The light on this cabin is just beautiful. Light is EVERYTHING in art.
I never did meet the people who own this cabin. They might not even know there is a book called The Cabins of Wilsonia (available here. for $80) They might not even know that there is a great drawing of their cabin in the book. They might not even know that the original drawing of their cabin is for sale.
Isn’t it great to live in The Information Age??
The Cabins of Wilsonia is available for sale here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
Here is today’s drawing for you.
I donated the original drawing to the silent auction held each year by the Wilsonia cabin owners. Some lucky person outbid her competitors and won the drawing.
THEN, the owners of the cabin became aware of the drawing. Bummer.
I offered to redraw it for them. We were discussing views, and the Rough Fire came along and Wilsonia got closed. Bummer.
The cabin survived, Wilsonia survived and maybe I’ll get to redraw the cabin for the owners next summer.
I do commissioned pencil drawings of cabins all the time. It is how my business began. It is why I call it “cabinart“.
It took me 4 years to learn Wilsonia, plan the book, take the photos, design the book, gather the quotes and complete 272 drawings.
The book is available here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
Here is another drawing for you from the book. Thanks for looking!
My other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia, is broken. I’ve neglected it and now I don’t want to get trapped on the phone with weird music in the background while a recorded voice tells me the same lie over and over.
“Due to an unusually high volume of calls, we are experiencing long wait times. We appreciate your business and want to provide great customer service.”
Yea. Sure. If the volume is unusually high, why do callers get this recording EVERY SINGLE TIME we call you?
So, I will be posting things from The Cabins of Wilsonia here on my “real” blog, starting today.
The book is finished and available for sale here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
It is a beautiful book and it costs $80.
I will just be showing you cabin drawings from the book now. Let’s begin with the cover.
It was my wish to put any American flag in the book in color, but it would have made the cost of the book go up to about $200. Seemed a little steep, don’t you think?
There are still a few of the 2016 calendars, “The Cabins of Tulare County” for sale. This calendar is a collection of pencil drawings of cabins in Tulare County. (Captain Obvious speaks again.) It is heavy on Wilsonia, followed by Mineral King, and there is one token Camp Nelson. These drawings are gathered from the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, and various commissioned drawings I’ve done in the past year or two.
Have a look at the unidentified months. I didn’t attempt to find seasonal pictures, other than a snowy cabin in December. Cabins, for the most part, are summer homes.
The calendars are $15 each, including sales tax. If you send me a check in the mail or money using Paypal, AND YOU GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS (excuse me for shouting – someone ordered via Paypal and didn’t give me her address or answer my email – how is she going to get her calendar??), then I will get your calendar to you and pay the mailing costs. (in the USA only)
That would be “commissioned pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin completed”, but that title was stupid-long.
This drawing is 12×16″, and chock full of details. (What does “chock full” mean??)
It has been a couple of weeks since you saw the progression, so let’s review.
First, the sketches so the customer could choose the angle. Then, some revisions, which don’t appear in these sketches.
Next, I began the drawing, working from top to bottom and left to right. That is because I am right-handed, and don’t want to drag my hand across the piece as I’m working it. If I have to revisit an area on the left, I rest my hand on a piece of paper to protect the other parts from smearing.
The customers wanted their water wheel added, which didn’t show in the sketch. It was tiny, but it is there!
I spent a week on this, refining, darkening, figuring out what was in the shadows, sharpening up edges so the cabin would pop out from the background, experimenting with ways to make the forest look better than just scribbles. You’d think I’d have that figured out after drawing the entire book The Cabins of Wilsonia, but it never comes easy.
And at the end of a week of very concentrated drawing, here is the final result.
The customers were very happy, and that is always my goal, so I am very happy too.
Happy, happy, happy.
Thank you, Veterans. You probably didn’t want to go, probably didn’t like being there, maybe questioned why, but you did it so we didn’t have to. Thank you! (including, especially, Cousin Bruce)
I would have said “Wilsonia Cabin Commission”, but I liked 3 Cs in a row in the title.
When you compare this to yesterday’s work, you can see that it is inching forward to the right. You can also see that some of the shadows have been darkened. If you are really focused, you might detect that some of the edges are sharper and see that there is more detail on individual rocks and more pencil on the ground.
The right edge of this image is dark and fuzzy because this drawing is 12×16 and doesn’t fit very well on the scanner. Inquiring minds need to know these things.
Has anyone ever said to you, “You are your own worst critic”?
It might be meant as an insult, although it could be interpreted as a compliment, meaning “no one else is as hard on you because there is no reason to be hard on you”.
I think being one’s own worst critic is a helpful skill in art, especially when one works alone. Who else is there to do any criticizing with the intent of helping or critiquing with the intent of improving?
A long time ago, last century, I drew this picture:
It is called “My Front Porch”. It sold recently, and before I packaged it up to ship, I put on some magnifying glasses (aka “cheaters” or “readers”) to look it over.
UNACCEPTABLE!
I spent about 1-1/2 hours improving it, because I draw better now. Yes, it looks like a different color because the method of scanning has changed. But, if you click on each picture and make them bigger on your screen, I think you will see the difference. If you can’t see the difference, that’s okay. I’m my own worst critic, not you! 😎
Growth is good (unless trying to lose weight or are a cancer cell.)
P.S. I just clicked on each picture separately, enlarged them on the screen, and realized that the new one looks all pixelated and icky. Okay, you’ll just have to trust me that the second one is better. The customer may not know of the improvements, but I certainly feel better.
The Mineral King Preservation Society maintains a mini-museum inside the Honeymoon Cabin. Trail Guy and The Captain (frequently referred to in this blog) are both board members of the MKPS. Cowboy Bert and I help, because we are married to these board members.
Honeymoon Cabin, pencil drawing, $300, 11×14 framed, for sale here
What are these guys doing?
We nominated The Captain to be the official Straightener of Pictures.
This is the way a cowboy sharpens pencils.
First, I want to share something with you.
I am a spelling nut. Typos jump out and slap me between the eyes. (My own don’t – it is a fact that proofreading one’s own work is nearly impossible.) It sometimes feels as if I might have a form of Tourette’s Syndrome, except that I shout “TYPO!” in inappropriate settings instead of swearing.
Come to think of it, “typo” IS four letter word.
I’ve never forgotten the spelling rule “I before E except after C”.
Weird.
Think about that for a bit. I saw it as a pin on Pinterest. Might have been on a tee shirt:
I before E except after C.
Weird.
Now that I’ve shared that little oddment, I can’t remember what I was going to say.
I’m on schedule for the pencil drawings of The Cabins of Wilsonia. Here is a cabin drawing.
You can read more about the project at my other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia.