickly; good things take a long time. This is why patience and determination are such primary virtues.”
I don’t know who said this, but I intend for these two difficult pencil commissions to be good, so they may take a long time.
*Gessobord is something akin to masonite, coated very smoothly with gesso, a thick white paint, probably acrylic.
On December 19, the power went off at 7:20. Edison hadn’t bothered to notify us, but judging by the number of boom and utility trucks, we knew it would be a long, cold, dark day. (SO VERY THANKFUL FOR THE WOODSTOVE, THE GENERATOR, AND THE HUSBAND WHO KEEPS IT ALL RUNNING!)
There was a bit of sunshine on the easels for about 2 hours in the morning. With the door open, I was able to make some eensy progress. Since my reference photos for both of these paintings are on my laptop, I needed to be prudent with my screen time. (We don’t run the generator non-stop, and it keeps the fridge and freezer going, which is very far from the painting workshop).
I should be able to paint this without looking at any photos. If the instructions suggestions weren’t to reproduce a specific pencil drawing, I could make up a similar scene. However, in the hopes that the interested party will be happy enough to buy the painting, it is prudent to keep it as close to the drawing as possible.
Tucker stuck with me, not even in the sunshine, just doing the meatloaf to stay warm.
This one is the commission. I want it to be really really good. Really Good. The customer is a delight to work with and not pressuring me at all. I just want to do my best for her.
It helps to see the shapes and proportions more correctly if I turn it all upside down.
I am working from a combination of two photos and the sold painting that the customer wished she had seen first.
SIMPLY HOME ENDS ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, AT CACHE, 125 SO. B STREET, EXETER, NOON-4.
ENTERING GIANT FOREST, 8×16″, $250
2025 CALENDARS, STILL AVAILABLE? (LAST TIME I CHECKED, THERE WERE TWO. )
Still not much going on in my little world, other than enjoying some bright sunshine and starting two bright paintings. Winter is mild in Three Rivers and we are usually above the fog. (Do you want to move here? The town is shrinking, so if you don’t mind living in California’s flyover country where there is no Trader Joe’s or universities, you’d be welcome here!)
From my show Simply Home, I got a commission to paint. In spite of having 50 paintings to choose from in the show, someone requested that I paint something that already sold. Yes, I can do this.
Someone else requested that I paint a scene that I drew in pencil about 25 years ago. It was a commission, until I realized that it wasn’t a commission—it was a conversation. Until money changes hands, it is just a conversation, EVEN IF the other person says, “Yes, I definitely want you to paint this”. Because it is a great idea, I know it will sell to someone, so I began the painting.
To show Friend/Customer how color will look on his drawing, I printed it on my unreliable printer and scribbled some color on the copy.
This passed muster (not sure about this term but it has military origins). So, I pulled out my good colored pencils (Polychromos by Faber Castell) and colored the original.
After I scanned it, I realized that I forgot to put color on 33, the number of the engine. So, now it has color there too.
Phew. Finished this very challenging pencil commission in time for Friend/Customer to deliver it for Christmas.
My friend/customer likes to challenge me. He thinks I can do things with my pencils that I am never sure I have the ability to do. We talk, I sketch, we talk some more, I revise, we talk some more—and that’s all before I begin the drawing.
I’ve shown you some of this in progress, beginning with this messy sketch.
When the very complicated and unforgiving fire truck seemed to be the easiest part, I KNEW I was in for a challenging rest of the drawing.
With time was running out, I set a deadline for finishing, and began on those little boys, working from almost impossible-to-follow photos.
After I had the boys drawn, I scanned it and sent it to Friend/Customer, who said the larger boy looked fine, but he didn’t like “the bend” of the smaller boy, whose head also looked too small.
I wanted to say, “Then why did you send me a photo with him bending?” Instead, I embiggened the little boy’s head and unbent him.
He said it looked good, then texted that Mrs. Customer thought the bigger boy’s cheek looked too chubby. How she could see this is a mystery to me. However, she knows the boys, and I trust her judgement.
The difference between a chubby cheek at this tiny scale is the width of one hair. THIS is the reason that one should never try to draw a face smaller than an egg, and I don’t mean a hummingbird egg. The boys were supposed to be drawn from the back, but the supplied photos show a tiny amount of faces. (Why am I unable to say, “NO, I CANNOT DO THIS!”?)
That tiny adjustment was accepted. Friend/Customer asked if I was going to put anything on the lower third of the drawing, and I replied, “Nah, I’m gonna quit and sign it now.” (Of course I was just kidding around, but wanted to poke at him for putting me through this stressful, make-it-up, mind-reading exercise.)
The grasses and wildflowers were also very challenging, because I had no photo for this completely fabricated scene. It was a large piece of real estate to cover with the tiny point of a pencil, but being the professional that I am, I soldiered on. When everything was planted and landscaped, I scanned the drawing yet again and sent it for approval.
The next plan is to print this out and experiment with color. I will put red on the firetruck, yellow on the sunflowers, and something on the boys’ tee shirts, most likely blue. Friend/Customer asked if I could do it on a copy first so that they can approve this non-erasable addition before it goes onto the original.
If the practice piece passes muster, I will add the colors. Then I might just go have a cigarette.* Stay tuned. . .
SIMPLY HOME
Sawtooth #58, 6×18″, $195
The show hangs until December 29. You can see the show at CACHE in Exeter, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, because as you know, everything looks better in person. The hours are posted on CACHE’s website. (Scroll down to see the hours.)
2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE
Available here, $25 each, or at CACHE, or if you see me around with a handful in Fernando’s trunk.
*Take it easy. . . I’ve never smoked in my life and never will.
TODAY OUR POWER WILL BE OUT FOR THE BULK OF THE DAY, SO IF YOU ORDER A CALENDAR, EMAIL ME, OR COMMENT ON THIS POST, YOU WON’T BE GETTING A RESPONSE UNTIL THE EVENING OR TOMORROW.
I decided to dig the sweet potatoes that have been growing for around 6-8 months, if you count the time I started them In the kitchen window last spring. One sent its roots outside of the gopher basket, and of course that’s exactly where my shovel went. I put my wizened aged hand in the second photo so you can see how big they got. Last year they were about the size of my thumb, so I determined if this year wasn’t a decent crop, I wouldn’t bother again. “Decent”? That’s pretty subjective, considering this is the produce of about 10 plants. (Thank a farmer, if you know one. Without them, we’d be pretty hungry.)
Someone was watching from above.
My paperwhites bloom in December. Three Rivers doesn’t experience very much winter weather.
WALKING IN THREE RIVERS
Such a beautiful day required a walk. This sycamore is magnificent! A friend told me it had the largest leaves she’d ever seen on a sycamore; we figured out that she only sees the ones that grow in town, not the natives which are old and have lived by a source of water for decades (centuries??)
DRAWING IN PENCIL
Finally, I got myself into the studio to inch ahead on this very challenging commissioned pencil drawing. That “vending machine” was potentially going to keep me awake at night if I didn’t get it figured out. It may not be recognizable to a fireman, but that’s as “right” as it is going to be. (The paper is white; it looks gray because I used the phone under low light conditions to take this photo.)
I worked a bit harder on the two little boys, size, location, and shapes. Ditto for the sunflowers. I don’t know Kansas wildflowers, but I know that the state wildflower is a sunflower. If I can fake a vending machine on the side of a firetruck, I should be able to handle sunflowers. (No, it’s not a vending machine; that’s how it appeared to my ignorant self.)
SIMPLY HOME
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
