A former drawing student lost her cabin in the Creek Fire this past summer. I asked her if I could draw it for her; she said yes and sent photos.
This former student participated in an art show a few years ago, along with 2 other advanced students and me. I asked those 2 others if they wanted to join me in drawing the cabin, and they both said yes. We all really like our friend and wanted to express our sympathy.
It took awhile to figure out what to draw, how to fit it together, who should draw which part, and even how to sign it.
It took awhile, but we did it! Our friend was very touched, particularly by the fact that we each had a part.
This is the last drawing I did with a pre-Christmas deadline. It is a Mineral King cabin, and no, I will not publish the name as this is the World Wide Web and I respect people’s privacy.
It was a joy to draw a cabin that I am familiar with, one that I was able to take all the necessary photos instead of just working with one or two provided photos that were missing a lot of detail.
See these photos? I found them all helpful and necessary. This is my favorite kind of commission, but as you have seen on my blog over the past couple of months, I say yes to many challenging custom art jobs.
I make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.
A friend asked me to draw this cabin, another one that didn’t survive the wildfires. Her photos were fairly inadequate, but my confidence in making up things is growing. This is due to experience, both with cabins, and knowing that most people don’t observe detail to the degree that I do when drawing.
The front door of a place is the most important feature, and this one is hidden by the dual trees. I asked my friend if I could remove those trees and if she could describe the front door. She said yes to both.
When custom art jobs are tricky, meaning when there aren’t adequate photos, a sketch is often helpful. This one has an unusual roof shape on the left gable end, and a surprisingly wide chimney, along with steps that were hidden behind the tree that I removed.
This cabin burned. I don’t know where it was or who owned it. The customer provided the photo and requested the drawing as a gift for the cabin owner. I haven’t heard the outcome. I feel fairly confident that the cabin owner won’t know about me or my blog.
P.S. If you recognize this cabin, shhhhh. It is meant to be a surprise.
A thoughtful and generous man hired me to draw 5 cabins for 5 different friends who lost them in the wildfires. He asked me to not put them on the blog, because they were to be surprises. He must think that I have a larger readership than I do; on the other hand, this is Tulare County, where there aren’t 6 degrees of separation – it is more like 1-1/2.
Three of the drawings have been delivered. The customer sent me photos of the recipients, but because this is the World Wide Web, I’ll just show you the cabin drawings without the recipients (even though some are wearing masks).
I did it again – worked with a customer until she was happy with the sketch, and then after doing the drawing (well, not completely finishing), she wasn’t entirely happy with the results.
This is my fault because when I saw there was a problem, I made an unauthorized change to try to fix it. Instead, I should have gone to her first and said, “I think there is a balance problem here”. But if I had said that and she liked it, would she have felt stupid? It is a good policy to never lead a customer into feeling stupid.
She made a suggestion, I countered it by proposing an additional adjustment, and then I warned her that erasing may leave a shadow. She was okay with that, so I feel good about our combined decision.
Here is the before:
This is the after:
I am once again awaiting her approval in case there are more adjustments. More will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Or, if you read Anne Lamott, one bird at a time*. That’s the way I will accomplish this large complicated custom pencil drawing.
My large paper has more texture than I am used to. This will mean adding more layers than usual.As a right-hander, there is less smearing if I work top to bottom, left to right. (This isn’t smeared all over the center – it is the shadow cast by my magnifying light.)
The paper’s texture means that smearing is more of a problem than usual, so I cover it with tissue paper for protection whenever I leave the studio.
As with many of my projects, I start out wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew. Once I see a little progress, my confidence returns, and pretty soon I start really enjoying the project. This one is no different; each segment gives a sense of accomplishment, so instead of thinking that the end is far away, I get to experience many little endings.
*Anne Lamott wrote a book about writing called Bird By Bird.
Today we have the pleasure of a guest post, something I have never had in 12 years of blogging! Sharon Devol is a real life friend, and the most regular commenter on this blog. She always has something interesting to add, and when I half-jokingly suggested she write a guest post, she was graciously eager.
This is Sharon’s personal story of her family’s Mineral King cabin.
My family connection to Mineral King starts in 1930 when my grandparents, Van and Mary Dixon, visited Faculty Flat (JB here – Faculty Flat is about a mile below the end of the Mineral King Road, so called because it was first settled by educators from Southern California) on the invitation of faculty colleague, Dr. Bates of the Bates-Bell Cabin.For the next 20 years Van and Mary and their two daughters, Diane and Shirley, used the Bates-Bell Cabin until the cabin built in 1926 by Lou and Mary Lou Coole came up for sale. Despite its primitive condition, the daughters begged Daddy to buy it, and the Dixon family set to work to clean and improve the cabin.
I first visited our cabin when I was one year old, and time at Mineral King has been a part of my summer ever since.
Coole Cabin as built in 19262020, same cabin
Quite an improvement made by a physics professor married to a home economics teacher with elbow grease provided by various family members.And we descendants of Van and Mary Dixon so appreciate their love, care, and hard work to make our family a warm and inviting place to visit each summer.
P.S. by Jana – A few years ago, I got the chance to update the drawing I did of Sharon’s cabin in 1992, because I draw better now. Goodness, an artist would certainly hope so. (Nope, not going to show you the first version because I deleted it, so there.)
