Proud

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.

“Watering Girl” (my title for reference, not an official title) is a 5×7″ image on 8×10″ cream colored paper. The artist took the photo several years ago, and although we were both intimidated by the hair and the water, we figured it out together!
And here it is, ready to print.

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.)

Art Inspired by Mineral King

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 10-2, SILVER CITY RESORT

Featuring the art of Jana Botkin and the photography of Brett Harvey

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!

Pencil Progress

If I draw from top to bottom, left to right, it cuts back on the opportunities for smearing. The background hills are very forgiving, a good place to begin this commissioned pencil drawing of a very fine house in a serene setting.

In addition to this poor quality photo from my poor quality printer, I look at a high quality photo on my high quality laptop for more details.
Sometimes I break my own rules about direction of drawing.
Here I have added more layers and begun shading the roof shape. My new favorite pencils are Tombow, a Japanese word that means dragonfly. They are dark and smooth; usually dark means grainy, but not in this brand.
Enough for today – life (and death) is still keeping my work time to a minimum.

Back to the Drawing Board

I love to draw, and it is good to just sit quietly with pencils and paper, doing something simple that has no sadness attached.

In December, I took photos of a house. It took 2 sessions, much conversation, lots of thinking, and finally narrowing it down to 3 views.

Something about my blog has changed, forcing all photos into a square format; I don’t know why it changed and can’t figure out how to fix it. So, these photos are cropped here in spite of being rectangles on my camera and computer—more evidence of “upgrade” as a euphemism for “complication”.

Option A
Option B
Option C

The customers chose Option B. Tomorrow I’ll show you the beginnings of the drawing.

Finished

A little unfinished business here on The Blog: finished pieces you haven’t yet seen in their official photographic documented form.

This little 8×8″ oil painting is titled “My Geraniums”, because it is my geraniums, although they are actually pelargoniums, (but I’m guessing no one cares). Anyway, this is hanging in my kitchen. Ever listen to Bruce Williams on the radio? He used to say, “Everything is for sale if the price is right”, and I guess if you really really like this, you may offer a high price which I may consider. Otherwise, it remains mine.

This is a commissioned pencil drawing of a Silver City cabin, a Christmas surprise which I could only tell you about but not show you. Christmas 2018 is now history, and this drawing was given and received. Hence, you get to see it now. (“Hence”? Who uses that word? The Central California blogging artist, that’s who, but only while blogging.)

Sometimes I draw simply because I can, want to, and love to draw. Besides, it is always good to keep up the practice and to keep up my inventory. This is 9×12″, unframed. It could be for sale. . . And yes, it is the Honeymoon Cabin, a little one room museum in Mineral King.

Normally it takes about 10 minutes for me to decorate for Christmas. This year it took several days, because oil paint dries very slowly. This little 8×8″painting was begun to demonstrate some techniques for the secret oil painting workshop; I brought it home and finished it because I realized my decorating efforts could use a boost. I could have photographed it in the entryway of my house, but that feels like a fakey Instagram sort of thing to do. Fakey isn’t my style, as you may have discerned (although occasionally my vocabulary gets a little stuffy).

This finally feels finished. It was dry enough to photograph on a sunny day. Still mulling over a good title – Citrus Queue, perhaps? It is 18×6″, $175.

Starting and Ending

I started a new citrus painting, much like a recent one (that is still too wet to photograph well.)

Really, it is different from the other one. . . see?

Almost finished. needs a couple more layers on some of the do-over parts.

Citrus sells steadily in Exeter at the Mural Gallery, so it is good to always have another one ready to go.

Finished and delivered this one: SHHHH, IT IS A SURPRISE! And yes, I know the scene is cobbled together from places that aren’t together in real life.

 

A Fun Day at the Easels

As a pencil artist, with drawing as my first artistic love, a fun day at the easels for me is when I finally get to the stage where I am able to “draw” with my paintbrushes. This is considered a bad thing in the Art World; all I can think of to respond to that is that the Art World is missing out. So there.

But I am not missing out. If I persist, persevere and nevah nevah nevah* give up, I finally get to draw with my paintbrushes so that my paintings look like MY paintings and not something I picked up from an internet video.

This one still needs work, but now I can work on it without gritting my teeth and clenching my jaw.

SHHH, REMEMBER THIS ONE IS A SURPRISE.

What does this need (besides better photos with more visual information)?

