Since 1994 I have been teaching people how to draw. We don’t go outside and sketch. We sit inside and work from photos. We learn to break a complex photo into its basic shapes, how to start a drawing, to get all the shapes and proportions right, how to shade so that it appears 3 dimensional and how to finish it off to be the best possible.
I have about 20 students, ranging in age from 13 to Too-Polite-To-Ask.
Everyone works at his own pace on the subject of his own choosing. We generally don’t doggedly copy photos but do some well-thought-out cropping, and in general just clean up the mess that real life consists of.
I encourage everyone to work from her own photos rather than things from calendars, magazines and the internet. Not everyone has a good camera or a backlog of photos, and often I will lend photos to my students.
Usually each person has an idea of what he wants to draw.
The main thing is this: PICK SOMETHING YOU LOVE BECAUSE YOU WILL BE STARING AT IT FOR A VERY LONG TIME.
This is a grandson with a stuffed lion. Definitely a much loved subject!We have spent a great deal of time evaluating exactly what we are seeing here. That is one of the drawbacks of working from a photo taken by someone else.I warned him and warned him about the slowness of colored pencil, but he proceeded anyway. Just getting the gradation of blues, and getting it smooth, is taking F O R E V E R. That’s okay – we don’t have any deadlines.A perfectionistic animal lover is doing a fabulous job on this challenging conglomerate of squishy shapes and elusive textures.Stunning! Simply stunning. This is by a woman who began lessons about 9 years ago so that her watercolor paintings would be more accurate. She mastered graphite quickly and has been showing off with colored pencil ever since. She doesn’t need lessons any more, but I am ever so grateful that she continues to show up each week.No faces smaller than an egg! Sometimes my students are determined. So, I help them the best I can and we all learn. Those who are looking on in horror become determined to never draw a face smaller than an egg. What a challenge!Turned my back to help the other students for awhile and BOOM! FInal leaf, done. There’s a very dark background coming. . . that ought to slow her down a bit. Or not.The idea with this is to do one of the blossoms in color. That is one of my favorite ways to use color, and this is turning out beautifully.
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
I’ve added colored pencil to the commissioned pencil (graphite?) drawing that commemorates a beautiful place on a beautiful day with a beautiful friend.
The commissioned pencil drawing will have a touch of color, but first I have to spray fix it so that the graphite doesn’t smear into the colors.
Here’s a thought-provoking question for you: Why do I say I work in pencil instead of saying I work in graphite? I don’t say that I paint in “brush” – I say I paint in “oil”. A pencil is a tool as is a brush; graphite is the medium as is oil paint.
Clarity is probably the answer. I’m talking to regular people who say “picher” for “picture”, “prolly” for “probably”, “hite” for “height”, and “gotta” for “got to”. Regular people most likely won’t understand “graphite” as the medium in a pencil. They prolly think it is something to unstick a lock.
Here is the commissioned pencil drawing in graphite, minus the color.
There is a bit of graphite where I’ll put color because it will serve to deepen and darken the color.
Clarity: what’s the difference between “deepen” and “darken” when discussing color? I dunno. I’m a regular person who prolly doesn’t always get stuff. Gotta go, see ya!
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
Of course a commissioned pencil drawing is fun for me. I LOVE to draw in pencil.
When I draw, there are several steps. First, I choose the size and location on the paper. Second, I lay out all the shapes in a light outline. Third, oh boy, this is the party, I shade.
Shading is how things go from a 2 dimensional piece of paper with height and width (in case you were wondering, the word “height” is pronounced “hite”, not “hithe” ) to an apparent 3 dimensional scene. Shading adds distance, texture and depth.
I don’t expect you to be all chills and thrills about this, but you’ve got to admit it is starting to “look just like a picher” as people often say to me when I do art events. Those folks probably say “hite” and “gotta” too. Prolly.
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
I began the commissioned pencil drawing for Found Friend of a view out of the window of a chapel at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers. It was pure pleasure to draw in pencil after months of book designing, coloring book drawing in ink and oil painting.
I LOVE to draw in pencil, particularly to draw architectural subjects. A friend and customer once told me that he thinks I am an art-chitect. 😎
This is the beginnings of the drawing for Found Friend.
It was fairly simply to lay out and begin the shading.
To be continued. . .
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
A commissioned pencil drawing is a drawing someone pays you to draw specifically for her. Found Friend asked me to draw a view out the windows of the small chapel at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers.
First, I took photos.
Second, I did 2 sketches to see if either one fit her vision.
Found Friend chose A.
Tomorrow I’ll show the beginning of the commissioned pencil drawing.
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
“Commissioned Pencil Drawing” is a straightforward title for a nice story of friendship and inspiration.
I have a friend from summer camp when we were in grade school. We cannot remember the summer we met. We lost touch. She and my older sister became friends as adults.
Last summer I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Happier by Gretchen Rubin. Love her writing, her podcast, her way of thinking. . . for some reason that particular post was so interesting to me that I took time to read the comments. I recognized the married name of my old friend in one of the comments! Her name was clickable, so I followed links, found a picture and recognized her! She had her own blog and a contact button, so I emailed her and she REMEMBERED ME!
