This is the final drawing of the commissioned pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin. The customer chose “A”, asked that the sign size be reduced and that plenty of scraggly branches be added to that large tree in front that she affectionately referred to as “the old man”.
It was fun! Drawing cabins is one of the best parts of my business, Cabinart.
A nice lady wrote to me to ask if I would draw her Wilsonia cabin for her. She said it is plain, or perhaps she said “it’s not fancy”, but it means a lot to her family.
I knew which cabin it was. It wasn’t one that I planned to show in the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia. There are 214 cabins in Wilsonia, and there are lots of reasons that not every cabin made it in the book.
But, I have been accepting commissions to draw cabins in pencil since 1987. It’s what I do! My business is Cabin Art.
So, I took photos of her cabin from many angles. It was hard to find the most interesting angle, and hard to see something special.
These aren’t the photos I ended up using, but these are like those “before” photos when someone gets a makeover. You know – out-of-date glasses, limp hair, no make up, bad light, old sweatshirt. (Substitute tied up hair and flannel shirt, and you’ve got a picture of me while painting.)
The customer requested a collage, which gives plenty of opportunity to dress up a picture. I did 2 versions and sent the sketches to her.
Come back on Monday to see which she chose and how it turned out!
This week on my other blog, www.thecabinsofwilsonia.com, I will explain what these sketches are, along with some other sketches, and also explain that the special pre-order price of the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia has expired.
Join me over there?
Our Bride-To-Be of the rustic wedding selected the typestyle and chose the solid version, so I began burning numbers on wooden discs.
At first I tried to trace and transfer the numbers. That didn’t work on the wood. After thinking it over, I realized that every table will be separate, so no table numbers will be displayed together. This freed me up from having to perfectly match every bump and bite and wobble of Papyrus. It also freed me to make each number whatever size looked best on its own individual disc.
After burning the #1 solid, I realized that this job just might delay the wedding, due to the slowness of the artist and the process.
I went rummaging around in the workshop and found some wood stain. At the risk of upsetting The Bride To Be, I stained #2. It looked so good that I proceeded to numbers 3-7. Then I got a little nervous, so I photographed and emailed them to her.
She loved them! (This is an Angel Bride, not a Bride-zilla.)
Because the wood burner is borrowed, I felt an obligation to complete this task as soon as possible. I liked drawing the numbers, fitting them around the center of the branch. I liked painting them with the stain. However, burning with fancy expensive tools is a tedious task. Next time I may ask to scratch it in with a nail and then fill it in with a Sharpie!
Oh, and the location of the rustic wedding? Malibu!!!
Here are links to some more previous odd jobs:
Cabin sign (gotta scroll down to see this one)
When you need an artist in a rural place such as Tulare County, chances are you don’t know too many. When you need an artist for a specific job, chances are you will simply ask the only artist you know.
The question usually sounds like this: “Do you know anyone who can do this obscure, one-time, peculiar semi-art-related task?”
Often, I say, “ME! I CAN DO THAT! I WANT TO DO THAT! THAT SOUNDS CHALLENGING AND FUN”!
It gets me all excited so I might raise my voice a bit. Sometimes I might even jump up and down, although that is rare.
A friend has a friend who has a sister who has a daughter who is getting married and wants things rustic and woodsy. They found someone to cut and sand 1″ thick wooden discs, about 5-8″ in diameter. (Thank goodness they didn’t ask me about that part!)
Then came the question about who could put table numbers on the discs.
ME! I CAN DO THAT!
It’s all who you know, and I know Rosemary who owns a stable of wood-burning tools. She lent me a fancy one that just might be worth more than my car.
I sent The Bride To Be several type styles. She chose Papyrus, which happens to be my favorite in spite of great contempt from all young graphic designers (Cory, I know you are listening). I practiced numbers on a board, and gave her a price.
Have a look at the practice board. If you are a real wood burning artist, kindly avert your eyes.
Here are some discs next to the numbers:
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll tell you (and show you) the rest of the story of this Odd Job. (Funny – I have the strange urge to spell “job” with 2 b’s when writing it next to “odd”.)
Here are some links to previous odd jobs:
Customer? Client? How about a long time friend who commissioned me to paint for her? Commissioner?
Never mind.
I delivered “Spring In Three Rivers” to my friend and hung it on the wall where she had planned for it to go. We looked at the pictures around it and knew it wasn’t the best combination.
Being slightly self-focused, I suggested that we place one of my pencil drawings on either side of the painting. Now, lest you think I am more than slightly self-serving, she already owned these two drawings, and they truly looked right together. Lighter, a touch of pink in one, and all places around here. Please forgive me for not taking my camera and documenting the wall.
You know how it is if you move a thing or two. . . it means you have to move another and yet another. We had a great time placing pictures around the room, and the results made us both very satisfied.
Is that a funny title for a post during the hot time of year? I love spring. It isn’t hot. This painting in progress reminds me of the beautiful season.
I’m juicing up (exaggerating) the colors a bit and it is fun. I love dabbing on little specks of different shades of pink. These redbud are so fabulous up the North Fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers. I’m so glad that my customer chose this subject for her commissioned oil painting.
Spring in Three Rivers just might be an appropriate title, although there is little evidence of any river, much less three of them in this picture. But, we are in a canyon that follows the North Fork of the Kaweah, and the presence of sycamore trees indicates a source of water near by. (Can you tell which trees are becoming sycamores?)
Getting that fence the right size and in the right place really was difficult. I kept painting out the rails and repainting them, all in a very rough and messy fashion. Oil painting can stay rough and messy for a long time, with each successive layer showing signs of improvement. Of course, in art “improvement” can mean different things to different viewers. Many painters in recent history have a huge following and reputation while making a ton of money with paintings that I’d call rough and messy!
Meanwhile, I choose to refine my own work with each successive layer. When the background of the photo just seemed too rough and messy for me to sort out and then enlarge, I just detailed the closer parts. Normally I work back to front, top to bottom, left to right and dark to light. For this painting, I just do what I am able to do, when I am able to do it.
With those messy types of sections where the detail in the photo isn’t helpful, I paint what I can see and hope it trains me to fake (i.e. make up) the parts that I can’t.
I think the fence placement is almost correct, but with all that painting in and painting out and painting over, it is too wet to continue.
This means I get to use a new color! It is some sort of magenta, and I’ve veered from my primary colors only palette because I know from experience that I cannot get to the color of those redbud blooms from those primaries.
If you’ve known me for awhile, you may have heard me say that it is all my friends and relatives who buy my work because they feel sorry for me.
Another friend used to tell me this: “If your friends and family won’t do business with you, who will?”
A long time friend asked me to paint something for her home. She lost her husband about 2 years ago, and now she is slowly changing things to fit her tastes rather than their joint tastes.
She borrowed a book of my photos called “Spring in Three Rivers” (sometimes I just amaze myself with cleverness), and found a photo that rang her bell.
I took paintings to her house so we could determine the most appropriate size and orientation (that means vertical or horizontal).
She decided, and I began:
Now that just gets you all excited, doesn’t it?
How about this view? Painting upside down usually means I have the photo also turned upside down, but I reversed it so you could see what the goal is.
I think this is going to be beautiful! “Spring in Three Rivers” might even become the title, because of that cleverness I mentioned earlier.
On Wednesday, I left you with this cliff hanger of a picture:
This is the next view:
And this is how it looked when it was getting a little too dark to see out in the painting workshop.
Now it is time to show the customer before I do any more detail work. That large tree on the right needs more work, and I’m a little fuzzy about the foreground. The photos don’t offer much help. I also want to add lines to indicate shingles on the roof.
More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .