I am a hypocrite. I tell my drawing students to not attempt to draw faces smaller than eggs and to never draw from photos that are too fuzzy to see, because IF YOU CAN’T SEE IT, YOU CAN’T DRAW IT! (Yes, often said in all capital letters and sometimes even with a bit of bold […]
More Can’t See ’ems
If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it. But sometimes I try anyway, because I want to help the customer. Besides, “If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it”, my other set-in-stone rule is, “No face smaller than an egg”. I learned this from a very accomplished colored pencil portrait artist, Ann Kulberg. […]
Can’t Draw It If You Can’t See It
“If you can’t see it, you can’t draw it”, is one of the regular things I say to my drawing students. Along came an author, writing on local history, seeking someone to illustrate some pictures in his book. He wanted drawings because several of his photos are awful, and he wisely thought it better to have […]
Odd Job Completed
The odd job of painting a mailbox took about 4 hours. Maybe 5, but that extra hour was probably due to my own inexperience and lack of confidence. Oh, and another hour working on the colored pencil design. Will the customer be happy? As a friend, will she tell me the truth if she isn’t happy? […]
Odd Job
Because I am an artist who has lived in the same area for over 30 years, making art the entire time, when people need something art related, no matter how odd, I often get asked. People ask me to do things that I am supremely unqualified to do, lacking skill and experience. Sometimes, no, often, […]
Cabin Drawing Flag Adjustment
A flag seems like an appropriate topic for today. The customers were sort of happy with their Mineral King cabin drawing, but not overjoyed. “Sort of happy” is not good enough. After a bit of conversation, they said the flag was too bright and drew too much attention. My dad liked to quote a Latin […]
Cabin Drawing in Pencil
My business and website is called Cabin Art or Cabinart. This is because when I began, I lived in a cabin and I drew cabins. I still live in a cabin (part time) and still draw them. Here is the latest commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin: After seeing the Hume Lake cabin drawing from 1995 […]
Proof That I Draw Better Now
It just occurred to me that perhaps you might disagree with my evaluation of what “drawing better” actually looks like. Bummer. Having a blog often means taking a risk, so here goes. This is the little Hume Lake cabin as I drew it from the customer’s photos in 1995. (I didn’t draw the bug spot, […]
I Draw Better Now
In 1995, I drew a Hume Lake cabin from the customer’s photos. Last week I had the pleasure of staying in that cabin and seeing it for the first time. The customer’s daughter and I grew up together and have recently reconnected. She brought the drawing to Hume Lake, and I was dismayed to see […]
The Tree is Finished
Is the oak tree mural finished?? I think it is, although until the customer sees it (and my oak tree expert says it is believable), the question remains unanswered. It took about 20 hours to paint. All that time was alone except for the busy nice man from Delta Liquid Gas, a brief hello from a […]