Category: commissions

Inching Along

pencil drawing on claybord

Progress? I’ve been drawing, so something must have grown here.

The gate! I did the gate! With all those intangibles and texture, I needed to try something that had a definite shape and edges.

I set up the drawing and stepped back. It needed a sense of a path beyond the gate, so I scribbled in where it should go. Also darkened a couple of things, which may or may not even show.

The fence boards – I can do those! They have a beginning and an end, with definite edges. They cover a decent amount of real estate on this 16×20″ claybord.

Yea. Progress. Cartwheels of joy.

P.S. I’ve never done a cartwheel in my entire 55 years. It is a figure of speech, an expression of elation. Feel the excitement?

P.P.S. I think this drawing is really pretty, and seeing it here on the blog helps me want to continue it to completion instead of procrastinating and daydreaming about the book I am reading right now.

S L O W

This project is difficult and slow, oh so v e r y s l o w.

I often tell my drawing students, “You can be fast or you can be good. I get to be both.”

Not this time. I am S L O W. Or perhaps it is the claybord that is slow. Or the drawing. Nothing ninja crazy here.

Drawing on clayboard

Want a closer look?

pencil drawing on claybord

The good part is that I don’t have to duplicate every rose and every leaf. The bad part is that I can’t see very many individual roses and leaves, so I have to make up much of it.

Not gonna quit!

On the Drawing Board

Drawing board? Drawing table? Drafting table?

The piece of furniture where I draw pictures using my pencils.

Now that we have that figured out, let’s have a look:

Say what? Is that a typo? “Claybord”?

A customer found 2 antique frames at an estate sale. She loves my pencil work and asked me to do 2 pencil drawings, each one 16×20″ to fit in the frames.

Pencil drawings are on paper and when they are framed, they need glass, mat board and a backing. This stuff doesn’t fit into a frame designed for a piece of canvas.

A handful of years ago (feels like 4, must be 9 because I’m having fun so time is flying), I attended a very fine art show called “The Peppertree” in Santa Ynez, California. There were a few pencil artists, and I remembered seeing one’s work on board, varnished and framed as if it was a painting (without glass).

I called Dick Blick, the big deal art supply company that knows everything and has everything. Their product experts said “clayboard”. I thought that’s what they said. Actually they said, “Claybord”.

Wow, is this ever a challenge to draw on! Super over-the-top ninja crazy smooth and smeary.

On top of that, add in a HUGE size (normally my largest drawing might be 11×114″, multiply it by 2 and then consider the ambiguity of the various textures in the subjects my customer chose.

No problem. I am a pencil expert. Har har har, maybe I am and maybe I am not. This project is sort of a test of my skill on several levels. One down, one to go.

pencil drawing on claybord

Relevant Links:

Peppertree Art Show,

Peppertree Art Show Article

Claybord

P.S. I don’t know what “ninja crazy” means. I heard it on the radio and liked the sound.

One Bridge, Two Friends, Two Paintings

A few years ago, I was hiking with a friend. She wasn’t familiar with the foothills of Sequoia National Park, so I took her to see the Buckeye Bridge. She exclaimed, “Oh my, that is so beautiful! If you paint it, I will buy it!”

Being a realist (both as an artist and in life), I recognized the exclamation as an emotional reaction to beauty, a momentary response rather than a commission to paint.

I also recognized the scene as a potential subject, so I painted it.

Buckeye Bridge 3

Buckeye Bridge, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $225

When my friend saw the 12×16″ oil painting, she asked how much. I told her the price of $225, and she got all quiet. Then she said, “Oh. I thought it might be around $75.”

Ahem.

Doesn’t matter. I used the painting in my 2015 calendar of paintings called “Beautiful Tulare County”. Another friend who shares my love of art and this area, got all excited when she turned to the May page of her calendar. Her friend’s dad helped to build that bridge, and she commissioned me to paint it 6×6″ as a gift for that friend.

buckeye bridge painting

It is almost finished – maybe a few more little touches and then a signature.

I paint better now. The original painting will get moved into the category of “Do Over”, AKA “I Paint Better Now”. Or, perhaps I photograph better now?

What Shall I Paint?

Have you ever wondered how an artist decides what to paint?

Me too.

What I paint falls into 4 categories:

Things I know will sell
Things I want to paint
Commissions
Reworking old paintings

Category #1 includes Sequoia scenery, anything Mineral King, citrus, the Kaweah Post Office, the Kaweah River, the Oak Grove bridge and poppies.

sawtooth XI

Sawtooth Peak, 8×10, sold (Mineral King)

Category #2 can be flowers, fruit, an experiment, something with great light or a color that makes my heart sing, a gift for someone, or something so beautiful that I cannot resist.

Category #3 is anything a customer has requested, usually paid for up front, and sometimes working from his photos.

Sequoia painting in progress, sunflowers because I want to paint them, Buckeye Bridge as a commissioned piece.

Category #4 happens when I look objectively at a painting that’s been hanging around for awhile (literally) and decide that I paint better now.

Lake Kaweah

Lake Kaweah, or perhaps Kaweah Lake, 16×20, $350, repainted, revised, and revisited more times than I can remember. The constant improvement is bound to catch the eye of a customer. Oh – it is called “Lake View VII” on my website!