But wait. It gets weirder. Would you believe that is the only time she has EVER commented on a national blog?? And it was the only time I have ever taken the time to read the comments on Gretchen’s blog?
We now have a great email correspondence and have gotten together several times. She is a fabulous human, a deep thinker, a thoughtful and kind person, and a Major Blessing in my life. To protect her privacy, I will call her “Found Friend”.
What does this have to do with a commissioned pencil drawing?
Found Friend spent a bit of time at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers several years ago, and was struck by a view out the windows of one of the chapels. When she visited me this spring, we went there and sat inside that chapel so she could show me the view because she wanted to commission me to draw that view in pencil.
She insisted that we conduct business in my normal way, no special friend discounts or freebies. This always feels weird to me, but I remember something a wise friend told me years ago: “If your friends won’t do business with you, who will?”
Here are a few photos I took that day.
Small chapel at St. Anthony’sAlta Peak
Tomorrow I will show you the 2 sketches I did for my Found Friend to consider and choose.
Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.
What do I mean “early summer”? It isn’t summer until June 21!
Oh yeah? It’s been in the high 90s and low 100s for a couple of weeks around here. That qualifies as summer, despite the calendar’s report.
Trail Guy is back out on the trails in Mineral King. I’ll get there, just hang on. Meanwhile, please enjoy his photos with my photo editing and explanations.
Looking upstream toward Farewell Gap with the early grasses. This is a good flow of water in the east fork of the Kaweah with much more snow to melt.Just after crossing the bridge (not my favorite bridge but the Mineral King bridge – don’t get confused here) heading into the parking lot. This is the end of the road, and it’s all up from here, all on foot. This is the view from the trail to Timber Gap. Or maybe it is to the west of Timber Gap. Closies count.Decent patch of snow up on the ridge that Timber Gap is part of. Nice photo, Trail Guy!These are phlox, an early flower that comes in subtle shades of lavender, pink, white, pinkish white, whitish pink, lavenderish white, whitish lavender, pinkish whitish lavender, etc.Can you pick out Sawtooth Peak from this angle?This is the view that the Mather party had 100 years ago. There is a photo, a book and a pencil drawing commemorating that event.Remember this pencil drawing? When the Park wanted to reprint the book on the Mather party (group of people on an excursion, not group of people drinking and dancing–but how would I know? I wasn’t there), they commissioned me for a cover drawing redo. That mule heiny was a challenge, but Cowboy Bert took photos of his mulz (that’s how he spells it on his license plate) to help me get it right.
“Done” designing a book? Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
When did we start substituting the word “done” for “finished”?
Who cares? I’m almost done!
Here is what remains on my book design project for Louise.
Learn how to design the back cover.
Design the back cover, making sure it is prepared properly for the printer.
Figure out how to get a bar code, and how to place it on the book.
Figure out how to send the book to the printer.
That’s it? Maybe. Louise and I found a chapter with the final paragraph missing, and some weird computer business on the table of contents. Always something more to deal with in this business of book designing.
We, that is Louise, the 3 people who commissioned her to write their story and I, will receive one copy from the printer before we have the whole batch printed. We’ll pass it around, and each one of us will mark it with a different color, if there is anything to mark. Then, we’ll get it printed.
When I have permission, I will tell you the title, a summary of the story, and show you the cover.
Now I need to find a quiet place to contemplate matters of consequence such as being almost done with designing a book.
Pencil drawing from The Cabins of Wilsonia – a woodshed? an outhouse? a toolshed?
I offered to design a book for an author friend. Let’s call her “Louise”, because that is her name.
Louise discussed it with the 3 people who commissioned her to write their story, and they gratefully accepted my offer.
I read up on book design, learning most of what I needed from The Book Designer‘s website. I had paid him for consultation to be sure I wasn’t messing up The Cabins of Wilsonia. He charged more for one hour than I often earn in a week, but he was worth every dollar. He is a fount of helpful information.
I bought a template from him to use with InDesign, thinking this would be simple and easy and fast and how awesome to just slam this thing out with all my previous experience and knowledge.
Fall down laughing. . .
Look at some of the work:
Learn how to change the template so the chapter titles appear as running heads instead of the author’s name by emailing the Book Designer for help, several times because, well, because it is complicated.
Change the master template page things to have chapter titles in the space where Louise’s name would have appeared.
Find that in normal books, the chapter titles are on the right page, not the left. If you have the author’s name on every spread, the title goes on the right. If you have the chapter titles on each spread, the title goes on the left.
Change the master template page things again to accommodate this new information.
Realize I have the power to eliminate many of the hyphenated words at the end of lines, and go through all 300 pages to fix as many as possible.
See that changing the hyphenation caused some of the photos to land in the middle of paragraphs, so go back through the 300 pages to scoot them.
Louise and I decide that a plain divider line looked too plain, so design a fancier, but not too fancy divider line.
Replace the divider line with the pretty one.
Go back through the 300 pages and see that I missed some.
Find that there is a spell check on InDesign and decide it can’t hurt to run it in spite of the facts that I used spellcheck on Word, Louise and I have proofed it many many times, as have the 3 people
Find a few typos.
Fall down laughing with exhaustion. . .
This pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin invites me to sit on the porch and contemplate a life without InDesign.
