If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it. But sometimes I try anyway, because I want to help the customer. Besides, “If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it”, my other set-in-stone rule is, “No face smaller than an egg”. I learned this from a very accomplished colored pencil portrait artist, Ann Kulberg. […]
Can’t Draw It If You Can’t See It
“If you can’t see it, you can’t draw it”, is one of the regular things I say to my drawing students. Along came an author, writing on local history, seeking someone to illustrate some pictures in his book. He wanted drawings because several of his photos are awful, and he wisely thought it better to have […]
Sawtooth Peak
Sawtooth is an easy to distinguish peak in Mineral King, visible from Visalia when the wildfire smoke or the pollution from the Bay Area are not obscuring the view. Lots of people like to climb it. I think it is good to look at, but I am scared of climbing it. I am only interested […]
Cabin Drawing Flag Adjustment
A flag seems like an appropriate topic for today. The customers were sort of happy with their Mineral King cabin drawing, but not overjoyed. “Sort of happy” is not good enough. After a bit of conversation, they said the flag was too bright and drew too much attention. My dad liked to quote a Latin […]
Drawing Water in Pencil
Last winter, I got on a roll drawing water in pencil. I decided to make the 2018 calendar all about water, so that meant I needed 13 drawings. The verdict is not in yet – all Tulare County? all rushing water? all new drawings? More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . . […]
Cabin Drawing in Pencil
My business and website is called Cabin Art or Cabinart. This is because when I began, I lived in a cabin and I drew cabins. I still live in a cabin (part time) and still draw them. Here is the latest commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin: After seeing the Hume Lake cabin drawing from 1995 […]
I Draw Better Now
In 1995, I drew a Hume Lake cabin from the customer’s photos. Last week I had the pleasure of staying in that cabin and seeing it for the first time. The customer’s daughter and I grew up together and have recently reconnected. She brought the drawing to Hume Lake, and I was dismayed to see […]
Drawing in Mineral King
Back in the olden days when I could see without cheater magnifier glasses or a giant magnifying light, I used to draw at the cabin. I even had a drafting table upstairs underneath a north-west facing window for light. It has been quite a few years since that was an adequate arrangement. I sold the […]
Drawing Lessons, Tracing
Is it cheating to trace? Nope. Tracing is a tool, and if you can’t draw, tracing won’t solve the problem. Yesterday, I said that we often trace the main shapes first, and then draw by looking at the tracing. If you look at the photo, there are many distracting details. If you get the skeleton […]
More Drawing Lessons Fun
In drawing lessons, each student works at her own pace on the drawing of her choice. (Men are allowed too, but this class happens to be completely feminine.)Below: Jane, on the left, sat outside a house and did a very nice sketch of it. She decided she’d like to do it in the highly accurate […]