Sold in December, Part 2

When I see all these sold pieces, both pencil drawings and oil paintings, I am astonished. Trail Guy and I loaded up “Images of Home” into the back of his pick-’em-up truck, and it felt as if I was taking home MORE than I hung at the show.

That feeling slapped me upside the confidence, making me want to paint over everything that didn’t sell and pull the drawings from the frames and shred them. Ridiculous. Several of the sold pieces happened outside of the show (all those repaints), and each time something sold, I replaced it with a new piece. 

So, having put to rest the foolishness of wanting to destroy my remaining work, let’s resume yesterday’s triumphant post of art that sold in December, shall we? 

Upon further reflection, I am realizing that several of these sold earlier in the fall but I didn’t show you. That brings December down to a more believable number of sales.

Sales, as Opposed to Tech Troubles

The year started in a somewhat ignominious manner with tech troubles. That stuff is quite alarming, upsetting, and interruptive. I combat this by reviewing all the sales in the previous month (necessary to pay for all the tech repairs, and I am sorry to report that no fat lady has sung yet).

I had sales through Kaweah Arts, the Mural Gallery, Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, along with commissions. All is not lost – let’s rejoice together!

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Tune in tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat channel.

P.S. Happy Birthday to Trail Guy!

Drawing Lessons Are For Learning to Draw

Mrs. Customer (of the indoor murals) said to Mr. Customer, “I think you should sign up for Jana’s drawing lessons”. Mr. Customer said, “I would be too embarrassed”. 

I said, “Many people have that worry; the reason for lessons is to learn to draw. No one knows how before they take lessons; everyone starts out the same. My students are all very kind and encouraging.”

Every bit of that is totally true. 

One day a drawing student said she didn’t know what to draw next. She was wearing her normal black high-top sneakers, and the late afternoon sunlight was coming in the doors of the gallery. We put her shoes in the light and photographed them with her phone from many angles. Now she is drawing her shoes, and we are wishing we had stuffed the laces inside rather than having to sort out all the loops and droops.

The first step is to figure out what to draw; the second step is to get a printed photo. Yes, you can draw off your phone, but it is easier to work from paper, which is a fixed size. You can see that she is enlarging the shoes on the drawing, which is an important way to learn to see proportionally.

Do you want to learn to draw? You can. The only people who don’t learn are the ones who quit too soon. Not everyone enjoys the process, not everyone enjoys everything. (I can’t stand sports.)

Well Received (Successful Opening Reception)

The opening reception to my solo show, “Images of Home” at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery was amazingly well attended. No one was counting, but I think there were at least 100 people, and everyone did NOT come at once. It was most totally excellent! 

This is the first thing you see when you step into the entryway.

This is what you see when you step into the gallery.

Here is a comfortable corner for contemplation.

These three pencil drawings of Mineral King look just right on this wall. (How would they look all together on a wall in your home?)

Sold!

These are still available.

This child was too cute to not photograph. (Her mom gave permission).

There were a few opportunities to photograph people in the gallery, but that wasn’t my real mission.

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold twice!

Sold four times!

Yeppers, you read that right. I have to order some canvases, and then get painting. If someone expressed disappointment at having missed out on a painting, I simply said, “I can paint it again for you”. (Do other artists do this??)

 

Building a Coloring Book Cover, Part 2

After thinking over the title Heart of Rural Tulare County, I wasn’t satisfied.

I looked at the original coloring book, Heart of the Hills, and realized that this one needed to be Heart of the County.

That’s the ticket! My Shadow Consultant agreed, after suggesting a couple of tiny adjustments.

The idea to do this came quickly, and the retail places that sell my work want it in time for Christmas. That’s why most of the drawings are gleaned from the previous coloring books, compiling them into a broad portrait of the county’s rural places. I thought you might need to know that. It is sort of like buying a “Best of” album from your favorite music group, and then you either say, “Oh I love this song” or “Wait, I already have this”. 

Like all the previous coloring books, each page has a tiny hidden heart. 

