This is a completed drawing of a Wilsonia cabin. I couldn’t decide if this post belonged here on my normal blog, or if it belongs on The Cabins of Wilsonia.
The drawing won’t be in the book. Those pages are already designed, and this cabin has its front door represented in the chapter of Park Road.
Knowing the drawing won’t be in the book freed me up to put color in the flag. I love doing that!
A wise colored pencil artist taught me to NEVER draw a face smaller than an egg. I’ve passed that on to my drawing students. It is tricky enough to capture a likeness correctly with photos or people that you can actually see and measure. Try doing it when you can’t see the details. Worse, try doing it when you can’t see the details on the photo AND the size of the drawn face is smaller than an egg, and there are TWO of these microscopic faces in the pictures.
A friend brought me this photo and asked me to draw it for her. I’ve shot it holding it in my hand so you can see how small it is, and how small the people are, and how truly miniature the faces are:
Then she said, “I enlarged it for you in case that will help,” and she gave me this:
Blurry and pixelated is how the tiny faces appear in this enlargement. Notice that the enlarged faces are perhaps about the size of my thumbnail now. (I have chunky hands, but even my thumbnail is no where near the size of an egg.)
She said that her daughter, a long time drawing student of mine, begged her to not bring this to me or be crazy enough to ask me to draw it. She didn’t listen to her daughter, whose advice was based on years of listening to me.
I like me a good challenge. Because this lady and I are friends, I told her I’d try. What does friendship have to do with it? The ability to communicate honestly is EVERYTHING when drawing or painting commissioned art. EVERYTHING. Besides, she flattered me by saying, “I figured if anyone would be able to do this, it would be you.”
Flattery often succeeds in getting me to try things that I know are crazy-hard (unless it involves the possibility of bodily injury).
The plan was to get it laid out and then shade in the faces. If she didn’t like the faces, I could just stop without having invested hours and hours. “No harm, no foul” seems to be the appropriate cliche’ for this approach.
I told my drawing students. There were guffaws, gasps of horror, looks of incomprehension, several “but you always say to never draw a face smaller than an egg”, and maybe a couple of screams.
Here is what I did to show the customer:
Blurry and small, just like the photo. Lacking in detail, it is hoped that the angle of the heads and the suggestions of features will bring to mind the correct little humans.
What did the customer, the mother of my long-term drawing student, the friend with whom I must have honest communication say about it?
More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
Now there’s a title and a half!
Remember my amazing and very advanced drawing student, Wendy Miller?
Her show ends this coming weekend. The last day to view it at the Courthouse Gallery (at 125 South B Street in Exeter) will be September 29, 2013. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Here are some sneak peeks at a few of her amazing pencil drawings. Some of the titles may have changed. (We had a fun brain-storming session in drawing lessons to come up with scores of entertaining titles, but Wendy may have chosen differently for the show.)
Does This Dress. . .?
Inside Out
(If you have southwestern leanings, this picture would be wonderful in your home – it is small, and I am sorry I don’t know the prices or size!)
Not Moving
(If you are even half as smitten by cats as I am, you understand this title.)
Not The Gateway
(This is because it is officially the “Pumpkin Hollow” bridge.)
Plums
(Did I mention that Wendy works in colored pencil too?)
These BELONG in your kitchen, dontcha think??
Reader’s Corner
(I would have called it The Knitting Chair myself!)
If any of you would like to purchase any of these drawings, I will connect you with the Awesome Wendy Miller.
Perhaps you’ve been wondering if I am still a California artist. Cruising to Alaska, having fun in Mineral King; is this chick even working any more??
I am working diligently on The Cabins of Wilsonia. You can follow the progress on my other blog, called The Cabins of Wilsonia. (Sometimes my own cleverness just slays me.) Actually, you can follow my thoughts about the process, because I’m not showing everything I’ve finished. Gotta have a little mystery, so people will want to buy the book!
My drawing quota for August has been met, and now it is time to work on some commissions.
I have 2 cabins in Wilsonia to draw that are outside the scope of the book. This is good, because income is good. This is not good, because doggonit, I will have 230+ cabin drawings and now I’m adding to the + side of things!
Nope. not complaining. It is tricky to choose the exact cabins and views that will please the cabin folks and also keep the book from looking all samey-samey on every page.
The entry-way door of this cabin is interesting to me.
It is also interesting to the people who own the cabin, but they are more interested in seeing the cabin in its entirety. So, I’ve done a couple of sketches so they can choose. The differences between the two choices are subtle – can you spot them?
