This is the final drawing of the commissioned pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin. The customer chose “A”, asked that the sign size be reduced and that plenty of scraggly branches be added to that large tree in front that she affectionately referred to as “the old man”.
It was fun! Drawing cabins is one of the best parts of my business, Cabinart.
A nice lady wrote to me to ask if I would draw her Wilsonia cabin for her. She said it is plain, or perhaps she said “it’s not fancy”, but it means a lot to her family.
I knew which cabin it was. It wasn’t one that I planned to show in the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia. There are 214 cabins in Wilsonia, and there are lots of reasons that not every cabin made it in the book.
But, I have been accepting commissions to draw cabins in pencil since 1987. It’s what I do! My business is Cabin Art.
So, I took photos of her cabin from many angles. It was hard to find the most interesting angle, and hard to see something special.
These aren’t the photos I ended up using, but these are like those “before” photos when someone gets a makeover. You know – out-of-date glasses, limp hair, no make up, bad light, old sweatshirt. (Substitute tied up hair and flannel shirt, and you’ve got a picture of me while painting.)
The customer requested a collage, which gives plenty of opportunity to dress up a picture. I did 2 versions and sent the sketches to her.
Come back on Monday to see which she chose and how it turned out!
This week on my other blog, www.thecabinsofwilsonia.com, I will explain what these sketches are, along with some other sketches, and also explain that the special pre-order price of the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia has expired.
Join me over there?
What book?
So glad you asked! It is The Cabins of Wilsonia.
I’ve proofed the book in every way that I can think of. Until every possible proofing method has been exhausted, I don’t want to send it off to the printer. Besides, it takes money before they will print, so. . .
. . .I will be pre-selling it and selling the original drawings in Wilsonia on July 5, gathering the dollars needed to pay the printer and binder and shipper.
To learn more about the proofing configurations, calisthenics and craziness, you are invited to visit my Cabins of Wilsonia site today. (It will open in a new window so you won’t lose your place here.) You are invited to visit that site any day. Did you know that?
If my drawing students learn to draw with graphite pencils – i.e. see proportions, understand values (the darks and lights), understand hard and soft edges, and make the tools do what they intend for them to do, then my drawing students who want to can use colored pencils.
Colored pencils (mis)behave differently than graphite pencils. I’ve heard plenty of colored pencil artists say the reason to use colored pencils instead of paint is C O N T R O L.
Colored pencils require many many layers, and it hurts my wrist to use them. However, many of my advanced students choose to use them, and in spite of my ouchy wrist, I can help.
It may appear to you as if Mae has copied her photo as efficiently as a Xerox machine. I can assure you that she has done a fabulous job of interpreting the photo and adjusting it so the drawing makes more sense than the photo. She pays a great deal of attention to detail and chooses what to eliminate and what to enhance.
May is using Polychromos by Faber Castell. These seem to be the highest quality for the price that I’ve used so far. They are oil based, made in Germany, and last a long time. They are a little fatter so they don’t fit in our normal sharpeners. They are also a little hard to find if you just want to buy them one at a time.
Prismacolor used to be my favorite. I learned their colors beginning with a set of 12 that my Aunt Shirley gave me when I was in 5th grade. They are wax based, made in the USA, and break easily, which is exasperating. They are readily available in sets or in one-sies, and can be repaired in the microwave (but don’t tell the company – they don’t take responsibility for the breakage and blame the pencil sharpeners, not the rough handling before they arrive in your hands.) I noticed they are now referred to as “soft-core”, probably a response to all the complaints!
So, yes, you CAN do this with colored pencils (after hours and hours of practice!)
Did you know that I have another blog?
“Cabin on a Sunlit Meadow” – sold
Yeppers.
It is called The Cabins of Wilsonia. For almost three years I’ve been working on a book of pencil drawings of the cabin community Wilsonia at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.
The process is documented here. If you click on the highlighted word “here”, it will open in a new window with my other blog.
Today and tomorrow I’ll be posting over there. I didn’t want you to think I’d quit on my real blog.
This is my real blog. Did you know that? I love writing this blog. Yeah, yeah, I know we are supposed to love people and use things. . . it is just the sloppy vernacular of my lazy generation that causes me to state it that way.
For over a year I’ve been missing from this blog about one day a week. You might have thought I had gotten lazy about regular posting, but I was over there.
I’m sorry for not inviting you sooner.
You are invited now.
Every Tuesday I teach people how to draw at the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter. Been doing it for 20 years or so. You can learn about it here. Drawing Lessons
My drawing students are wonderful. They work hard, and they learn and they do beautiful drawings.
This beautiful woman drew her beautiful granddaughter. It is her first portrait, which is one of the hardest subjects to tackle. She has been drawing with me about 2-1/2 years, and honestly, she had a bit of a head start because she used to touch up portrait photos. But that doesn’t mean this wasn’t hard – it was hard! Everything is hard, so pick something you love, because you’ll be staring at it for a long time.
P.S. Today is my 6th Blogiversary. I still haven’t run out of things to write about!
Sequoia Natural History Association has sold my work for many years. Great organization – they stock and man the visitor centers and ranger stations throughout Sequoia. They do a lot more, but this post isn’t about them. It is about a drawing I am working on in hopes that they will add it to their inventory in the near future.
This is how the bridge over the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River looked during my recent visit to Sequoia National Park. This bridge is in the Lodgepole Campground.
This is the pencil drawing and the photos I’m working from. The white spaces in the photo are unfinished or sunshine, not snow.
Just in case you were wondering. . .
And I think bridges are remarkable pieces of architecture. They are simple spans over space, but they can be so elegant. Stone work, rustic wood, flowing water – what’s not to like?
I’m drawing in pencil because I love to. There might be a purpose to these drawings in progress, and it might be to keep from doing repetitive and boring work on the computer for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia. The book isn’t repetitive and boring; the computer work is both of those things plus IMPOSSIBLE. No worries, I’ll figure it out or figure out who to ask for help. Meanwhile, I am drawing, a very therapeutic and productive procrastination technique.
This is a scene I’ve painted in a horizontal format, and one that I’ve lent the photo to a drawing student so she could draw it. I might have drawn it before, but I’ve slept since then. Actually, this drawing might be finished in this photo. Here, have a closer look:
This is the Generals Highway, above the Sequoia Park entrance at Ash Mountain but below Hospital Rock. You can see yucca in bloom (this is from a photo taken in June) and Moro Rock in the distance. Just a typical scene from Three Rivers, California. . . yawn.
But wait – there’s more!
This is an unfinished pencil drawing of a “Sheltie” named Wally.
Okay, I admit it. This is now finished too.
For twenty years I’ve taught people how to draw. This happens on Tuesday afternoons at the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter.
During the Studio Tour on the weekend, a former drawing student named Kelly came by. She still draws and paints and has a job as a receptionist for a chiropractic office. She sells some of her work, and is a wonderful person and fine artist.
Current student Wendy Miller came by the studio with her daughter. I met Wendy on a Studio Tour a number of years ago. She was hoping to interest her daughter in art, and ended up taking lessons herself. She is an outstanding artist who had her own show at the Courthouse Gallery last summer. Her work is so wonderful that I bought a piece.
The daughter of my first adult student came by. Her Mom was a wonderful artist and a wonderful person. She left this planet last month. We miss her and were blessed to have her in our lives.
Meanwhile, here is a look at the work of one of my wonderful students. Char has a wonderful sense of humor. She is wonderful at drawing.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I feel like Lawrence Welk.