drawing | Cabin Art

More Story

So far we have learned that I love to read, love the beach, and have wondered if it was possible or necessary to learn to paint plein air.

I have a virtual friend (is that what it is called when you are in touch with someone you have never met in person?) named Laurel Daniel who paints very well. She paints plein air and she teaches a few plein air workshops every year. She even gave me a list of tips and helps when I had to do some public plein air painting 4 years ago. It helped, but didn’t make me feel any more confident or competent. (One painting session does not make an expert.)

Remember that I loved some books by Eugenia Price based on St. Simons Island? That is one place where Laurel teaches. When I learned this, I was gobsmacked by a great desire to attend her workshop there. This probably doesn’t surprise you.

How about this for a surprise? Last summer I was with a childhood friend at her family cabin, and we visited her cousins at their neighboring cabin. Her cousin lives by St. Simons Island! Again, I was gobsmacked.

Beach Birds, pencil, sold
(This drawing is not St. Simons Island.)

Tomorrow I’ll tell you a little bit more.

A Story

When I was a kid I loved to read (and still do). My mom took us to the Ivanhoe library, where I worked through the kids fiction section until there was nothing left that interested me. Eventually I realized that some of Mom’s books might be good, and I read a couple of historical novels based on St. Simons Island off of Georgia. Of course I wanted to go there.

As a family, we spent time at both the beach and the mountains (we lived in the Central Valley of California, so both were accessible), but I tended to like the beach best. Now I am torn between mountains and beach, fated to live forever between both.

Why am I telling you this? To be continued. . .

New Idea for Drawing Lessons

In the month of March, I am teaching a beginning drawing class to six people, two hours per week at Arts Visalia, a very fine non-profit gallery in downtown Visalia. (This is the county seat, the town we usually mean in Three Rivers when we say we have to go “down the hill”.)

The six folks were all new to me, although we have found a few connections, as one does in a place like Tulare County. We worked through my regular beginning exercises on the first evening, and they were terrific. Easy to work with, understood and followed directions, asked good questions that helped me clarify my instructions, and they all did very well.

I suggested that they bring photos they might like to draw from for the second lesson. That night, I woke up with such a good idea that it could only have been inspired by God.

It is based on the idea that there is an order of difficulty in drawing. Here it is from easiest to yikes:

Other people’s drawings
Black and white photos
Color photos
Real life

I went through my zillions of photos and chose a stack that will give a beginner a reasonable chance at success. Then I chose one to try out – could I draw this quickly? Could I scan it successfully and make a printable tool for my new students?

Yeppers.

I like this! This means I have 11 more tracings, drawings and scans to do. Good thing I love to draw.

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Drawing the Tree Again

I actually made progress on the tree pencil drawing, in spite of the spontaneous field trip to Kaweah Lake.

But first, look at the season’s first iris, blooming in a pot outside my studio. (I seem to be suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome these days.)

Now, to the drawing table.

The tree up close on the laptop screen, in 3 different printed photos and a sketch done on site – maybe these are enough to get my pencils moving again.

I am liking this picture. It is okay to like one’s own work, really.

drawing

Finished Pencil Drawing Commission

The customer approved, so this is finished.

It took me just as long to do the house itself as the entire background. Maybe longer. The drawing is 11×14″, which means the porch details are miniscule.

Tree Drawing Progress

Original photo, messy sketch (the book got bent a little when I slipped on the cow poo), beginning of drawing.

Here’s what I had to work with, once back in the studio.

I put on a podcast, an interview with James Clear about his new book called Atomic Habits. (Wow, what a practical guy. I might buy the book, but probably will wait a few years until I find it in the local library system.)

Using the enlarged version of the original photo on my laptop, the original paper photo, and a couple of new ones printed on paper, I drew for awhile. I broke my rules about drawing from left to right and top to bottom.

When the podcast ended, I listened to another one, and almost fell asleep at the table. Guess it was time to call it quits.

Chasing a Tree

During a recent drawing lesson, I opened up my envelope of just-in-case snapshots, and this one was on top. Why not draw it? Demonstrating is a good method of teaching.

Both the trunk and branches are confusing to me. If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it. I can make stuff up, but since this was on The Captain’s property, we decided to go see it.

I told her it which flowers were blooming in my photo, which informed her of the location. This involved a rather messy slip-slide through very slick cow poo, hidden under leaves, with apologies to my jeans for the damage done. (Sometimes art is a dangerous profession.) I recognized the tree, or felt fairly certain when we got there.

Using a sketch book along with my camera, I began sorting out the twisted branch pattern to understand which was connected to which.

Photographing it at various angles was helpful.

No wonder I am confused. Look at this mess.

See how this one big branch turns behind the other? In my original photo, I couldn’t tell if I was looking through a gap or if the green was the beginnings of leaves.

Really, come on, now. It is a TREE. How can it be wrong?

My goal is to make my work believable. Another goal is to keep pushing myself to understand what I am seeing, to not coast and make things up. Other times the goal is to push myself to make things up.

Sounds as if I am perpetually confused. . . What am I seeing and why am I drawing it?

Right after sketching it, I flipped to another page in the sketch book and saw that the original photo was taped inside. I planned ahead and then forgot. The Captain and I got a good laugh. We need good laughs to get us through losing The Cowboy.

I didn’t hit my head when I slipped on the cow poo. This is just how I am these days.

Pencil Progress

If I draw from top to bottom, left to right, it cuts back on the opportunities for smearing. The background hills are very forgiving, a good place to begin this commissioned pencil drawing of a very fine house in a serene setting.

In addition to this poor quality photo from my poor quality printer, I look at a high quality photo on my high quality laptop for more details.

Sometimes I break my own rules about direction of drawing.

Here I have added more layers and begun shading the roof shape. My new favorite pencils are Tombow, a Japanese word that means dragonfly. They are dark and smooth; usually dark means grainy, but not in this brand.

Enough for today – life (and death) is still keeping my work time to a minimum.

Back to the Drawing Board

I love to draw, and it is good to just sit quietly with pencils and paper, doing something simple that has no sadness attached.

In December, I took photos of a house. It took 2 sessions, much conversation, lots of thinking, and finally narrowing it down to 3 views.

Something about my blog has changed, forcing all photos into a square format; I don’t know why it changed and can’t figure out how to fix it. So, these photos are cropped here in spite of being rectangles on my camera and computer—more evidence of “upgrade” as a euphemism for “complication”.