I love these jobs! They each pose a new set of challenges, preventing me from coasting, forcing me to dig deep into my resources on the premise that everything is figure-out-able.
First, we worked out a design with Photoshop Junior.
Next, paint.
Yesterday I showed you the not-so-good green on the background of the odd job, a Coat of Arms for my customer/friend. (Remember, “odd” means “unusual” – I am NOT insulting my friend or her job here!) 
Since beginning to oil paint, I have met up with two new yellows and one new blue. It is time to get a grasp on how they all interact to make greens.
My friend said, and I agree, “More Kelly than lime”. Photoshop Junior used Kelly green, but I wasn’t very careful with mixing in the first pass over the canvas.
Clearly we need the second green down in the middle row.
Better, but too wet to continue.
Tomorrow is the end of the month listicle.
This coat of arms will have to wait. Another odd job awaits! (How’s that for an exciting cliff-hanger?)
After my customer sent me a chart of colors to include, it was time to try it with Photoshop Junior to see how it would look. Looking at her list of colors within the Coat of Arms, I saw that green was missing, so that became the background. 
This is actually the 2nd or 3rd iteration from many conversations and adjustments as we worked out the design together.
The pointy-pokey waving arms didn’t please her, so she sent many other design to consider. I developed a more ribbon-like look on the left side.
The symbolic Farewell Gap needed simplification too.
We had a few more discussions about black outlines, smoothing out some of the bends in the purple ribbon.
Everything is now ironed out, so it time to move to canvas.
Tomorrow. . .
P.S. I am guest posting once a week on the Mineral King Preservation Society website, under the topic of “An Artist’s Inspiration”. The first post went live yesterday. www.mineralking.org
“Odd” means “unusual”, as in I’ve never done this before.
I’ll give you a break from Mineral King wildflower oil paintings and show you my new project. This is a commission, which is a fancy word for custom art work.
A customer/friend sent me this and asked if I could do an oil painting of her family’s coat of arms.
I said something like, “Sure, but first we’ll have to decide on some color.” She then sent me this.
So I looked up meanings to the parts of Coats of Arms. We learned even the colors have meanings.
Next she sent me this.
Time for some Photoshopping (I use Photoshop Elements, which is really just Photoshop Junior).
Come back tomorrow to see how this developed.
When I told you the story of painting a commissioned piece of Lost Canyon, I may have accidentally misled you into thinking that all the changes and decisions were a nuisance.
Not so!
The customer and I had a great working partnership. He was discerning and decisive and helpful, not a pain in the least. My goal was to paint exactly what he wanted, but also to help him explore the idea even further than his initial request. We both enjoyed the process and ended up happy with the result. (The color is way better in person!)
“Busy” is a loaded word. People like to say they are “crazy busy”, maybe because it gives them a sense of importance or indispensability. I bet people aren’t using that word too often right now.
I am busy during this weird time. Some of it is commissions, some of it is bidding on jobs, some of it is taking advantage of more time to catch up on things like keeping my website current and reading business books.
Maybe instead I could say, “I have lots of work right now”. For that I am grateful, and I am grateful to have the time to take care of customers and my business responsibilities.
Enough chatter, Central Calif. artist. Show us some things!
There is more, but there is also tomorrow to show and tell you.
Thanks for tuning in today!
While I was working on the backpacks in the commissioned oil painting of Lost Canyon, wondering if I’d be able to move the stream and trail, the answer came back as a definite “no”. They wanted the trail to remain across the bottom of the canvas.
When someone hires me to paint something specific, that someone is my boss.
I kept working my way down the scenery toward the backpacks, figuring out what to put in those large areas where I didn’t have any photos to guide me, figuring out how to make the stream flow in a believable manner, adding rocks, shrubs, trees, and textures.
The color isn’t accurate here because it was photographed in low light at the end of a painting day. But I wanted you to see how this is coming along, particularly the backpacks! This is my favorite way of painting – drawing with my paintbrush.
What remains to be painted: the hiking poles, the lower grasses, and of course wildflowers in the grasses.
Last week I showed you a commissioned oil painting with a changing plan, and I was waiting for customer approval to move the stream and the trail into a new position, to match the cobbled together photo below.
While I was waiting for the answer, I continued to detail the rocks on the mountain in the distance.
There is no way to copy each rock, green patch and tree especially when combining multiple photos. The idea is to make it believable.
Working upside down helps me see what is really there, not what I think or hope is there. It forces me to see the shapes correctly.
As I studied it and worked on it, I began seeing ways to make the scene have more distance. This was by pulling the green patches up into the rocks in smaller and smaller pieces.
Then, I moved to the backpacks, because regardless of the customers’ decision, they would remain in the same position.
More will be revealed. . .
A blog reader became a friend and then a customer. He asked me to paint this photo of Lost Canyon for his wife and himself.
I started the painting. Scary, eh? Good thing he knows that I can paint.
Then I thought, “Just wait a minute here – if this is Lost Canyon, I want to see the backside of Sawtooth!” So, I put together Plan B and showed my Friend/Customer.
He said yes, so I kept painting, this time adding in Sawtooth.
Then I thought the plan for the stream doesn’t look right, and the trail doesn’t look right either. Yes, it follows the original photo, but we’ve been to Lost Canyon, and we can do better.
So, I put together Plan C with the help of the internet and photoshop. These are fantastic tools for an artist who accepts commissions of subjects she knows for people who communicate well.
Now I await the decision of Friend/Customer and Wife. Will they agree with this change? It is probably unusual for an artist to tell the customer how to do things on a commissioned piece. Of course I will defer to his opinion – he has commissioned the piece and I will not be finished until he is happy with it.
This is how the painting of the odd oval job progressed, with mind changing throughout as it came into being.
There was a sign of this label along Freeway 5 in Norwalk, a landmark to watch for as kids on a car trip to Southern California. Our name was (and still is) Marshburn, and my parents said that this is “the other side of the family”.
In college, I had the pleasure of meeting some of those “other siders”, my third cousins. One of them got in touch with me a few years ago, so I had his contact information. He graciously put me in touch with his dad, who sent me the more usable version of the label. In the process, we got to visit via email, and I learned that contrary to the information I received while growing up, my family actually was “the other side”!
All of this happened because my first cousin’s wife commissioned this painting as a gift for their anniversary.
Congratulations, Bruce and Shellie, on your many years of marriage! (and thank you for the privilege of painting this for you.)
The painting was a hit, and Bruce gave permission to show this picture.