Odd Job, Chapter Four

Finally, I got to the actual painting stage of my odd job.

The Blue Moon Nursery got a 4’x8′ piece of very thick plywood, built a frame around it and painted it with multiple coats of white paint. This was a result of walking out to the road and measuring the existing signs. A medium sign looks like an unnoticeable postage stamp when you pass it in a car. A big sign might get noticed. A huge sign is too much for this Central California artist, so we just went with big.

I traced our final design onto a clear piece of plastic and using an overhead projector in three stages of measuring and adjusting. I used a Sharpie marker to transfer the image, along with a square, a yardstick, and a long tape measure. It took a very long time.

Then, I traced it from Side One onto 2 18″ x 8′ pieces of tracing paper, retraced it with a very black pencil on the back side, taped the 2 sheets to Side Two of the sign, and retraced it over the top with a pencil to transfer the design to the sign. Then I retraced the faint pencil transfer with the Sharpie. This took a very very long time.

Do you need a nap yet? Hang on, color is coming!

After a very fun color mixing session with the owner of Blue Moon, I began painting.

First, a small brush to reach into the pointy places.

Then, 2 coats of the dark blue. Next the green. Hmmm, we really like the color of the masking tape with the dark blue.

I can mix that color! (This is actually side 2, after we chose a different blue for the moon and the spirals). The new blue called for a new green.

Check out Side Two, with masking tape blue and light spring green!

This is Side One, with a darker green and a lighter blue.

Isn’t this cool? The owner of Blue Moon and I both are slightly offbeat, marching to the beat of a different drummer, enjoying variety. (After being friends for 4-5 years, we discovered that we were in the same class in the same high school!)

So, we decided to let the 2 sides remain in different (but very close) colors, and then we’ll listen to people’s comments. It is my guess that very few people will even notice the difference.

Thus, I conclude my story of yet another odd job for this Central California artist. It is a pleasure to beautify Three Rivers!

Do you have a preference on the colors on Side One and Side Two? I’d love to hear your opinion!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter Three

My odd job of painting a sign for the Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers progressed through the decision making progress.

This combination of type was our first choice. The style of Blue Moon is a little hippy-dippy, loosey-goosey, whimsical (sorry, can’t think of a rhyme for that word). “Nursery” looks solid, professional, steadfast, here to stay.

It needs some decoration, but this wasn’t the right one.

The owner and I decided on the best combination of type and decorations, and then got to the part we both love (both avowed color junkies).

We both love the dark purply-blue, the high contrast with the white lettering, and it is a given that the growy needs to be green and the moon needs to be blue. Color is sooooo fun.

Now what? How will I get this colored sketch onto a 4′ x 8′ board??

Stay tuned!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter Two

It is a bit odd for a pencil artist/drawing teacher/oil painter/muralist to be asked to paint a sign. The owner of Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers knew we would work well together, so she decided to overlook my lack of experience and hire me for the odd job. (Odd job to me, but sign painting is a solid profession. I’d like to have the tools, ability and knowledge to do it well.)

After messing around with typestyles and shapes and weights, it was time to add the extras. A nursery asks for things that look growy, and “Blue Moon” is sort of a gimme.

None of these made the cut (what exactly and literally does that mean??).

The owner of Blue Moon Nursery had some definite and good ideas, and together we came up with an excellent combination of type and frou-frous.

Stay tuned for the decision and the next steps.

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter One

Is sign painting an odd job for an artist?

It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign.

If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an artist might be a good decision. Blue Moon Nursery, AKA Sierra Garden Center, is one of my top 5 places to spend money in Three Rivers. (grocery store, post office, hardware store and Sierra Subs)

My sign painting odd job began with a conversation: “How comfortable are you with lettering?”

I’ve learned to just listen and ask questions, so we moved along until I decided that perhaps I could figure this thing out.

First, I messed around with type – the styles and the arrangements seemed endless.

moon 7 moon 8

It was a progression as I experimented with different styles, different weights and different curves. The final one here was my first choice.

Stay tuned to see what the next decision was!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job Based on Mineral King

After many years of being an artist in Tulare County, and specializing in Mineral King, people often think of me when they need an artist. I get asked to do unusual things, which I call “odd jobs”.

This one was a first for me – drawing in a manner that could be sandblasted onto granite for headstones. The lines had to be a certain thickness, and little white spaces couldn’t be too little. I learned that black equals blasted, and that Sharpies can really get up your nose.

The designs are for people who were very dear to me, our cabin neighbors in Mineral King.

He wanted Farewell Gap. She wanted Sawtooth. Their daughter and I figured out how to do both on one stone.

Farewell, Jock. Thank you for closing the gap between my 2 front teeth, for giving me to okay to date Trail Guy, for being a wonderful generous neighbor and friend, and for rearing a daughter who feels like the missing half of my brain.

Farewell, Ora Kay. Thank you for helping Jock fix my teeth, for being my first good friend in Mineral King, so welcoming and loving and enthusiastic, for rearing such a great daughter to become my friend when you were stricken by MS and couldn’t come to the cabin much anymore (and I forgive you for running over my foot with your wheelchair.)

odd job