Gotta** see those angles correctly, not drag my hand through the wet paint, and be able to see the tip of my brush in order to draw well.

Closing in on it. . . one more session ought to do the trick.

Tucker is a bit indifferent to paintings but would like to know if there will be treats soon.

Finally, I am pulling out all the stops with this one, painting it because I want to, not because it is a commission or because there might be a market for it. If is sells, fine, but if not, it will be exactly at home in my kitchen. There is no deadline, but I have to be careful to not lose momentum, lose heart and then lose interest. These are some of the risks to working alone at home, away from the Art World, but risks I’m willing to take.

Just living on the edge. . .

*This is something that Winston Churchill is reported to have said. He meant “never”, but being a Brit, he pronounced it “nevah”, just like Anthony Hopkins.

**”Gotta” is a word like “prolly” and “liberry” – fun to say, funny to write, and perhaps a teensy bit worrisome to the reader about the validity and authority of the writer.

I’ve shown you all twelve paintings at Anne Lang’s Emporium; if you want one and don’t want to drive to Three Rivers, let me know and we can work out the details (such as Paypal or a check in the mail, the Postal Service to you. . .)

Cabin Scene Continued

We last saw the cabin scene oil painting when I was confused about the conflicting light sources:

With each successive layer, cohesion and coherence gets restored. (Aren’t big words great?)

I’m still missing the details needed to confidently paint this side of the cabin. My photo is outdated, and I have word out to some people who might have the necessary visual information.

It is rather astonishing and somewhat disappointing to me that I don’t have the details of every cabin memorized. One would think as an artist. . . but one would be wrong.

I just bumble along like the rest of the world. So, enjoy a closer look at the left side of the painting. It might be finished, sort of, maybe, but then again, I might want to continue adding details.

That’s what pencil artists do with enough time when handed oil paints and tiny brushes.

Making a Cabin Scene

Happy Birthday, Shirley!!

Making a cabin scene is different from just making a scene.

A cabin owner requested a painting of her cabin as a gift for her husband. (He only looks at the blog when it is about Mineral King AND she forwards the link to him, so I’m not ruining any surprises here.) She wants it to include a view that normally doesn’t show with the cabin, and requested a square format.

Because this is a little difficult, all this mind-reading, designing, and putting together things that aren’t normally together, I didn’t make a scene but began with sketches.

If you recognize this cabin, SHHHHH, IT IS A SURPRISE!!

She asked for square, so I showed her two squares plus a 6×18″  and this cabin painting; she agreed with me about this size and shape working well for her idea.

I thought I was out of this size of canvas, so I ordered some more. After they arrived and I was putting them away, I saw that I already had some that size. Someone around here could use an assistant, or perhaps a better administrator. Oh well. . . they won’t go to waste.

Will this fit?

Yeppers, it fits, so get some paint on this canvas!

They all start ugly. No need to be afraid for me or the painting or the customer or the husband. No one will need to make a scene. (But wait! Is this creative??)

Starting with what I know, I put paint on Farewell Gap in the distance.

The trees are next. They are just a mass of greens with some variation in the values (ArtSpeak for lights and darks).

A risk of this sort of photo-combining is that the 2 photos might have the light coming from 2 different sources. Would the customer or the viewer notice? I might be able to cheat, but it might bug me forever. So I began reworking the color on the mountains, because it is easier than figuring out how the cabin shadows could be reversed. I pushed more paint around until my fingers got cold and my efforts felt ineffective. This is far enough for now.

Realizing the problem of conflicting light sources almost caused me to make a scene, but that would have only served to upset Tucker and Scout.

Grapes, Again

Is watching grapes get painted about the same as watching paint dry on a fence?

Don’t answer that!

Outlining the grapes first seemed like the right approach.

I wanted to start filling them in before the outlines were finished, but restrained myself.

Sometimes it is easier to support my hand in a different position. Besides, to draw a circle, it is best to be on the inside of the circle.

I filled them in from top to bottom, and for the most part, I just ignored the photo. And grapes come in all sorts of shades of purple, violet, red-violet, greenish purple (gurple), so no matter what I do within those boundaries, it will be believable.

And kept rotating the canvas as I went.

When this is dryer, I will add brighter sunshine on the edges of some of the grapes. That contrast is what made me go for my camera when I saw these grapes.

And now it is dryer, and I am finished! Looks better right side up, yes?

Remember to contact me if you bought a 2019 calendar in person – if you bought it through the website, I have your info already.