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.

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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, 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.

IMG_0941 IMG_0942 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 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.)

Do-Over and other juvenile expressions

When you were a kid, did you sometimes allow do-overs on the playground? You know, you go to serve the volleyball, the class clown belches your name so you drop the ball instead of hitting it, and you get a do-over because it wasn’t fair?

I began a painting of pumpkins several years ago. It was to be a gift for someone who did me a favor, but the favor went south and the friendship did too. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I tried and tried to disassociate the painting from the incident, but every time I looked at it, I felt yucky.

Wow, this is a juvenile sounding post. “Do over” and “yucky”. Wonder what’s gonna sneak out next?

A customer requested a painting of Sawtooth after she saw my cards with that scene. I am always willing to paint something again, so I thought “Do-over? Sure!”

When I went into my canvas stash, I saw that dreaded pumpkin painting. Hmmmm, I wonder. . . Then, I couldn’t find the photo. No problem, because it was part of the first calendar of paintings I had printed (the 2013 calendar).

Look! Something weird is happening to those unfinished pumpkins!

Isn’t that weird?

I think it worked! The colors will be a bit brighter on this second version of Sawtooth because I am working from the printed version, which has exaggerated colors. I think it is funner this way.

There! Got in another juvenile expression!

When this dries, I will detail the branches in the foreground.

P.S. Sawtooth is the name of a prominent peak in Mineral King, the part of Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada where I spend the most time.

Challenging Pencil Commission, Finished!

I made the changes suggested by Cowboy Bert’s wife. She is very aware of what a mule looks like from all angles, and very observant of details. (As a retired law enforcement Captain, she sometimes refers to herself as a “trained observer”.)

Here it is:

The customer requested color, in a hand-tinted old photo sort of manner. This is how it looks:

The customer requested more color. I’m on my way out to the studio to work on that. . . or “back to the drawing board”.

Ahem. Perhaps I underbid this job slightly.

P.S. Did you figure out that this is Mineral King?

Working Through a Challenging Pencil Commission

There I was, faced with the necessity to draw the north end of a mule headed south, and no reference material!

What’s a Central California artist to do?

Call in Cowboy Bert, of course.

That would be Cowboy Bert, Equine Photographer, who graciously set up one of his mules and positioned him for numerous photos. I was able to print out 3 for reference, but because it took a couple of hours for them to load on my computer, I didn’t save the photos to show you.

Then, I commenced drawing. When I can see what I need to see and know what I am seeing, I can draw very quickly. When I am drawing the north end of a mule headed south and the photos are all just a tad bit different and various pieces of information are obscured behind a tail or in shadow. I take my time. Here are a few of the stages that the drawing went through:

Nope, not drawing anything I can’t see. Waiting for photos. . .

Okay, let’s try this thing.

Hard to see the difference from the previous one. Maybe it is time to get an expert opinion.

At this point, I emailed it to The Captain, who is the prettier partner of Cowboy Bert. She has also taken drawing lessons from me, so I knew she’d observe every detail and prevent me from exposing my ignorance of a mule’s back side.

We laid tissue paper over a printout of the drawing, and the Captain showed me what she saw while explaining it. I repeated it back to her to be sure I understood, and then wrote notes so I could fix things later. (This all happened while setting up for her father’s memorial service – shows you what a thoughtful generous person she is, and possibly what a jerk I am for asking such a thing at such a time.)

Stay tuned for the final drawing. (At the time of this post, it isn’t yet finished.)

A Challenging Pencil Commission

A regular customer wants to republish a book. The original drawing from the cover is missing, and it doesn’t look very good when scanned from a printed book. They asked me to redraw it, and to add color so it has the look of an old hand-tinted black and white photo. All I have to look at is a blurry dark photo and someone else’s drawing. Someone Else (never met her) drew it using the provided photo and other photos of unknown origin. This means there is some vital information missing. It is very difficult to draw from other people’s drawings, particularly when you don’t know the subject very well.

I saw this and thought, “Oh Missy Scarlett, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies”. I have painted and drawn a few mules, but it was under strict supervision and with good reference photos!

At least it is in a place I recognize and have drawn or painted a couple of times. A couple of dozen times!

Well, oops. Where is the mule? Where is the man leading the mule? Where is the man sitting on the boulder? Where did the previous artist get those images?

Where will I get those images? I can’t accurately and confidently draw things that I cannot see.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

Cabin Commission

The upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, will have 268 pencil drawings of cabins and cabin details.

Not everyone is pleased with the way I have represented his cabin. Most people are gracious about it and know that the book is an overview, rather than a documentary or a complete album.

One friend was not sure about how to tell me that she didn’t want to buy the original drawing of her cabin. She asked a few polite questions, and I got it. I told her that I can redraw it for her any way that she wants. She said, “But I don’t want to add to your work!” I replied, “Darlin’, that’s how I earn my living!” We laughed, and she commissioned me to draw her cabin.

I took many photos and then did a sketch for her, complete with lots of notes.

After I was sure that I knew what she wanted, I started.

commissioned pencil drawing of cabin in progress

After I got this far, I got a little worried and needed reassurance that I was on the right track.

She gave me the okay, so I finished it.

Commissioned pencil drawing of cabin

 She was thrilled, so of course so am I!

Orange You Glad This Mural is Finished?

A drive-by shooting of the Rocky Hill label mural on the east wall of Rocky Hill Antiques, east of Exeter.

 

This is how the mural looks in the morning light. It faces east, so I was only able to work on it when the shade was 2 feet wide, around 2 in the afternoon.

And, in case you have forgotten, it has a hidden item! No prizes offered, just the satisfaction of finding it.

Finishing the Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Part Four

On Thursday, I left you with a cliff-hanger of a green orange. (Reminds me of the time my mom wanted to show orange trees to her 4 year old Kansas granddaughter. “Look Ashley, those are orange trees.” “No they aren’t, Grandma – they are green!”)

White paint is opaque. Put down white paint, and then paint the orange! Sometimes I just floor myself with my on-the-spot innovations.  Honestly,  I often have to ask Trail Guy, but I forgot my old flip phone with a broken hinge so I couldn’t call him.

That looks weird. Gotta confess that it crossed my mind to paint it as a baseball. (It was the day that the Giants won the National League to go to the World Series.) As fun as that would have been, it would have meant that I needed to return, and I wanted to be FINISHED with this project. After all, I started the mural at the beginning of June.

Yes! The orange is done.

It looks good! The owners were right to add an orange.

I couldn’t photograph the entire mural because the pickup was blocking.

I spoke to one of the owners about adding the word ANTIQUES to the side of the mural. Together we concluded that it falls under the heading of sign, and under the skills of a sign painter. I am not a sign painter; I am a mural painter. The mural is finished.

May it be so.