Building a Coloring Book Cover

The reasons for choosing this drawing for the cover of my new coloring book of rural Tulare County were because it is representational of the subject matter, appealing, and has enough blank space for words.

I looked at the previous coloring books and did a draft for the cover. These things don’t fall into place for me in one shot – I have to think things over, and usually send them to my Shadow Consultant in Bellingham who has a great eye for design. Ooh, weird, there’s that single “eye” again, just like when something “catches your eye”.

Good enough to know that things will fit here. I got out my colored pencils, put on a good podcast, and dove in.

When you are listening to something good, even simple mundane tasks like coloring go quickly. I think it was Mike Rowe’s podcast. Great vocabulary, intriguing stories, nice voice, excellent sense of humor.

UPCOMING SOLO SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Building a Coloring Book Page, Part 3

We last saw this drawing at this stage of erasing the gray background. I think it scans gray because the paper is a little bit thin, and also because that’s just the way the scanner sees things. If I lighten the background while scanning, the lines also get lighter.

After the background gray is erased, and the overlapping and gapping lines fixed, I add a border.

This is appealing (not up on blocks!), representative of rural Tulare County (yeppers, that’s the reality of any non-gentrified rural area), and has enough white space that it will be the cover of the coloring book, in addition to being an interior page.

Next step: get it printed on white paper with some substance to it at a print shop so that I can color it.

You can preorder the coloring book here: Heart of the County.

Would you believe that I love to draw, but coloring feels like a silly waste of time. It took a bit of self-talk to convince myself that this is part of my job. 

UPCOMING SHOW:

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

November 14 – December 30, 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 2-4 p.m.

Three Pears and Two Orange Groves

Three Pears

As a full time artist, it is automatic to notice subjects that might make good paintings. Experience helps me recognize these subjects, and it also helps me to recognize potential.

A friend gave me three pears, and before I took a bite or put them in the fridge, I recognized their potential as a painting subject. So, I set them up in various ways on 2 different surfaces and took a few photos. The variation in color is more noticeable now than in person, and it was that variation that first caught my eye. (Why do we say “caught my eye”? I have 2 eyes and am fairly certain that you do too.)

Since I have stopped doing boutiques, fairs, and festivals, there hasn’t been much call for “kitchen art”. But, I still gather reference material because one just never knows what might be coming next.

Two Orchards

After photographing the three pears, I returned to the two orange groves. (Orchard, grove, same thing.)

(E, is the ground looking rough enough for you yet? Fear not – the painting will keep getting better!)

I am using quite a bit of artistic license here, making this painting into something I would want to hang in my dining room because I want to hang it in my dining room. But I am going to put it in the Courthouse Gallery show in November and December with a reasonable, non-scary price-tag of $1200 instead of $10,000.

It is a little hard to tell the difference between the second 2 photos of this painting. For the curious reader, I don’t remember how long I worked on this before taking photo #2; there is 1/2 hour between #2 and #3, and another 1-1/2 hour before #3.

Then my neck tied itself into a pretzel, so I put plastic film on the palette, moved it to the freezer of the little fridge that we bought from that horrible big box store (the freezer isn’t freezing anymore, but why would it? The fridge is 3 months old already. . .), and headed back to the house to wash my brushes.

P.S. I also went to the bank and Post Office today, lest you think all I do is photography and painting. It’s all part of the business of art.

Okie Dokie, Much Less Smokie


The air was really good on Thursday, only unhealthy instead of hazardous. I was able to paint!

Let’s have another look outside:

I thought about skipping work and going for a walk.

Nope, I have customers who are patiently waiting for their work, and those custom Christmas ornaments are beginning to nag at me a bit (the ornaments, not the customer).

Oops. Somehow my 8×10″ photos of Hume Lake got all glued together. I tried to soak them apart, but whatever substance is uniting them into a solid clump will not respond to water. I will just paint using photos on the computer screen.

Here they are awaiting more work on the lake side of each ornament, but instead, I need to get the other side, the secret side, up to date.

I will show you one blurry photo of the other side. If you recognize this cabin, just pretend as if you don’t.

Happy Birthday, Reader Anne!

Focusing on Drawing Instead of Smoke

When the air is hazardous as it was at the beginning of last week, I just closed myself into the studio and focused on a large commissioned pencil collage. It made 9 hours fly by, and I forgot about the smoke outside.

You last saw the drawing at this stage:

This is what happened In 2 days of drawing.

Wow, sometimes I impress myself. 

Excuse me. That was obnoxious. You probably are interested in a bit of a story about this drawing rather than some puffed up bloviation by a Central California artist who complains about smoke unless she is tooting her own horn.

This drawing will be a gift (not from me but from the customer) to a lady pilot who lives in this house along an airstrip, has her own hangar, and a view of a lake. Her husband was also a pilot, designed the house and hangar, and he recently died. Our lady pilot will be selling and moving away, and her friend commissioned me to do this piece for her. 

These are remarkable people, both the giver and the recipient, and it is a privilege to participate in their lives, even on the outer fringes.

Happy Birthday, JG!

A Little Cat Trouble

First, nothing is wrong with Tucker, Jackson, or Pippin.

Second, the cat isn’t little; the trouble was little. It involved the cat named Chaos, or more accurately, the drawing of Chaos.

You last saw it looking like this, with a question about whether or not to include the man’s hand.

The customer and I decided to skip the hand in the drawing. She sent me extra photos of Chaos at younger ages, but of course none of them were at the same angle. Since I have drawn many cats, helped drawing students draw cats, and have had too many cats to even count, I figured I could do this drawing without further photos.

