A customer/friend bought a painting off my website. She requested that I paint in an animal so the size of the trees is truly evident.
OH NO! It already sold, and I didn’t take it off my website!
I can’t find the original photo so have to work off the photo of the sold painting. It is always best to start with the original, but sometimes stuff just can’t be helped.
Dry enough, scanned, heading to the Post Office today!
This is my most recent pencil drawing commission. A group of friends are getting this for another friend. That’s all I’m allowed to say, not knowing the the scope of readership of this blog or degree of silence required for this gift.
This is the scanned, cleaned up version using Photoshop Junior, which is actually Photoshop Elements. It is converted to grayscale mode and anything that is paper color on the drawing gets “erased” so it looks almost as clean here as it does in person.
See? I have been working, despite the all the travelogue posts. (It takes more days to show and tell about a trip than the trip actually lasted).
A friend-collector (collector-friend? friend/collector? How do I call these wonderful folks??) brought me a hand mirror, requesting that I paint wildflowers on the back.
I began with a sketch in colored pencil to see if I was on the same track with her.
When she approved, it was time for oil painting in great detail, my favorite way to paint.
I’ve been looking forward to painting in the painting studio/workshop for a few weeks. Going to Sandy Eggo, working on the mural, time in Mineral King – all good things, but still things that prevented painting in the studio. Life is a series of choices and consequences.
This is a commissioned oil painting of Mineral King. The Friend/Customer wanted a painting to fit a particular space and match some of her other paintings. This magical scene was her decision, and I am happy to comply.
Here we go, step by step.
Maybe something I learned in the plein air painting sessions is improving my studio painting. (Or maybe this is just a magical scene.)
I grew up with German Shepherds, not little dogs. Little dogs make me want to stand on a chair and scream, and then if I touch them, go wash my hands about 4 times.
A friend of about 35 years asked me to draw her little dog. My love for her is stronger than my aversion to little dogs, and I love to draw, so I said yes.
Meet Oliver.
(Stacy, thank you for trusting me with Oliver, even though you are well aware of my semi-suppressed cat disorder.)
Oliver arrived today and he is SO darling! You did an amazing job of capturing his likeness!
Dear friend and customer Stacy
In 1992, I did this commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin. The one who owns it sent me a photo of the card she had left from an earlier order.
I tried to turn it into something that would print as a decent card. This was not acceptable.
The customer said she still had the original, and it wasn’t even in a frame, so I was able to scan it (after touching it up a little bit, because I draw better now (as one would hope, 27 years later).
Then, I messed with it on Photoshop Elements, and voila!
Printing has changed so radically from the old days. I’m thankful that the ordering and reprinting process is accessible from my laptop these days.
When my students finish a drawing, I take it home to scan and convert into a file that can be used for printing as cards or prints to share or sell; sometimes it is just so they can have a clean record of work completed. Sometimes it takes a few hours of computer work, but I love and appreciate my students so much that I just consider it part of taking lessons.
Here is a recently completed pencil drawing, before the computer work.
Lessons are suspended for the months of July and August; we will resume on the day after Labor Day. It is possible that I will have a few spaces available if you or someone you know is interested. (Tuesday afternoons, Exeter’S Courthouse Gallery, $55/month.)
P.S. When you comment on the blog, I have to approve the comment before it appears. This doesn’t mean that your comment didn’t “take”; it means I am not near a computer to release your comment. Thank you to those who go to the trouble to comment; I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!
It took me just as long to do the house itself as the entire background. Maybe longer. The drawing is 11×14″, which means the porch details are miniscule.