Sort of Working Having finished the oil painting commission, priced paintings and cards to sell at Silver City, all this while believing that I have finished enough paintings for the entire summer (possibly delusional about that), it was time to consider how to next spend my work time. I pulled weeds at church (not work), […]
Four Little Victories with Unpleasant Tasks
On an overcast and chilly morning with our final fire of the season in the wood stove, I sat with my laptop and tackled some unpleasant tasks. 2. My printer is one of those 4-way deals: print, scan, copy, and fax. (Fax?? Who does that any more besides medical offices, which I do my best […]
Am I Finished Now? Commissioned Oil Painting Saga…
Avocado Leaves My single photo of avocado leaves was inadequate, so I stopped by the largest avocado tree I’ve ever seen in my life and took these photos. I didn’t copy any of the leaves or branches exactly. These are all too thick and overlapping for me to untangle. So, I just studied them awhile […]
Close to Finishing the Oil Painting Commission
The distant groves and fields are probably finished. Time to begin the embellishments. I found blueberry photos on the interwebs, AND I have my own from excursions in Oregon. In my extensive collection of photos, I found one of avocado leaves, pre-digital. I used my inferior phone camera to take a picture so I could […]
Further Development on the Commissioned Oil Painting
Five step-by-step photos today, mostly painting left to right. So many parts in the photo were ambiguous and repetitive that I often lost my place. A way to combat this lostness is to first paint the things that are definite, then make up the stuff around them. Some of my sizes are probably definitely wrong, […]
Beginning a 10×20” Commissioned Oil Painting
The real estate customers chose the panoramic shape. Good thing they know I can paint. (Well, duh, that’s why they commissioned me.) This is similar to my current favorite subject to draw and paint, but there are blueberries and avocados rather than orange trees. There is also a distinct lack of snow-covered mountains and no […]
Long Distance Oil Painting Commission
Some friends in real estate in a distant place have occasionally asked me to paint something for a customer after a large sale is made. Client. I think “client” is probably more correct here. Remember these? I wonder if the clients appreciated the paintings. No one has gotten in touch to thank me or ask […]
A Difficult Drawing | But I Have Experience
During my most recent pencil drawing commission, I contemplated how this would have been difficult in the past. There was great satisfaction in putting this together with confidence, knowing that I was exceeding the customer’s expectations while meeting a tight deadline. Not bragging, just relaxing into the sense of work done well because of many […]
Finally Back to the Drawing Board | Actually a Table
After I finished formatting, photo editing and captioning, cover designing, bar code ordering and finally ordering the Springville book, I went back to the drawing board, which is actually a “drawing table”, I think. Remember this sketch? The upper house is mostly finished, and I was able to begin the lower one. Jackson came into […]
New Commission Pencil Drawing
My favorite form of art is pencil drawing. My favorite subjects to draw are architectural. It is fun to tackle subjects that really require thought, careful design, and a bit of artistic license. It is highly satisfying to turn a vague idea from customers into something better than they envisioned. A customer presented me with […]