I finished it.
My customer is an excellent communicator and sent me some instructions for correcting things that kept this drawing from looking like Chaos. I followed those instructions:

She sent me further instructions, this time with visual aids:

I followed those instructions:

She sent me further instructions with more visual aids.

I followed those instructions:

This time, she asked if she should send a check or use a credit card.

The only time I have had trouble with commissioned drawings is when I don’t have adequate photos. When the customer can help me through the unknowns, we come out fine on the other side. 

P.S. Did you notice that Chaos has color in his eyes? He is a ginger/marmalade/orange cat, with coloring like Pippin. Who is Pippin? My stubby tailed Orange Bob Square Pants!P.S. Many of you are wondering about the fires. We are still in unhealthy to hazardous air; the fire has crossed the Mineral King Road and working its way down to the East Fork of the Kaweah; we don’t feel in danger in Three Rivers; rain is forecast for Thursday. (Nope, we are not having any fun.) You can follow the updates on inciweb (KNP Complex) or the Sequoia Kings Canyon Facebook page. 

A Cat Called Chaos

A Chat Called Chaos? A Cat Called Caos? Never mind. Here is the story.
 
In 2004 I drew a cat for some folks who actually brought him to my studio. This was in the days of film cameras (Nope, not an Early Adopter of anything), so I didn’t save a photo of the drawing. Snowcat’s people recently asked me to draw their current cat, Chaos, and although I remembered Snowcat, I couldn’t remember the drawing. They sent me a photo.That was one alert cat!! When I was taking his photos, I reached out to touch him. He pulled away in a very subtle but arrogant manner. Made me laugh.
 
Their current cat spent the first 2 years of his life in a dog grooming shop and used to create chaos there. He is getting up in age, so they asked me to draw him, sending a handful of digital photos.
Chaos looks more alert in the lower photo, but the man appears to be strangling the cat. I asked for a few more photos with a different hand position.
This is less worrisome for the cat’s survivability, but the hand appears larger than the cat’s head. That won’t do.
 
I decided to just start drawing and figure it out as I go.
The weird orangish tint is due to the smoky light coming through the window over my drawing table.
This time to photograph it, I carried it outside for better light.
To be continued. . .
 
 

Still Smoky, Still Drawing

This sort of smoky light means it is hard to see to paint, but if I open the doors for better light, then it is hard to breathe. So, I get to spend another day in the studio with my pencils. (I love to draw – did you know that?)

This is a large collage drawing, a commissioned piece 14×18″, that will incorporate 3 different scenes. In designing, I tried something new – I used photoshop instead of doing sketches. I sent the customer 2 versions and she chose this one.

Here you can see the faint outline where things will go. I started at the top on the left, because as a right-hander, this helps to cut down on excessive smearing.

Setting it up took as long as getting it to this stage.

I had enough time to begin the next segment.

Next, I heard from the customers on the lengthy logo design project. Calling it “lengthy” is not an insult; this is a very challenging job, because the customers have been without a logo since 1980, logo design isn’t my strongest skill so I am slow, and together we are carefully working out the best design possible. This is the next piece in the puzzle.

I used an old (1997) drawing as a place holder, drew a new picture for them, and then we discovered that the old drawing was a better match. Alas, it wasn’t very well done. Well, it was fine for back then, but I was barely out of my Primitive Era in the last century. So I drew it again, and this time I added lemons, along with other improvements that probably only my drawing students will be able to appreciate. But I want this to be The Very Best Possible for my customers and not an embarrassment to my artistic reputation.

Hey look! It is clearing up! I could tell that something was taking place outside because there were some helicopters overhead, and they made the drawing table vibrate.

See? Clear as a bell! 

Not. But clear enough for air support as the fires continue to rage through Sequoia National Park and fill Three Rivers with worry, smoke, ash, fire equipment, and fire personnel.

If you are someone who talks to God, please keep praying for good slow soaking rain without any lightning.

 

The Best Version of the Classic Mineral King Scene, Ever

We cannot get to Mineral King just now. It probably looks like it did last year at this same time.

So, let’s just reminisce about better times and look at this important painting I recently completed. Can’t share any details as to why it is “important”, but I can show you the steps. I want this to be the best version of this scene that I have ever painted.

I began the painting while in Mineral King. The idea was to size and place the main parts.

Once I was back home in the studio, I began putting in the details, working from top to bottom, back to front (which means I paint the things that are farthest away first).

This is fun. It is classic “drawing with my paintbrush”, a frowned upon practice in the Art World. Hey Art World, are you wanting to buy my paintings? 

Silence.

Thought not. Well, I’m not making art for the Art World. Instead. . .

. . . I use pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art that people can understand, of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

P.S. It looks better in person (Yeah, I always say that, because they always do.)

When It Is Too Smoky To Paint…

… then I draw. (Unless I spend time on the computer designing a calendar, a new coloring book, a custom collage drawing, or some cards). But yesterday, I drew.

In 2022, the Gateway Bridge, AKA Pumpkin Hollow Bridge, will be 100 years old. This means there will be some attention on the bridge, which will probably bring about some opportunities to sell images of the bridge. Remember, I am a business person whose product is art, although I often act like an artist trying to figure out the business end of things.

People often confuse my favorite bridge, Oak Grove, with the Gateway Bridge. Let me help you with this:

Oak Grove: single arch, deep canyon of the East Fork of the Kaweah River, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road

Gateway Bridge: three arches, shallower canyon of the convergence of the East Fork and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River, just below the entrance to Sequoia National Park on Highway 198

This new pencil drawing is 9×12″, unframed, and I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. That will be a business decision, and yesterday I was focused on being an artist.

P.S. The top view is supposed to look like this: