Drawings, Old & New

Have I told you lately that I love to draw in pencil?

Last week I had the opportunity to give a drawing lesson to a girl that I only see once a year while in Mineral King. Instead of taking her through all the usual steps, I took a shortcut to a finished drawing. This is because she will be drawing on her own, far away without me hovering and coaching.  

After looking through my photos, she chose this photo:

We went through the beginning steps, and suddenly, 2 hours had passed. Now what?? How can I help her continue? 

By drawing the picture for her and letting her copy the drawing, that’s how! It is easiest to learn to draw from other people’s drawings, because you can see what they made the pencil do.

To keep my head from getting fat, have a look at these two sketches from 1985 and 1986. WHY do my friends keep these things? And WHY do they send them to me?? To keep my head from getting fat, of course.

That “artist” could have used a few drawing lessons.

P.S. What a blessing to still be friends and in touch with people after 35 years!

 

How Do You Handle Customer Requests?

A commissioned oil painting in which the customer gave me much free rein along with many requests, all good suggestions.

“Just curious–do you get annoyed, or do you appreciate it when someone makes a change/suggestion to an already completed painting?”

A friend and my most regular commenter asked me the question above.

Here is my reply:

“I am happy to do whatever the customer requests, as long as I have the ability and it doesn’t mess with the scene’s believability.”

She responded:

“That’s very kind (and flexible) of you. I can only speak for the audio arts, but I have seen situations where we took an arrangement and made a few cuts and lyric changes, and the arranger became incensed that we DARE change his precious arrangement.
I like your policy better!”

And I replied:

“I am very practical about the need for flexibility if I want to stay in business. I am here to serve the customer, not to serve my own art. If I was a hobbyist instead of a professional, I would probably have a different view. And I do put my foot down when it comes to logo design, because Design-By-Committee is how we got a camel when we needed a horse.”

A pencil commission from customer-supplied photos, with some free rein and lots of suggestions and requests, all good and manageable.

Here’s my guess about the difference between my approach and what my friend/commenter experienced:  I, the original artist, get to make the changes; my friend’s experience was that her music department was making changes on someone else’s piece. 

I recently heard an interview with an artist who said she likes commissions because she can charge more for them. Really? Should I be doing that?

Better commission me soon before I decide to raise my prices.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Eleven

This is the final part of our Pencil Reminiscing series. This last set of pencil notecards is Mineral King again. This one was done near the end of the last century, after I figured out how to handle the textures of landscape views. I don’t remember where this set falls in the sequence of notecard sets, but it seems fitting to conclude this series of posts with Mineral King.

These views still look the same today. Well, not TODAY, but last summer, and hopefully the summer of 2020, after all the snow melts.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Ten

Somewhere along the path of creating notecard packages, I did a set of Mineral King scenes, a mini-set of four instead of five, without the identifying label. Instead, I inserted a photocopy of what was inside.

Judging from the quality of the background landscaping, this was still early in the sequence of notecard sets.

The old Ranger Station was from a postcard; the others were from my photos, so they were current at the time (and still look almost the same).

I think these were tied up with raffia, oh so very elegantly rustic.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Nine

This is the second set of Sequoia National Park scenes, chosen with the help of my wonderful contact in the Park. These are designs that I still like, in spite of them being about 20 years old now. The cards sold well, but alas, by this time, personal note writing was in its final stages. These sets are gone, and there are no plans to resurrect them.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Eight

With a good contact in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and success with the Sequoia sets of cards, together we chose scenes for Kings Canyon.

There were probably 5 drawings, but I can only find these 4 samples. You can see that I finally got comfortable drawing the textures of landscaping.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Seven

After publishing the notecard set of Backcountry Structures of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, I moved into the front country of the park. That’s where most of the people visit, and now I had connections in the organization that stocked the ranger stations and visitor centers in the parks.

