This is Tony’s wooden goose with a coat of primer on it.
He didn’t give me any instructions other than to paint the goose. I found several helpful photos of Canada geese to work from, with visible head, neck, wing tops, wing bottoms, tail and the back.
(What did people do before The Google came along to answer all our questions? They didn’t say yes to as many odd jobs.)
First step: mixing paint. I used my mural paints because this will be outside and because it needed to dry quickly.
The odd job of painting a mailbox took about 4 hours. Maybe 5, but that extra hour was probably due to my own inexperience and lack of confidence. Oh, and another hour working on the colored pencil design.
Will the customer be happy? As a friend, will she tell me the truth if she isn’t happy? I think she will – honesty is one of the things I appreciate about her. She is kind and professional too.
I have some wonderful friends.
She likes it!!
Now, will I start getting mailbox painting requests??
More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
Because I am an artist who has lived in the same area for over 30 years, making art the entire time, when people need something art related, no matter how odd, I often get asked. People ask me to do things that I am supremely unqualified to do, lacking skill and experience.
Sometimes, no, often, I say yes. I try to warn them that I am out of my area of expertise and that the results might not be what they expected. (“Past performance is no guarantee of future results” or some such disclaimer?)
Variety is good. Stretching one’s abilities is good. The trouble is, I have only been asked to paint on a quilt square once, a patio umbrella one time, an antique window once. . . is this because I didn’t do a good job, or because there aren’t enough of those types of jobs?
This odd job is a mailbox for a property management company. My friend told me her idea and showed me a photo of her mailbox. I did 3 sketches for her, she picked one, I gave her a price range and some instructions on how to prepare the mailbox and then drew it again showing both sides and the top, using colored pencils. Then I warned her that trying to achieve tight detail with acrylic paint and small brushes might not produce my normal quality of work.
She said she liked the design and the price and wants the job done. We had to plan this for a weekend when she could remove the mailbox on Friday and replace it on Monday. No pressure or anything. . .
As an artist in business since 1987 in Tulare County (full time since 1993), I occasionally get asked to do odd jobs. It is challenging and usually fun. If an artist is established and available, it is one of the many parts of the business of art.
A giclee is a reproduction on canvas done with some sort of special printer, often coated with something so it looks like a painting.
Some friends have a giclee of a blue jay, and they had a painting accident while changing the color of their living room.
See those drips? Here, look a little more closely.
First I tried a bit of turpentine. Nope. The drips are dry.
Next, I’ll see if oil paint will stick to the surface. This will involve mixing a bunch of different shades of gray. (Too bad I can’t use pencil.)
Finally, I got to the actual painting stage of my odd job.
The Blue Moon Nursery got a 4’x8′ piece of very thick plywood, built a frame around it and painted it with multiple coats of white paint. This was a result of walking out to the road and measuring the existing signs. A medium sign looks like an unnoticeable postage stamp when you pass it in a car. A big sign might get noticed. A huge sign is too much for this Central California artist, so we just went with big.
I traced our final design onto a clear piece of plastic and using an overhead projector in three stages of measuring and adjusting. I used a Sharpie marker to transfer the image, along with a square, a yardstick, and a long tape measure. It took a very long time.
Then, I traced it from Side One onto 2 18″ x 8′ pieces of tracing paper, retraced it with a very black pencil on the back side, taped the 2 sheets to Side Two of the sign, and retraced it over the top with a pencil to transfer the design to the sign. Then I retraced the faint pencil transfer with the Sharpie. This took a very very long time.
Do you need a nap yet? Hang on, color is coming!
After a very fun color mixing session with the owner of Blue Moon, I began painting.
First, a small brush to reach into the pointy places.
Then, 2 coats of the dark blue. Next the green. Hmmm, we really like the color of the masking tape with the dark blue.
I can mix that color! (This is actually side 2, after we chose a different blue for the moon and the spirals). The new blue called for a new green.
Check out Side Two, with masking tape blue and light spring green!
This is Side One, with a darker green and a lighter blue.
Isn’t this cool? The owner of Blue Moon and I both are slightly offbeat, marching to the beat of a different drummer, enjoying variety. (After being friends for 4-5 years, we discovered that we were in the same class in the same high school!)
So, we decided to let the 2 sides remain in different (but very close) colors, and then we’ll listen to people’s comments. It is my guess that very few people will even notice the difference.
Thus, I conclude my story of yet another odd job for this Central California artist. It is a pleasure to beautify Three Rivers!
