This driveway:
leads to this cabin:
I know you are dying to ask me something about this drawing – put it in the comments!
Mineral King is closed to the public but the mandatory evacuation lifted yesterday at 1:30 p.m.
Finished Pencil Drawing Two
Two pencil drawings of one boat – one truly beautiful boat, called a Chris Craft. These are quite a Thing, maybe the Rolls Royce or the Harley Davidson of the water. (I just made that up and hope I didn’t insult anyone or any brand here.)
Can I drive?? Is that what it is called to run a boat? Or is “pilot” the correct verb?
Finished Pencil Drawing One
Color has been added to the Chris Craft flag and to the reflection. Another happy customer, and of course the artist is also happy.
P.S. The pinstripes were intense, and the flags were pure joy. I am particularly taken by the way the American flag curls. Simple things, for a simple person. (Me, not the customer)
Are We Happy Yet?
I don’t want to talk about wildfires, evacuation orders, plagues, epidemics, or politics. I just want to draw and make my customers happy.
This is before:
And this is after:
Now I am waiting for my customer to tell me if this is what she requested. I can keep going, if I have good instruction. It is a pleasure to work for people who know what they want and express it clearly.
Yes! Happy customer!
P.S. Happy artist too.
Completed Pencil Commission?
Completed Pencil Commission in steps, that is.
The rosy color is probably a result of the light through the window that is tinted by heavy wildfire smoke.
Much of the time while drawing this, it was very very smoky out the window, and as I drew the pine trees, I kept thinking, “Torches, they are torches!”
Last I heard, they are still standing and green.
P.S. The customer stopped by my studio and we decided that the driveway is too undefined and that we’d like some color in the drawing somewhere. My commissioned jobs are not finished until the customer is completely happy.
A New Card and So
Are you a note writer? Do you send thank you notes, or thinking of you notes? Getting real mail is fun. Email is good too, but there is something special about ink on paper in an envelope with handwriting on it, arriving at your home (or in your P.O. box).
I saw an advertisement in a magazine about 20 years ago when email was new, and it was for fancy stationery. The line on the page said, “No one has ever cherished an email”.
About my cards
You probably know about them already, so consider this a reminder. They come 4 to a package with envelopes, and each package has all the same design, $8/package including postage and shipping.
The newest one
Standards (but not old enough to be called “Classic”)
Who in your life would like to receive a note in the mail? Your Grandma? Your grandchild who may never have received real mail before? The mechanic who keeps your car running so you can drive worry-free? The grocery store checker who is always cheerful, even when she has to wear a mask every day? The barber who lets you come in the back door of his shop so you don’t have to wear your hair in a ponytail?
Cards available here: Notecards
P.S. You don’t have to use the website and Paypal to buy cards because you can send me a check IN THE MAIL and I will send you your cards IN THE MAIL.
P.P.S. (This means PS#2) There are more designs than the ones I’ve shown here, including cards in color, different sizes, and even an assortment package (Mineral King, larger cards, $15).
Custom Drawing Almost Finished
These parts are unfinished, pending decisions:1. Pinstripes where the boat goes from horizontal to vertical on the stern requires the customer’s input, because this area looks different in several of the photos he provided
2. Reflection of flag in the water – color here? What will the customer decide?
3. Chris Craft flag on bow – color? Another decision for the customer to make
4. Is ONE MOHR FRY too bright? I can tone it down to be more in line with the light on the stern, or we can keep it bright so it pops. (and now I can see that the second R needs a bit of work too.)
This is one of the most fun commissions I’ve done in awhile – perhaps because the subject is new to me. It is challenging to figure out textures I haven’t done in awhile, and the fun comes when they turn out well and the customer is happy.
I make art of places and things people love at prices that don’t scare them.
Three Rivers Post Office
When it was time to mail the cabin drawing to the customer, I packaged it. Trail Guy came out to the studio to offer his delivery services, and I was delighted to not have to interrupt my work with a trip to the Post Office. Yes, I know it is only 3-4 miles away, but in the summers, my work days are limited because I keep going to Mineral King instead of keeping my feet planted in front of the easels. So, I value my work time and appreciate not having to do my own errands.
Trail Guy returned from the Post Office with the receipt and an explanation of why it cost $18 to send a piece of paper to San Diego – had to buy a box, pay for insurance, etc. And “piece of paper” isn’t meant to discount the value of an original pencil drawing, but essentially, to the post office, it was a highly insured piece of paper packaged carefully in an overpriced box.
He turned toward the counter in the painting workshop, picked up a taped-together bundle of cardboard and said, “What is this?”
Ahem. That would be the drawing that I thought he had just mailed.
When I got back up off the floor from laughing, I emailed my customer to tell her to expect a box of cardboard, minus her drawing before actually receiving the drawing.
Later that afternoon, I went to the Post Office with the actual drawing. The clerk retrieved the box from the back, we opened it, inserted the drawing, and she taped it back up. No new packaging, no new payments. It was in time to go out with that day’s mail.
I LOVE THE POST OFFICE IN THREE RIVERS!!
Pencil Drawing of a Cabin
“Cabin Art” or “Cabinart”* began with pencil drawings of cabins. It it a treat to be able to draw cabins when those jobs come in.
Someone saw a copy of my book The Cabins of Wilsonia and asked if I could draw her parents’ cabin, working from emailed photographs.
You betcha!
I showed it to you a bit earlier while in progress. I gave it my best effort to work from the customer’s photos and a sketch, and then sent her a scan of the almost finished drawing to her. She asked if I could add something that didn’t really show in the photos, a procedure that is almost always dicey. Since she communicated clearly throughout the project, I was willing to try.
Got it!
We talked about possibly having cards made in the future, so she paid the fee to do the digitization. Now you get to see what it looks like before and after getting digitally prepared. Something about scanning a drawing picks up every little anything that appears in and on the paper. Can you see the difference?
*It puzzles me that as a Typo-psycho, I never figured out how the name of my business should be spelled.
Incremental Progress
Nothing here is completed, just inching along, a few hours on one project, move on to the next, and finish up each day with some drawing time in the air-conditioned studio as opposed to the swamp-cooled painting workshop.
Baby steps.