I didn’t save any labels, so I don’t know if this is when I switched to 4 cards per package instead of 5, or if I lost a sample card along the way. I remember taking the photos for these drawings, because my niece went with me. There was a long line for photos in front of the General Sherman Tree, so Ashley and I got in line. When it was our turn, she went up to the tree and then laid on the ground behind the sign so I could take a photo without any people in it. The other visitors were quite puzzled by this, but I was thrilled by Ashley’s innovative solution. I think I actually drew her into the picture of the Four Guardsmen, but now I can’t see details that small.

To be continued. . .

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Six

Confidence grew with each set of cards I drew, printed, and sold. Tulare County was too small – look out California, because the Central California artist is heading your way!!

In the 4th grade, we studied the 21 California missions, which were built in the 1700s and 1800s by Franciscan priest, Junipero Serra. Even back then I loved old buildings.

I chose 5 of the 21, with some sort of logic that I can no longer remember. There are 2 missing pictures here – San Juan Bautista, and the one near Oceanside, whose name I have forgotten.

This California mission idea was suggested by a friend, and although my inner cautionary voice told me not to do it, I ignored that intuition, dismissing it as pessimism. 

Should have listened.

I printed the largest quantity yet, and went to my regular outlets, which bought them in small cautionary quantities. Next, I hit the road with my best friend to sell these. Alas, none of the 5 missions wanted them because they only cared about their own place. I wasn’t willing to break up the sets, and it was crazy hard to find gift shops in towns where I knew no one. I tried Harris Ranch, a huge tourist place along Interstate 5, smack dab in the middle of the state. It took many phone calls, several appointments, lots of free samples, and finally I realized that this was not profitable, because in addition to the distance, their gift shop buyers quit every few months.

I finally consented to selling the cards individually to some of the missions, had one very nice gift shop in Carmel who wanted the variety pack, and kept selling tiny quantities to the local stores.

Eventually I got real, and gave all the remaining cards to every fourth grade teacher I knew. 

The lesson there was to listen to that inner cautionary voice and not dismiss it. Although one might not be able to articulate why something doesn’t feel right, there are usually solid reasons behind the reluctance, even if it is only manifested as hidden sense inside the intuition.

At least Judy and I had a great time on our road trip.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Five

In 1993, Trail Guy went from being seasonal Maintenance Guy to Road Guy, a fulltime job with Sequoia National Park. This meant I could really focus on my art, since he had a better income. A friend invited me to move my studio into her gift shop in Exeter, and I was ON MY WAY!!! To where?? I didn’t know, but I was going, so there.

The friend was instrumental in teaching me about selling, marketing, display, professionalism, and even how to dress better. I will be eternally grateful to her for her tutelage.

My next notecard set was Backcountry Structures in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I had been to most of the cabins but didn’t have photos of them all. The Park’s “History Boys” were helpful in providing pictures and information about these charming little cabins in remote locations, and excited that I had chosen this subject for drawings and cards.

You can see that my focus remained on architectural subjects, and the textures and shapes of nature were just too hard. I did my best, but yikes. To save some pride, here are my recent drawings of two of these cabins. They were on the blog in December, but here they are again.

More next week on pencil reminiscing. . .

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Four

After my booming (in my own little mind) success with the original set of notecards for Tulare County, Mineral King, and Visalia landmarks, I moved on. My memory is fuzzy about which card sets came next, and at what point I quit my job in the print shop. I worked from our little house in Lemon Cove and supplemented my income with a summer job baking at the Silver City Store, helping out at a friend’s Exeter gift shop for Christmas, and filling in at the printer when they had need. 

The ideas continued to flow. Now it was time for Tulare County Landmarks II, which moved into other towns of the county.

 Since this set included Lindsay, Tulare, Porterville, and Exeter, I found stores in all those little towns to sell the cards. I may have spent as much in gas expenses to drive around calling on the stores as my profits.

(The little circles are holes; these cards were samples for customers to see what was in the variety packages.)

To be continued. . .