Because I already had 2 of these scenes drawn and the first set of Tulare County Landmarks notecards sold well, the natural second choice was Mineral King. (Big surprise, eh?)
This was the first time I drew my favorite bridge, and it is from a viewpoint that is now overgrown and no longer so clear.
I worked from my own photos with the exception of the old Mineral King Store; by the time my family went to Mineral King, it was gone.
Stay tuned – there are many more notecards to show you!
The customer allowed me to put color in the flag, a technique that I am very partial to. I added smoke, scanned it, and did the Photoshop clean-up.
As I was adding the grassy meadow to the foreground, I was thinking about the first time I drew the Hockett Meadow Ranger Station. It was part of a notecard set called “Backcountry Structures”.
Back in the olden days (in the 1980s), people used pens to handwrite notes in cursive, put them in envelopes, address them, LICK a stamp to put on the envelope, and then place into a real mailbox for people in other parts of the country to receive.
How quaint. Those were definitely kinder, gentler, slower, more personal times.
Now, hold onto your hats, Dear Blog Readers, because I am going to show you something frightening.
Your Central California artist needs to keep reminding herself that it is good to be humble.
Growth is good.
People were very kind in the olden days and hadn’t learned all that anonymous internet rude behavior yet.
If you bought art from me back then, THANK YOU!!
How “secret” is something on the World Wide Web?
The one who isn’t supposed to see the drawing doesn’t know about my blog, so we’re safe. (also true for the drawing shown on this post) 
I put in the grass, thought it was finished, scanned it, did the Photoshop clean-up, emailed it to the customer, and then I remembered that he asked me to have smoke coming out of the chimney.
Well, oops.
Tomorrow I’ll show you the finished drawing, along with something that might drop your jaw.
This is my most recent pencil drawing commission. A group of friends are getting this for another friend. That’s all I’m allowed to say, not knowing the the scope of readership of this blog or degree of silence required for this gift.
This is the scanned, cleaned up version using Photoshop Junior, which is actually Photoshop Elements. It is converted to grayscale mode and anything that is paper color on the drawing gets “erased” so it looks almost as clean here as it does in person.
This is a longish story about a drawing student/friend.
Gina took drawing lessons from me in Exeter before I closed my studio there in December of 2001. She began a drawing, and then left lessons to return to school and become a nurse.
In about 2016, we listed some old roofing on Craig’sList (actually Cowboy Bert did it for us because we were not versed in that particular method of selling things), and someone named Gina answered the ad. We talked on the phone, and I gave her directions to our house.
When she and her husband arrived, Trail Guy went out to take care of the roofing transaction. He came into the house and said, “You need to come out here and meet these people”.
It was a happy reunion! Gina didn’t know where I had moved my studio or if I was teaching any more. She immediately said she wanted to return to lessons, because now as a nurse, her schedule is flexible.
Imagine my shock and awe when she returned to lessons and pulled out the very drawing that she had begun way back when!
Three years later, (or is it two? four? I didn’t write it down), Gina finished her drawing. It is possible that I am even more excited about this than she is!
When she began this drawing, we were both in our early 40s and could still see little things. Still, the rule is “no faces smaller than an egg” (and by now, I’m thinking ostrich egg). I discouraged her from drawing a face this small, but she is independent-minded and did an excellent job of capturing a likeness. This is her dad on a Harley.
Gina spent months researching Harleys, looking at each separate part of the motorcycle to get everything as accurate as possible. She spent weeks trying to discern what model of car that was. (It is a Kaiser, something we’d never heard of.) Together we spent years inching this drawing along, figuring out how to handle the various parts and textures.
Finally, finally, almost done, and then Gina decided to put clouds in the sky. She spent weeks looking at clouds, and each week she would announce, “I really don’t know clouds at all”, and all of us of a certain age would snicker.
But wait! There’s more! As Gina and I got to know each other, we learned that we both had been on the staff of Hume Lake Christian Camps in our late teens. I was in the mountains; she was in the foothills. I tossed or lost my staff photo decades ago, but as we have learned about Gina, she carefully preserves things. Recently, she sent me this, and WE WERE ON STAFF AT THE SAME TIME!
P.S. Michael Smith-Jenson, I got your email. Thank you. I found you in this photo. I lost your email. I’m sorry. (I’m not nearly as careful or organized as Gina!)
See? I have been working, despite the all the travelogue posts. (It takes more days to show and tell about a trip than the trip actually lasted).
I grew up with German Shepherds, not little dogs. Little dogs make me want to stand on a chair and scream, and then if I touch them, go wash my hands about 4 times.
A friend of about 35 years asked me to draw her little dog. My love for her is stronger than my aversion to little dogs, and I love to draw, so I said yes.
Meet Oliver.
(Stacy, thank you for trusting me with Oliver, even though you are well aware of my semi-suppressed cat disorder.)
Oliver arrived today and he is SO darling! You did an amazing job of capturing his likeness!
Dear friend and customer Stacy
Drawing lessons are suspended during the hot months of July and August, but they resume the day after Labor Day in the hot month of September. Therefore, today, let the lessons begin again!
I’ve been helping people learn to draw since 1994, and in the process I’ve learned to draw better myself. Even more important, I’ve gotten to know fabulous people, many of whom I consider friends and are still in touch with.
On paper, my classes are almost full. There is a spot or two from 3:30-4:30; all the regulars in that hour are high school students, so their schedules and their desires change pretty regularly.
If you would like drawing lessons, let me know via the contact thing on my site, or in the comments, or by email, or even a phone message to 559-561-7606.
Lessons are $55/month.
Everyone works from her own photo (guys are allowed too, but for some reason I don’t have any photos of them) at her own pace.
“Pick something you love, because you’ll be staring at it for a loooonnnngggg time.” – Jana Botkin
In 2012 I made my first calendar. It was an experiment, because a calendar has a short time to sell, and when it is over, a business is stuck with unsellable inventory. The calendar sold well enough, 100 turned out to be the right number, and I have continued making calendars ever since.
When reviewing the calendars, it looks as if they are random. In fact, each calendar represents the previous year’s focus (or obsession). There are photos, paintings, and drawings.
2013 – I didn’t save a picture of either the front or the back, so I don’t know what it was about or what I named it. I ordered about 10 or 20 at a time because I didn’t know how well it would sell. (Obviously I didn’t know much that year.)
2019 still has many of the original drawings available. Want any? None are framed. All are 11×14″ or 9×12″. You can make an offer. If it is too low, I will not take offense but might counter-offer. (Normally those sizes sell for $200-275 before tax).
What will the calendar for 2020 be?
Of course it is about Mineral King wildflowers, my current obsession. It is in progress, so you will have to restrain yourselves until it is for sale.
This year it will be $15 if ordered by October 1, and $20 if ordered afterward.
In 1992, I did this commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin. The one who owns it sent me a photo of the card she had left from an earlier order.
I tried to turn it into something that would print as a decent card. This was not acceptable.
The customer said she still had the original, and it wasn’t even in a frame, so I was able to scan it (after touching it up a little bit, because I draw better now (as one would hope, 27 years later).
Then, I messed with it on Photoshop Elements, and voila!
Printing has changed so radically from the old days. I’m thankful that the ordering and reprinting process is accessible from my laptop these days.