Beach Birds or Shore Birds?

I got to know someone from New Jersey when I attended college in San Diego. Most of us said “beach”, but our New Jersey suite mate said “shore”. Actually I think she said “sho-ah”.

The owners of my pier drawing asked me to draw some “shore birds”, but I think they are both native Californians. That’s okay, I knew what they meant.

I got ahead of myself, and stopped drawing to ask this question: “Do you want me to make them exactly the same as in the one you saw on my blog, or may I have freedom to move the birds around and add some more?”

The answer came back thus: “I didn’t save the picture from the blog, so I can’t answer you precisely- however I think the artist’s choice would be most satisfactory. Just not too busy – the wave action in the pier drawing is kind of serene, so the shore birds might reflect the same.”

So, I changed my drawing a bit by erasing a few birds from this first version:

Then I darkened a few things, added some rocks, and finished the wet sand.

This will look excellent with the pier. Let me demonstrate here for you to admire.

I sure have a hankering to go to the beach. Or the shore. Even the sho-ah would be amazing.

Eager to Draw

Last year some fine folks of impeccable taste bought this pencil drawing. A few months later, they saw this drawing on my blog and decided it would be a nice companion to the pier.

It would, but whoever owns it would likely disagree. Fortunately for these fine folks of impeccable taste, I accept commissions; fortunately for me, they would like a new drawing, this time in the same shape and size as the pier.

They sent the dimensions, said “no rush”, and I started immediately. I love the beach and by drawing this, it feels somewhat as if I am spending time there. Besides, another two commissions are stuck in Waiting Customer Approval or Waiting for a Deposit mode.

I laid out the size, and determined where the horizon belongs. I think that the 2 photos on the left were what I worked from last time. Those were taken with a film camera, so it’s been awhile…

I now have many more and better quality beach bird photos, so i started experimenting with placement and sizes. This time I carried it outside into the hot bright sun to photograph.

Unsure of bird placement other than that one Jonathan Livingston, I jumped to the sky and water. S’posed to be working top to bottom, left to right so I don’t smear, so shading the birds would have been premature.

It was too hot outside, so now the photos will be a little crummier for you.

Quite an assortment of birds.

That drawing is a lousy print of a lousy photograph of the earlier drawing. You can see I’ve got quite a stack of photos to refer to

Suddenly I got nervous. I forgot to ask my customers a very important question before beginning: Do you want the same birds as in the previous drawing, or can I do a new assortment?

Hmmm, I might end up with a beach bird drawing to store in my flat files and then need to start over.

Every single custom job I do has all sorts of ways I can mess up. You’d think that after this many years, I’d know of all the possible ways to avoid this sort of hazardous situation. You might need to have another think.

I really like the assortment, the big crashing waves, the flock in the sky. If it doesn’t suit my customers, maybe I’ll frame it and keep it anyway. I miss the pier drawing, because it hung by my drawing table for several years before I finally took it to the gallery where it sold.

Hey Jeff, Am I Finished With Your Garden Painting?

I don’t think Jeff reads my blog. Marketing and sales people would tell me that I don’t push it hard enough, that I should be linking posts to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. That would be difficult, since I don’t participate in any of those. This may be why I only have tens of readers; the good news is that I know most of you IN REAL LIFE! Thank you for being here.

But I digress.

Jeff’s Garden, a commissioned oil painting, might be finished. After spending the bulk of another workday on the painting, trying to beat a predicted heat wave (the swamp cooler in the painting workshop can only do so much), I sent the last photo to Jeff to ask if it is finished.

If he says yes, then I’ll sign it, paint the edges, let it dry (a quick process in the heat), varnish it, and then begin figuring out the logistics of getting it to him. His zip code appears to be a Northern California town, so it may get shipped. However, I have another trick up my sleeve that might work for delivering it; more will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Here we go with the (hopefully) final in-progress photos. You can see that I began on the poppies, working my way from left to right. Then I added sweet peas to the upper right, and finally, detailed the bench on the left with a hint of a plaque and a branding iron sitting atop.

HE SAID YES, IT IS FINISHED!

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. The design had me baffled for awhile, and I thought this would be really difficult. So, I stepped out of my mental blocks and chaos and coached myself the way I would do for a drawing student. It worked, and this was really quite enjoyable.

THANK YOU, JEFF THE GARDENER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GNAT!

