Mr. and Mrs. Customer requested a few more leaves and oranges to extend into the margins. I did a bit of subtle extensions, then sprayed, colored, and signed it.
This is the closest I am able to get to perfect.
Pencil Oranges, Aiming for Perfection
It is time for me to really study this pencil commission. The pencil drawing needs to be perfect, because the next step is to spray it with a fixative, to prevent smearing when I add colored pencil to a few areas.
Mr. Customer asked for clouds, so I decided some wispy types would add texture, variety, and interest without becoming too busy. Everything else is highly detailed, so the sky needs to be somewhat visually restful.
All this remains to be inspected:
- The trees must look believable as they recede into the distance.
- The ground needs to have texture, but not so much that it competes with the leaves.
- The closest branches need to have the largest leaves and fruit.
- The sky needs to be dark enough to show off the clouds, snow on Sawtooth, and the windmachine.
- The little girls have to be perfect.
After I addressed all those items, I scanned the drawing, cleaned up the scanner messes (it ALWAYS leaves spots, and the paper color scans as gray), and emailed it to Mr. and Mrs. Customer for their final approval.
More will be revealed in the fullness of time, or as my dad used to say, “Time will tell”. Meanwhile, I will continue to. . .
. . . use pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.
Oranges in Pencil, The Point
What’s my point? Not the point of my pencil. The point of all this careful drawing and explaining is to make everything in this custom pencil drawing believable.
I have added a ladder to the wind machine, smoothed the sky, and begun the lower leaves and oranges on the bottom left.
Have a look at the 2 little girls, the way I see them under the giant lighted magnifying glass. They truly are almost impossible to draw and hardly show up. But they will have color on them at the end, so they will be more visually significant.
Building up the foliage is tedious; some might say “restful”; others might call it “zen”. The tedium is alleviated by the continual need to check the sizes of the leaves and fruit, thinking about where they are landing on the rows of diminishing sizes. 
I also worked on the ground a bit. I want it to look real and as always, believable. Usually within an orchard, there are many dead leaves, broken sticks, and dropped fruit. So, I will put some of this in but be careful to not have it too noticeable, because it isn’t the point. What is the point??
Believability!
Inching Forward With Pencils
The custom pencil drawing of 2 little girls in an orange grove is going to take awhile. I can quickly scribble in the distant orange trees and have them be believable, but everything up close needs to be carefully drawn.
In order for the snow-covered mountains and the wind machine to show up, it needs sky. This is because you cannot draw white; you have to put shading around a white thing for it to appear.
You can see that the leaves on the trees are getting added to, and the distant hills and mountains are too. One side of the wind machine is darker than the other; this will require some attention. 
I think this drawing will have quite a bit of “put some on, take some off, put some on, take some off”. Sounds like a middle-aged woman trying to get comfortable, but I am talking about pencil here. I keep adjusting darks and lights in the distance, looking for the best way to make it look the most believable.
Orange Grove in Pencil
This is a commissioned pencil drawing, custom art, a specific job as requested by a customer. (All that is in case you are only tuning in right now and missed the previous posts leading up to this).
The most difficult part of this drawing is the children. I found photos of children walking from the back, and then put together various elements from these photos to depict something that doesn’t actually exist. The youngest child that this drawing is supposed to represent is not yet walking. By the time she is walking, the other child will be older (duh) than she currently is. Hence, by guess and by golly.
I started here because if this is impossible, there is no point in continuing.
The customer said it was fine. No, that’s not what he said, but I decided that is what he meant.
Then I photographed it with a pencil so the size could be understood.
After that, the mountains, and beginning the distant trees.
All this was done at the dining table in the house. I started this on the snow day, because the wood stove puts out better heat than the little wall propane heater in the studio.
Lighting was a bit of a challenge, so toward the end of the drawing session I turned on the flashlight in the phone to use as a spotlight. This made it possible to work close and make precise leaves and oranges in the upper right corner.
P.S. The customer’s wife weighed in at the end of the day and had a very valid and helpful suggestion to make the smallest girl look younger. I believe this will be a lengthy series of blog posts as I bumble along in new territory of drawing little people without benefit of photos in a size that is ridiculously small. It will all be worth it, because this drawing will be ridiculously perfectly darlingly cute, a brilliant idea! (Plus, there will be some added color)
Orange Grove, Improved
Because my friend liked this little rough sketch enough to mention framing it, it seemed prudent to improve it. I do have a professional reputation to consider, since word-of-mouth is my strongest marketing method.