My odd job of painting a sign for the Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers progressed through the decision making progress.
This combination of type was our first choice. The style of Blue Moon is a little hippy-dippy, loosey-goosey, whimsical (sorry, can’t think of a rhyme for that word). “Nursery” looks solid, professional, steadfast, here to stay.
It needs some decoration, but this wasn’t the right one.
The owner and I decided on the best combination of type and decorations, and then got to the part we both love (both avowed color junkies).
We both love the dark purply-blue, the high contrast with the white lettering, and it is a given that the growy needs to be green and the moon needs to be blue. Color is sooooo fun.
Now what? How will I get this colored sketch onto a 4′ x 8′ board??
Stay tuned!
It is a bit odd for a pencil artist/drawing teacher/oil painter/muralist to be asked to paint a sign. The owner of Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers knew we would work well together, so she decided to overlook my lack of experience and hire me for the odd job. (Odd job to me, but sign painting is a solid profession. I’d like to have the tools, ability and knowledge to do it well.)
After messing around with typestyles and shapes and weights, it was time to add the extras. A nursery asks for things that look growy, and “Blue Moon” is sort of a gimme.
None of these made the cut (what exactly and literally does that mean??).
The owner of Blue Moon Nursery had some definite and good ideas, and together we came up with an excellent combination of type and frou-frous.
Stay tuned for the decision and the next steps.
Is sign painting an odd job for an artist?
It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign.
If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an artist might be a good decision. Blue Moon Nursery, AKA Sierra Garden Center, is one of my top 5 places to spend money in Three Rivers. (grocery store, post office, hardware store and Sierra Subs)
My sign painting odd job began with a conversation: “How comfortable are you with lettering?”
I’ve learned to just listen and ask questions, so we moved along until I decided that perhaps I could figure this thing out.
First, I messed around with type – the styles and the arrangements seemed endless.
It was a progression as I experimented with different styles, different weights and different curves. The final one here was my first choice.
Stay tuned to see what the next decision was!
After many years of being an artist in Tulare County, and specializing in Mineral King, people often think of me when they need an artist. I get asked to do unusual things, which I call “odd jobs”.
This one was a first for me – drawing in a manner that could be sandblasted onto granite for headstones. The lines had to be a certain thickness, and little white spaces couldn’t be too little. I learned that black equals blasted, and that Sharpies can really get up your nose.
The designs are for people who were very dear to me, our cabin neighbors in Mineral King.
He wanted Farewell Gap. She wanted Sawtooth. Their daughter and I figured out how to do both on one stone.
Farewell, Jock. Thank you for closing the gap between my 2 front teeth, for giving me to okay to date Trail Guy, for being a wonderful generous neighbor and friend, and for rearing a daughter who feels like the missing half of my brain.
Farewell, Ora Kay. Thank you for helping Jock fix my teeth, for being my first good friend in Mineral King, so welcoming and loving and enthusiastic, for rearing such a great daughter to become my friend when you were stricken by MS and couldn’t come to the cabin much anymore (and I forgive you for running over my foot with your wheelchair.)
When you need an artist in a rural place such as Tulare County, chances are you don’t know too many. When you need an artist for a specific job, chances are you will simply ask the only artist you know.
The question usually sounds like this: “Do you know anyone who can do this obscure, one-time, peculiar semi-art-related task?”
Often, I say, “ME! I CAN DO THAT! I WANT TO DO THAT! THAT SOUNDS CHALLENGING AND FUN”!
It gets me all excited so I might raise my voice a bit. Sometimes I might even jump up and down, although that is rare.
A friend has a friend who has a sister who has a daughter who is getting married and wants things rustic and woodsy. They found someone to cut and sand 1″ thick wooden discs, about 5-8″ in diameter. (Thank goodness they didn’t ask me about that part!)
Then came the question about who could put table numbers on the discs.
ME! I CAN DO THAT!
It’s all who you know, and I know Rosemary who owns a stable of wood-burning tools. She lent me a fancy one that just might be worth more than my car.
I sent The Bride To Be several type styles. She chose Papyrus, which happens to be my favorite in spite of great contempt from all young graphic designers (Cory, I know you are listening). I practiced numbers on a board, and gave her a price.
Have a look at the practice board. If you are a real wood burning artist, kindly avert your eyes.
Here are some discs next to the numbers:
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll tell you (and show you) the rest of the story of this Odd Job. (Funny – I have the strange urge to spell “job” with 2 b’s when writing it next to “odd”.)
Here are some links to previous odd jobs: