The Emerging Drawing Continues

While I was waiting to hear if JM approved the house, I began one of the dogs. Just like on the itty-bitty-face drawing, I am leaving a gap between the different subjects to fill in later.

(This picture is overexposed on the left side of the house because my giant magnifying light is washing it out.)

No emailed instructions arrived, but I had time to keep working on the drawing, so I kept going.

Finally, this was as far as I felt comfortable going without further input from JM.

The dogs’ names were Timber and Tahoe, they were part wolf, and that’s all I know about them.

What a treat to be able to draw this, to pay off my old debt, to reconnect with my old friend, and to just use pencils, my favorite medium.

A Drawing Slowly Emerges

Many years ago, there was a fabulous little place in Lemon Cove called Foothill Fruit. The owner was a terrific baker and sandwich maker, and some mornings I woke up just ravenous for one of her scones and French Roast coffee. I worked there for a few brief months (it used to be necesary to get a second job during my slower winter months in order to pay my taxes—thank you, Sacramento). When I was no longer working there, we were on trade: Trail Guy (his name was Road Guy back then) and I ate, and I would eventually do a complicated collage drawing of her dogs and her home.

This is the only photo I can find from Lemon Cove right now. I didn’t want you to fall asleep with so many paragraphs of just words.

I used my film camera to take some photos, and then I did a few sketches. The owner, whom we will call JM, couldn’t make up her mind as to how she wanted her dogs and home depicted. Then, she moved far away.

This debt in the form of an undrawn picture bothered me quite a lot. She and I weren’t close friends, but we were on good terms and enjoyed each other’s company. I couldn’t figure out how to reach her (this was pre-internet), so I filed the notes and photos under “Incomplete Jobs” or some such thing.

At an oil painting workshop in January of this year, one of the participants asked me if I knew JM. Well, saw off my legs and call me Shorty! The participant put me in touch with JM, I dug out the photos, we started emailing, and she approved this sketch.

You know I can draw so this doesn’t scare you, yes?

If I hadn’t just completed that commissioned pencil drawing with all those little bitty faces, this would have been very daunting. However, I was feeling ultra capable and competent at my craft. Cocky, perhaps? Nope, just confident. (Confidence is a smile; arrogance is a sneer.)

The house photo is very dark so there will be a bit of guesswork on the details. The fact that JM no longer resides in this house gives me a little extra freedom. Maybe.
It is going very slowly. It’s been awhile since I drew such complicated architecture. Accuracy is important in rendering architecture, even if there is a bit of guesswork in the shadows.

I emailed this to JM to ask if there was anything that needed to be corrected. Stay tuned. . .

One Dubious Improvement and Two Beginnings

This painting seemed too bright. After studying it awhile, I decided to only tone down the brilliant green in the distance to push it farther away. (“Push it” visually, not warp the canvas.)

Four Guardsmen, 16×20”, oil on canvas

This is after:

Hmmm, that’s a pretty subtle difference, perhaps even dubious*. Might want to try that again later. In addition, the photography colors are significantly different.

Never mind. Let’s move ahead, shall we?

This painting looks scary in its beginning stages unless you happen to see it while galloping by on the back of a fast horse (or see it the size of a postage stamp on your phone).

After these fairly dissatisfactory adventures in oil painting, I returned to my pencils. This one has a story, which I’ll tell you when I know the ending. This is the sketch I sent to the customer to see if it matched her design expectations:

To be continued. . .

  • Dubious: ”Fraught with uncertainty or doubt”

A Different Sort of Commission

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. . .

About Pencil Drawing

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.

Finished.

I DID IT!

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.

When I am not Editing. . .

… 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.

Painting in the Cold and Dark

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. )

All is Bright

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.

SIMPLY HOME IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME

IN THE ORCHARD, 11X14″, $300

This painting was added to the show after a customer took her painting and left a blank spot on the wall.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, IS THE LAST DAY TO SEE THE SHOW. 125 SOUTH B STREET, EXETER, NOON-4.

2025 CALENDARS – VERY FEW REMAINING

ONE TWO Calendars (Sold one, found two more!) available here: cabinart.net/store/