So, I spent a little time polishing the sketch. This time I photographed it with a ruler so he could see how small it is.
He asked if I had started the real drawing yet. I replied that I was about to start, but first I had to squash a spider. My studio is really out there on the edge of civilization. (Please be impressed by my pioneering spirit.)
With that nasty little job finished, I began the real drawing.
I started the 11×14″ drawing on Strathmore Bristol Smooth 400 series paper WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT ANY REFERENCE PHOTOS!
Looks like a nothing-burger at this stage. Good thing that you all know I know how to draw.
I love making custom art for people, especially for friends, ESPECIALLY of orange groves, and ESPECIALLY in pencil.
Using pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.
And More Orange Groves
Remember this painting?
A friend saw it and wondered if I could draw a similar scene in pencil, this time adding in two little girls. Because I love to draw, love to draw and paint orange groves, and really like my friend, I said yes.
Ahem. There isn’t a photo of the two little girls from the back, walking together holding hands, because one doesn’t even walk yet.
My friend sent me photos of the girls as they look now. Then I went to The Duck (search engine DuckDuckGo) to see if I could find helpful photos.
From those photos, I did this little sketch.
Good thing my friend knows that I know how to draw. He was very taken with the sketch, so I think this idea will work, IF I CAN DRAW TWO LITTLE GIRLS THAT I CANNOT SEE!
No pressure or any undue stress.
Just shut up and pick up your pencils, Central California Artist.
Twelve Reasons to Write Notes
Do you write notes to people?
Do you get notes from people?
Writing notes is now a rarity; people switched to phone calls, then email, and finally texting, where punctuation, complete sentences, and spelled out words are an oddity. (“The word is ‘before’, not B4. Around here we speak English, not Bingo.”)
Consider these reasons for writing:
- It makes people feel good.
- No one has ever cherished an email or a text.
- Mail is fun.
- You can practice your writing skills.
- You can practice your penmanship.
- It gives our wonderful postal carriers purpose.
- It makes gratitude tangible.
- You can use my notecards.
- Sometimes people will email a response or even write a note back to you.
- It acknowledges the fact that someone did something for you that wasn’t required.
- It keeps manners alive.
- It will set you apart from others.
Notecards available here: Cabinart/Store/Notecards
More About Notecards
When I first started my art business, notecards quickly became a huge part. Packaging the cards was sometimes a family project, with my parents (I had 2 parents back then) and a few friends pitching in (most moved away—can you blame them?)
The packages had 2 each of 5 designs, and they sold for $5 a package.
Times have changed. (Duh, I know.)
Now packages have 4 designs, all the same, for $10. Further, I make no profit if I sell them wholesale, so I only sell them directly or have a few stores with the cards on consignment.
You can see my available designs here. Cabinart/Store/Notecards
Just enough customers like cards, I love to draw, and I still write notes. So, I press on. . .
Not all the changes are bad. Now it costs the same whether I print a pencil drawing or one with a bit of color.
Long History of Notecards
Before I started my art business, notecards were a side hustle. I worked in a print shop, so it was easy to get cards printed. The printshop was in Visalia, so it was easy to distribute card packages to a variety of stores.
Times change. Email came along and people gradually lost the habit of writing notes by hand. Some people still buy cards, mostly from me in person or on the internet, because almost all the shops that sold my cards have closed.
Instead of variety packs, I began packaging the cards with all the same design. This eliminated the need for a label on the top or an insert showing the pictures inside. Instead of having to print 500 or 1000 cards of each design in order to hold costs down, it is now possible to print 100 (or even fewer) at a time.
The printing process is now computerized instead of mechanical. I email my designs to a local printer and only go there in person to pick up the finished product. Other designs get sent via the World Wide Web to some unknown printer in some unknown location, and I can order as few as 10 of a design.
Instead of selling them resale, I now allow a handful of trusted places to sell them on consignment. Although consignment is a nuisance, it is better than not having them in the public eye. Consignment is the only method that makes cents, because my costs are too high to make a profit selling them wholesale. (“Sense”, I know—couldn’t resist.)
It takes a lot of time checking the inventory, restocking and trying to keep track of what has sold, what has and hasn’t been paid for, making and remaking lists for the vendors. Sometimes a vendor puts a sticker on with the sales tax, sometimes a sticker without the tax. When they decide a certain design isn’t selling, I replace it with another design and then have to repackage the cards with irrelevant stickers. It isn’t horrible, but it certainly isn’t profitable either.
More about notecards tomorrow.