Drawing Jeff’s Garden With a Paintbrush

I thought this would be very difficult and take “forever”. Instead, I am thoroughly enjoying the process because now that the sizes and locations and base coat are down, I can simply begin drawing with my paintbrush.

Step by Step by Step. . .or Way Leads on to Way

Let’s just have a series of photos without excessive jibber-jabber.

Yes, I painted the hummingbird with both the canvas and the photo upsidedown.

Remaining Details

The bench (with a branding iron atop and the hint of a plaque), poppies, the foliage on the upper right, and a few of the transitional areas between the different images need to be finished. Oh, and the edges. This will all be easier when all of this day’s work has dried. Then it will need to just rest while I decide if I can make it better.

Final Steps

Jeff will need to see his garden in oil paint before I declare it finished. It will be signed, photographed, varnished, and then delivered.

Planting an Oil Garden

What’s an “oil garden”?

Glad you asked!

Remember this colored pencil sketch for a commissioned oil painting of someone’s garden? (Let’s call him Jeff, because that is his name.)

Jeff approved of the design for his painting and chose 12×24” for the canvas size. Having realized the benefits of starting with a sketch on an earlier commissioned oil painting,I began a larger sketch in pencil on the canvas.

Then, with paint thinned not quite to dripping, I started filling in all the white, figuring out shapes and sizes of the various items.

That’ll do. I tried to begin some detailing, but it was too wet.

Thinking back to the last oil commission of the blueberry/avocado farm, I remember being very unsure of my abilities and nervous about a successful outcome. As is always the case, it was needless to fret. The success (happy customer) has given me confidence on this one and I am proceeding with an eagerness to get to the details.

Trail Guy has said to me for years, “Success leads to success”. Mike Rowe quotes Robert Frost thus: “Way leads on to way.”

I say “Let’s git ‘er dun!”

Oil Painting Commission to Stretch This Artist

CUSTOM ART | COLLAGES

Custom art is an important piece of my art business. There are countless scenes and objects that I’d really enjoy painting or drawing, but in 33 years of earning a living with art, I have come to understand that people want what they want, not necessarily what I want.

Therefore, I make custom art, which is another way of saying that I accept commissions.

An acquaintance (friend of a friend) got in touch via my website to request an oil painting collage of many views of his garden.

I’ve done many pencil collages before, but never one in oil paint. This is going to stretch my design and painting abilities, for certain and for sure.

Here is a look at a pencil collage so you know what is meant by “collage”. It’s not actual cutting and gluing pieces together; instead it is combining multiple pictures into one larger piece.

CUSTOMER PHOTOS

The potential customer sent me these photos (actually more than this) of his garden. Although nothing stands out to me as a focal point, and I have no plan-view to understand how all the pieces work together, I do understand a person’s love of one’s own garden.

For once in my scattered approach to business, I had the presence of mind to ask for a deposit in order to begin the design phase. In custom art, it’s crucially important to communicate clearly with the customer. It takes several hours of emailing, thinking, studying the photos, and yes, even lying awake at night trying to figure it out. (Hmmm, do you get paid to lie awake at night?)

SKETCH | DESIGN

After the deposit check arrived, I procrastinated for half a day, trying to figure out how to begin. No need to show you all the mental wrangling. Instead, have a look at the sketch, which I started in pencil and then colored in with colored pencils. It looks like a scribbly mess, because it kind of is. However, it doesn’t make sense to perfect something when we are tiptoeing into new territory, unsure of the destination.

The actual sketch is 2-1/2 x 5”, a proportion of 1:2. This will translate into a 10 x 20” or 12 x 24” canvas. (Other sizes too, but I have canvases this size here on hand, ready to go.)

It may look like a mess to you, but I can assure you that the potential customer knows what each item is. He gave me a list of the things that matter to him. I hope this captures the feel and that I can execute this in oil paint.

P.S. The customer emailed yesterday to say he is pleased and to paint it 12×24”!

Bridge Building (With Paint)

Incremental Improvements

Painting #38 of Tulare County’s best bridge (according by your Central California artist) is inching forward into excellence. Can you see the incremental improvements?

We can probably consider it all finished now, EXCEPT FOR THE BRIDGE ITSELF!

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. It just surprises me that after I put an enormous amount of concentration and effort into the painting that the most important part remains to be detailed.

Maybe it would be fun if I did a series of posts with all the different versions I’ve painted of this bridge.

But first, this one needs to be finished.