The coloring book is $20 and is available here on my website. 

Upcoming Solo Art Show:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 1-4 p.m.

 

Building a Coloring Book Cover

The reasons for choosing this drawing for the cover of my new coloring book of rural Tulare County were because it is representational of the subject matter, appealing, and has enough blank space for words.

I looked at the previous coloring books and did a draft for the cover. These things don’t fall into place for me in one shot – I have to think things over, and usually send them to my Shadow Consultant in Bellingham who has a great eye for design. Ooh, weird, there’s that single “eye” again, just like when something “catches your eye”.

Good enough to know that things will fit here. I got out my colored pencils, put on a good podcast, and dove in.

When you are listening to something good, even simple mundane tasks like coloring go quickly. I think it was Mike Rowe’s podcast. Great vocabulary, intriguing stories, nice voice, excellent sense of humor.

UPCOMING SOLO SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Building a Coloring Book Page, Part 3

We last saw this drawing at this stage of erasing the gray background. I think it scans gray because the paper is a little bit thin, and also because that’s just the way the scanner sees things. If I lighten the background while scanning, the lines also get lighter.

After the background gray is erased, and the overlapping and gapping lines fixed, I add a border.

This is appealing (not up on blocks!), representative of rural Tulare County (yeppers, that’s the reality of any non-gentrified rural area), and has enough white space that it will be the cover of the coloring book, in addition to being an interior page.

Next step: get it printed on white paper with some substance to it at a print shop so that I can color it.

You can preorder the coloring book here: Heart of the County.

Would you believe that I love to draw, but coloring feels like a silly waste of time. It took a bit of self-talk to convince myself that this is part of my job. 

UPCOMING SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Building a Coloring Book Page, Part 2

I left you hanging on by your fingernails, wondering how in the world this gray and black picture will become a useful page to color, with a bright white background and well-defined parts. Were you able to sleep for all the suspense?

Here you can see the piece in progress, with many of the big spaces erased.

Those small spaces are very time consuming. A cursor is not as good as a pencil, and sometimes things just go astray. The way I get precise on those tiny parts is by enlarging it beyond all rational belief.

Photoshop Elements is the program I am using; the specific tools are the magic wand, rubber stamp, and the eraser. (And UNDO, UNDO, UNDO!)

The next step is to add a border. Will you be able to sleep tonight as you eagerly await the next step?

 

Building a Coloring Book Page

It starts with an idea and moves to a picture to refer to when developing the idea.

This is a drawing that I did for Tucoemas, a Visalia based credit union, back in the last century. I was able to locate the photo that I originally worked from, but it was small and dark. I used to draw from 3-1/2 x 5″ snapshots!

Next, the picture becomes a pencil outline, and then it gets inked.

After inking, the pencil lines get erased, and it gets scanned.

See how the background of the drawing paper looks gray? That is the way it scans, so I have to erase all of that using Photoshop. I also have to repair all the lines that cross over as well as the ones that don’t quite reach their destinations.

And that’s not all. . . stay tuned!

Focusing on Drawing Instead of Smoke

When the air is hazardous as it was at the beginning of last week, I just closed myself into the studio and focused on a large commissioned pencil collage. It made 9 hours fly by, and I forgot about the smoke outside.

You last saw the drawing at this stage:

This is what happened In 2 days of drawing.

Wow, sometimes I impress myself. 

Excuse me. That was obnoxious. You probably are interested in a bit of a story about this drawing rather than some puffed up bloviation by a Central California artist who complains about smoke unless she is tooting her own horn.

This drawing will be a gift (not from me but from the customer) to a lady pilot who lives in this house along an airstrip, has her own hangar, and a view of a lake. Her husband was also a pilot, designed the house and hangar, and he recently died. Our lady pilot will be selling and moving away, and her friend commissioned me to do this piece for her. 

These are remarkable people, both the giver and the recipient, and it is a privilege to participate in their lives, even on the outer fringes.

Happy Birthday, JG!