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:

Working Anyway (Cough cough)

If you think your cabin and cabin community might burn up along with your home and your town, you can spin in circles, nervously jabber on the phone, send endless emails and texts, putter, make a dog’s breakfast of your knitting, compulsively refresh websites with fire maps, randomly go through cupboards, seek oral gratification, pace, try to take deep breaths and then experiment with your new wheezy smoker’s cough.

You can also put on your big girl pants and do some work.

Montana Cabin, commissioned pencil drawing, 9×12″
The Orchard, original oil painting, 12×12″, $250 (plus tax, but you know that)
New drawing lesson with C via email – a demonstration on how to draw a dog eye from a fuzzy photograph of a now deceased black dog, the most difficult of all possible drawing situations.

Cough cough, hack, wheeze. 

It was actually sort of not too smoky yesterday so we took a walk. 

See what I mean about helicopters and the little marbles they carry?

Looking downstream – not too bad.

Looking upstream – yeppers, big wildfire, but smoke not as bad as it has been.

At one time, it looked this way. It could again. We could get rain. There is no reason to think that winter will never happen again. The peaks upstream don’t show in this drawing because it was winter and they were hidden by clouds, not smoke. Remember those days?

Oops. See what I mean about nervously jabbering?

Drawing While Paradise Burns

That’s Paradise Ridge, not Paradise the town, which we know burned a couple of years ago (or was it last year? It’s all a smoky blur).

Trail Guy and I spent a good chunk of a morning talking about what to take, making piles, filling boxes. All the while, we had no intention of evacuating unless the fire gave us no choice. 

What are these relics? Is that ash? Are there any treats? Tucker wants to know.

After getting our piles somewhat in order (oh dear, I have way too many sweaters – how am I supposed to decide which ones to leave behind, possibly to never see again??), I went out to the studio to get some work done. Having an emergency doesn’t give me license to create emergencies for my customers.

This drawing might be a little bit too hard for me. Many details are hidden in shadow, and there is a horse. (At least his tongue is inside his mouth). It is good to tackle the hardest part first.

There might be a problem with his feet, so I moved onto the things that I can do with one hand tied behind my back and half my brain occupied with wildfires (and sweaters).

Working from the laptop screen definitely has its advantages. I can embiggen the photos and even lighten the shadows to understand what the various black blobs are.I drew most of the afternoon while listening to helicopters overhead, a welcome sound after they were silent throughout the smoky and worrisome morning.

And this is how it looked at the end of the day.

This is a commissioned pencil drawing of a cabin in Montana for a repeat customer who is a joy to work with and for.

In case you were wondering about the reference to the horse’s tongue, here you go.

 

Large Important Commission, Chapter 9

I left the oil painting alone for a week or so, in order to gain distance and objectivity. (Yes, wonky photo, because in spite of this camera’s superiority to its predecessor, the screen is still invisible in the bright sunshine).

Then I switched the photo to black and white, in order to study the contrasts.

This session of study resulted in a list.

  1. Make the snow brighter against sky
  2. The rock shadows on hillside are too dark
  3. Close leaves next to orchards need to be lighter
  4. Tree trunks look too uniform
  5. Too much contrast on wall rocks near books
  6. Need more roses below the wall
  7. Make shadows darker on front row of orchard
  8. Make oranges on the close branches brighter and more yellow
  9. The elephant on Alta Peak and the slope to the left of the elephant need to be fuzzier

All nine items have been addressed. Can we see the difference in this black and white version?

Maybe.

Here is the new color version (also taken in such bright sun, although filtered through a layer of smoke from the fire at Lake Isabella).

Obviously, this painting is going to be a challenge to photograph well.

Just for interest’s sake, here is the sketch (the post about it is here):

It has come a long ways since the beginning, first shown in this post.

And thus we conclude the ongoing saga of The Large Important Commission Oil Painting.

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the books need to be less jarring. On the other hand, maybe they are supposed to pop out of the painting because it is for the Tulare County Library (Woodlake branch).