Here is a photo taken with my real camera instead of the inferior phone camera; the colors aren’t as strong, but neither is it as pixelated, which doesn’t matter here on the interwebs.

We call this the Oak Grove Bridge; people who don’t know it very well might call it the Kaweah River Bridge or the Mineral King Road Bridge or the East Fork Bridge. Those names sort of work.

Not that bridge

There are folks who, when they see my paintings or drawings of the bridge, say, “I’ve eaten at that restaurant”. They are wrong—the only eatery at the Oak Grove bridge might be the tailgate of one’s pick-em-up truck. The Pumpkin Hollow (“Gateway”) bridge is at the confluence of the East and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River. It isn’t over a deep canyon, just one lane wide, and with a single arch.

See the difference?

Maybe it is time to draw the bridge again in pencil. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve done that; there are only 2 versions in my computer, because so many drawings didn’t get scanned or reproduced or even photographed in my early days.

Moving Forward on the Two New Paintings

Eagle Lake

Such an ugly start.

Let’s git ‘er dun!

Eagle Lake (a painting formerly known as a dog’s breakfast), 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, currently drying, destined for the Silver City Store, unless it sells first from this little spot on the interwebs.

Oak Grove Bridge

The Oak Grove Bridge is a bit more challenging. I started with the attitude of “close enough” and as usual when drawing or painting architectural subjects, I ended up measuring and redoing several things.

The width of each arch needed to be the same, and the top of the bridge was too thick.

So I measured, redrew the arches (yes, with my paintbrush—anyone here have a problem with that?), lowered the top of the bridge, and then planted some manzanita on the lower left. I also started locating various rocks.

You’d think that after painting this forty-eleven* times, I’d have all the rocks and the arch proportions memorized. You’d be wrong in that thinking. I could make it up, but I’d also be wrong.

Such a grand little bridge for our slightly down-at-the-heels Tulare County. There are plans to turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge with a stout replacement safe for driving upstream of this classic one. The county had to do the eminent domain thing to acquire the land, and I have a feeling this will be a long, disruptive, and messy construction project.

Change can be so difficult.

Thus, for now we must enjoy the bridge as it was and as it is, and not think about as it shall be.

*This is actually #38, if I kept count correctly, which is doubtful.

Starting Two New Oil Paintings

Favorite Bridge

The commissioned painting of fields and groves needed more drying time, so I began a new painting of my favorite bridge—Oak Grove, on the Mineral King Road.

It is always difficult. I make it even harder by choosing canvases of non-traditional proportions. This is 8×16”.

It sometimes helps to crop off the unnecessary parts, making the photo the same proportions as the canvas.

But sometimes I do that too late, and decide to just go with the close-enough approach. Can you see that the bridge takes up more real estate on the canvas than on the photo?

Good enough to start.

Is that a Dog’s Breakfast or a Painting?

Next, a 7×14” canvas for another new painting. It might be too ugly for you to tell what it is going to be.

Jackson doesn’t really care what I paint as long as he gets fed.

These paintings are destined for the Silver City Store this summer. Each year I think I have enough inventory, then around early August, I have to slam some out very quickly. I try to guess what subjects, sizes and quantities will sell, but there are no proven formulas.

P.S. Blog reader/author/artist/friend Louise thought I could do a better job finishing the commissioned oil painting. She always tells me the truth, something I value highly, and she was right. Here it is after I followed her suggestion. It is not in my nature to be a perfectionist; instead, I am always wanting to finish things. So, sometimes it takes an honest and wise second set of eyes to make sure a piece of my art is finished well. THANK YOU, LOUISE!

Close to Finishing the Oil Painting Commission

The distant groves and fields are probably finished.

Time to begin the embellishments. I found blueberry photos on the interwebs, AND I have my own from excursions in Oregon.

In my extensive collection of photos, I found one of avocado leaves, pre-digital. I used my inferior phone camera to take a picture so I could flip it on my laptop.

Not really adequate. . . I know where there is an enormous avocado tree, so I’ll go get some better photos to finish the leaves.

Then I’ll retouch some of the other details, paint the edges, sign it, wait for it to dry again, varnish it, and then package it up to ship to the realtor customers.

Reminder

I help people write books and get them printed. The books that I have shepherded from idea to publication but that I don’t sell can be found on this new page: OTHER PEOPLE’S BOOKS. This includes Tales of TB, Springville’s Hospital, The Crooked Cross of Diamond Lake, Only the Living, and Adventures in Boy Scouting.

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