Color has been added to the Chris Craft flag and to the reflection. Another happy customer, and of course the artist is also happy.
P.S. The pinstripes were intense, and the flags were pure joy. I am particularly taken by the way the American flag curls. Simple things, for a simple person. (Me, not the customer)
I don’t want to talk about wildfires, evacuation orders, plagues, epidemics, or politics. I just want to draw and make my customers happy.
This is before:
And this is after:
Now I am waiting for my customer to tell me if this is what she requested. I can keep going, if I have good instruction. It is a pleasure to work for people who know what they want and express it clearly.
P.S. Happy artist too.
Completed Pencil Commission in steps, that is.
The rosy color is probably a result of the light through the window that is tinted by heavy wildfire smoke.
Much of the time while drawing this, it was very very smoky out the window, and as I drew the pine trees, I kept thinking, “Torches, they are torches!”
Last I heard, they are still standing and green.
P.S. The customer stopped by my studio and we decided that the driveway is too undefined and that we’d like some color in the drawing somewhere. My commissioned jobs are not finished until the customer is completely happy.
These parts are unfinished, pending decisions:
I know, I keep going on and on about this giant circle of lemons. But if you could only see it in person. . .!
I vacuumed the studio, rearranged things to lessen the working clutter and make it look more like a gallery and showroom (as much as an 11×14′ former shed can). Then I set up the easel and covered the painting.
We laughed together about the unveiling, and the first thing after, “I love it!” was “It DOES look better in person!”
They brought their specially made frame, and it was PERFECT.
P.S. We look better in person too. Thank you for your concern.
When it was time to mail the cabin drawing to the customer, I packaged it. Trail Guy came out to the studio to offer his delivery services, and I was delighted to not have to interrupt my work with a trip to the Post Office. Yes, I know it is only 3-4 miles away, but in the summers, my work days are limited because I keep going to Mineral King instead of keeping my feet planted in front of the easels. So, I value my work time and appreciate not having to do my own errands.
Trail Guy returned from the Post Office with the receipt and an explanation of why it cost $18 to send a piece of paper to San Diego – had to buy a box, pay for insurance, etc. And “piece of paper” isn’t meant to discount the value of an original pencil drawing, but essentially, to the post office, it was a highly insured piece of paper packaged carefully in an overpriced box.
He turned toward the counter in the painting workshop, picked up a taped-together bundle of cardboard and said, “What is this?”
Ahem. That would be the drawing that I thought he had just mailed.
When I got back up off the floor from laughing, I emailed my customer to tell her to expect a box of cardboard, minus her drawing before actually receiving the drawing.
Later that afternoon, I went to the Post Office with the actual drawing. The clerk retrieved the box from the back, we opened it, inserted the drawing, and she taped it back up. No new packaging, no new payments. It was in time to go out with that day’s mail.
I LOVE THE POST OFFICE IN THREE RIVERS!!
“Cabin Art” or “Cabinart”* began with pencil drawings of cabins. It it a treat to be able to draw cabins when those jobs come in.
Someone saw a copy of my book The Cabins of Wilsonia and asked if I could draw her parents’ cabin, working from emailed photographs.
You betcha!
I showed it to you a bit earlier while in progress. I gave it my best effort to work from the customer’s photos and a sketch, and then sent her a scan of the almost finished drawing to her. She asked if I could add something that didn’t really show in the photos, a procedure that is almost always dicey. Since she communicated clearly throughout the project, I was willing to try.
Got it!
We talked about possibly having cards made in the future, so she paid the fee to do the digitization. Now you get to see what it looks like before and after getting digitally prepared. Something about scanning a drawing picks up every little anything that appears in and on the paper. Can you see the difference?
*It puzzles me that as a Typo-psycho, I never figured out how the name of my business should be spelled.
Not me. I’m never moving again, being deeply traumatized by leaving Lemon Cove and moving 14 miles east to Three Rivers almost 22 years ago.
A friend of a friend is leaving California. My friend would like to give her friend a little something as a token of our native state. Her idea was perfect – a 2×2″ painting of a poppy, the state flower.
Back when I thought I was ordering a dozen 2×2″ canvases to give them a try, I ordered a dozen packages of 10 each. It has taken awhile, but they are now all used up.
I was relieved to find a poinsettia which could be converted to a poppy.
It needs to dry, then it can sit on a cute little easel for the friend of a friend who is leaving California.
I think she deserves a medal of bravery for making such a huge change.
Until a customer is happy, I don’t consider commissioned art work to be finished. However, I took a chance on this painting and signed it before the customer replied.
A lifelong friend helped me work out the finishing touches of this painting. We sat together with the latest photo of the painting, using her suggestions and my Photoshop (Junior version) skills to try some things. We were both very pleased. Look at this “map” we created; every place we made a change, I put in an arrow so I could follow it later. (Be ye not dismayed – this is a photo with blue arrows, not blue arrows on the actual painting.)
I set up my laptop by the easel and began. It is very incremental, and you may not be able to discern the changes. Just be polite, ‘K?
Basically, I added shadows to some lemons, added darker ones hidden in the leaves, and then took some of the hard clean edges off the furrows (that is the dirt/moss area between the rows, not the eleven between my eyebrows – thank you for your concern).
A young woman named Sarah works at the Silver City Store. She told me that she loves my painting on display there titled “Big & Tall”.
(In case you are wondering why anyone could “love” this painting, remember that it looks way better in person!)
I told her that I could paint one for her in a size that would fit her budget (and suitcase – I believe she lives a fairly peripatetic lifestyle – and “peripatetic” is a great word that you might want to look up and adopt).
She was excited, and chose 6×18″. We discussed the cropping that would be necessary since this is narrower proportionately compared to the 18×36″. Sarah said she trusted my judgement, so I began.
First I found the reference photo. Then I folded paper around it and experimented with the cropping until it looked right.
Then, I mixed the colors and began.
I am getting used to the mess of a beginning painting; it doesn’t make me feel visually assaulted any more. Does this mean I am finally accepting myself as an oil painter instead of just a pencil artist who paints?
Maybe so!