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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Finishing the Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Part Three
We are waiting for the heat to end so I can finish the Rocky Hill Antiques mural. September passes. October arrives. The heat continues. FINALLY, last week, it mellowed from the 90s to the 80s. Practically sweater weather around here! Wow, the mural is dusty and has some spider webs. No worries, I’m a country […]
Finishing the Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Part Two
I showed my favorite view of the potential revision/addition of the Rocky Hill Antiques mural to the owner. He still wanted the word “ANTIQUES” included. I tried to convince him that the word would change a mural into a sign, and there is plenty of signage at the business with no doubts at all as […]
Finishing the Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Part One
Remember the mural on the side of Rocky Hill Antiques? I painted it last June. Here are the links to the posts about it: Projecting A New Mural, Chapters two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight The mural looked like this at the end. We simplified it from the original label, which was full of […]