In the last century, I began drawing people’s cabins in pencil while I lived in a cabin. These were mostly in and around Mineral King. My business name, Cabinart, was born at that time.
About ten years later, my friend Jennifer suggested that I make a book of drawings. Because this was all before print-on-demand, Amazon, assisted self-publishing, and all those other nifty tools, I called my cabin neighbor and friend Jane Coughran for help. She was a picture editor for Time-Life Books, and was thrilled to join me, as long as I allowed her to include historical photos. That decision took me about half of a second, and together in 1998, we published The Cabins of Mineral King.
Now that I am working on The Cabins of Wilsonia, I am looking for more space in my studio for all the new drawings. Thus, I located 18 unsold drawings from the Mineral King book (more, actually, but the others are too big for my scanner, so I’m not showing them.)
These drawings are available for anyone who would like to buy them. Six appear in today’s post with a BuyNow button; the other 12 will be in consecutive posts.
The prices are well below my current (and even my former) commission prices because I want to sell them and because they are on odd sized pieces of paper that might be a pain to frame. I’ve put the name as it appears in the book, the page # from the book, and the exact size of the piece of paper it is drawn on, in case you get lucky and have the perfect mat and frame waiting for one of these original pencil drawings.
Wow. That sounded bossy. Please excuse me – my intention is excitement, rather than shouting orders.
Wendy Miller is one of the best drawing students I’ve ever had the privilege of helping. I urge you strongly to see this show. And, many of her pieces are for sale. What an opportunity to own high quality pencil art at very reasonable prices. (Hint of urgency: I bought one already!)
Yes, I know it is Friday and Fridays are for Mineral King. However, I’m the boss of this blog, and this is Really Important News.
Move Over Mom, graphite on paper, 11×14, Wendy Miller
Courthouse Gallery of the Arts
125 South B Street
Exeter, California
Lean on Me, graphite on paper, Wendy Miller
Courthouse Gallery of the Arts
125 South B Street
Exeter, California
You “MUST” be on Facebook/LinkedIn/GooglePlus/Twitter to be considered a serious promoter of your work.
Oh yeah? Do I really need more time on the computer, with “virtual” friendships?
I chose LinkedIn, because the barbecue is too big and feels like a waste of time, I don’t like bars, and having not worked for big companies, I’m curious about the proverbial water cooler. (Ever seen farmers on the side of the road, their pick-ups side-by-side in opposite directions, windows down as they chat? That’s their water cooler.)
LinkedIn is a bit of a puzzle to this simple rural artist. I haven’t yet concluded if it is helpful, or if it is just another distraction from being in the studio. It takes so much time to follow the links, find people’s websites, examine their work, comment if they have a blog, and for what? Are other artists truly my potential customers? And as a definite regionalist (referring to my subject matter), is anyone outside of my area truly a potential customer? Do these people in Minnesota/Washington/New Jersey care about Mineral King or Sequoia or Wilsonia??
Sure, it is fun to be asked to join people’s networks, and I feel warm and fuzzy to see that I now have 120 connections. But why? I’m not having personal conversations with these folks. I’m not looking for a job, which seems to be the primary function of this virtual water cooler place.
I’m always hoping for sales and for commissions, but doubt if this is going to happen from clicking “Accept Invitation” or “Send Invitation”. And that seems to be the motivation behind every person’s request to join his network. We all want sales – we are in business, and businesses exist to make a profit.
On LinkedIn, I am somewhat active in an Art Business group. So far, I have picked up a few tips, commented occasionally, and enjoyed some good virtual conversation. This is conversation minus body-language and vocal inflections, so who can say how authentic it is??
In this Art Business group there are many beginning artists, seeking answers and help. (Most established artists are too busy working to be spending time talking to strangers on the computer. Yikes, what does this make me?) So many commenters obviously don’t take the time to reread what they have written – the typos almost give me a rash at times. It takes time to weed through the dross.
I pay attention to those who are articulate, friendly, professional and thoughtful. This sometimes causes me to look for their websites, which is a little tricky and time-consuming on LI. (lots of clicking and link following and window opening) Again I ask, “Why?” Is this my version of reality teevee, am I just procrastinating, am I seeking like-minded colleagues or do I just want to find a secret recipe to success by copying the business practices of Someone Who Gets It?
I could buy Linked In For Dummies. If I read it and followed its recommendations, would I begin to sell more work to strangers?
I’d rather be drawing, painting, teaching, or blogging. When I’m not doing those things (i.e. WORKING!), I’d rather be knitting, gardening, reading something, or hanging out in Mineral King.