And I Thought I Knew These Mountains

For awhile I had a link in these emails of my daily blog post to take you to the site on the internet so you could see the photos. Now there is some tomfoolery happening with my blog, so I am not putting the link in until it gets sorted out. If you would like to see the pictures, go to jana botkin dot net (written this way to confound the evil robots who are messing things up.)

After figuring out how to get the right third of the mountains correct, I worked my way back across the canvas, using a darkish blue to delineate the parts I could see. I marked the center of the picture be able to gauge my progress.

Wait! Where is Moro Rock?? It didn’t show up well from the top of Rocky Hill, and I forgot to be sure that it appears in the painting. I thought I knew these mountains. Recalibrating. . .

Why didn’t I know that the other 2/3 would be just as confusing?

Just my usual approach—the triumph of hope over experience.

Time to study all the photographs again and make some new sketches. I needed to see the section from Sawtooth north to Castle Rocks, and then the farthest north section from Castle Rocks to Moro Rock. Each photo had different information, and some were just useless. This made it easier, because there were fewer solutions to choose from.

I made the contrast weirdly strong in order to see details, and also put a few lines on some of the photos. Here are just two samples of what I was working from:

 

Sometimes there is a longer distance between Sawtooth and Homer’s Nose, sometimes Sawtooth barely shows, sometimes trees block peaks, and the light is always different, causing changing shadows that make it hard to recognize peaks.

There comes a point when decisions have to be made and paint must be applied. So, suck it up, buttercup, and make some progress here.

I believe these mountains are correctly placed, correctly sized, and accurately shaped. 

The next step could be either to detail the distant mountains or to get all the foothills accurately placed.

Accurately placed from which viewpoint?

I thought I knew these mountains.

 

 

Deciphering a Mountain Range

For awhile I had a link in these emails of my daily blog post to take you to the site on the internet so you could see the photos. Now there is some tomfoolery happening with my blog, so I am not putting the link in until it gets sorted out. If you would like to see the pictures, go to jana botkin dot net (written this way to confound the evil robots who are messing things up.)

The mountains in this oil painting commission need to be accurate.

I thought I had it all figured out, and then I got confused.

Are you confused also? These photos are all a little bit different, possibly getting incrementally more accurate, but probably looking identical to you.

In the photos, sometimes it looks as if Sawtooth is close to Homer’s Nose, and other times it seems as if there is more distance. Sometimes Sawtooth looks shorter than others, with the point barely visible.

What is going on here??

I have been gathering reference photos from different viewpoints, at different times of day, for a few months (years, actually). The views change with the viewpoints. That’s should have been obvious. 

Instead, I focused on whether or not I could see the mountains through the smog or the clouds.

Up until now, it hasn’t mattered that I have been faking the mountains that I can’t recognize or name.

So, I looked at a photo from my friend’s balcony, a photo from the freeway, and a photo from the top of Badger Hill, and one from Rocky Hill.

Then I sketched each one so I could understand the differences.

Now I know the distances that need to be between the peaks to emulate the view that Mr. Customer wants, and because of the annotated photo, I should be able to make the complete and correct shapes.

This stretch of mountains is just a third of the painting on the upper reaches. I will need to do this on the other 2/3, and then I get to start deciphering the hills and the groves. Maybe I can make that part up. Maybe I will have to.

I thought this would be an easy job because of the familiarity of the subject. . . no such thing. 

 

Painting a Frugal Pear

For awhile I had a link in these emails of my daily blog post to take you to the site on the internet so you could see the photos. Now there is some tomfoolery happening with my blog, so I am not putting the link in until it gets sorted out. If you would like to see the pictures, go to jana botkin dot net (written this way to confound the evil robots who are messing things up.)

What is a “frugal pear”?

So glad you asked.

I regularly read a blog titled The Frugal Girl. In April she posted a beautiful photo of a perfect pear. I asked her permission to paint it, which she graciously granted. 

Even though I often tell you that this is an art business and I have to paint the things that customers and potential customers will be interested in, occasionally there is an irresistible picture or subject, and I cave in.

One layer of paint would be very frugal, but I can do better. I signed it prematurely, but I was able to add another layer and preserve the signature.

Frugal Pear, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 (plus sales tax if you live in CA and shipping if we aren’t traveling in the same circles.)

Finding Information (Instead of Woo-woo Inspiration)

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

I was procrastinating (and yardening) in order to think. Sometimes procrastination is simply waiting for inspiration. If you are a person of faith, that is a time of waiting for the Lord to show the way through some of life’s more puzzling situations.

One of my puzzling situations was how to paint the mountains accurately on a commissioned oil painting when I didn’t have the right photos. Sure, Part A is in Photo A, Part C is in Photo C, but then Photo B doesn’t match or fit because it was taken from a different location or there is a tree blocking what I need to see.

I can fake mountains and foothills pretty well, but this particular painting is calling for accuracy. Well, actually, Mr. Customer is calling for accuracy in the mountains, and I fully understand and endorse his desire. The point of the painting for him, besides recalling a moment in time, is to be able to see specifically which peak is where. 

I had a good start, but there were some significant difficulties, such as what happens between Castle Rocks and Sawtooth. I could make a few white dabs, but when Mr. Customer and I try to name peaks, our efforts would be stymied by misleading information. (Heaven forbid that we participate in dis and mis information!)

The answer came while having lunch on Rocky Hill.

Let’s crop and enhance it.

Nope, this isn’t the span of mountains I am seeking. It’s in this photo, but those beeves are in the way.

I cropped out the cattle, messed with the exposure so the mountains were very distinct against the sky, and VOILA! (That is French for THIS IS WHAT I WANT AND NEED! Maybe. I don’t speak French.)

Was I seeking inspiration?

Maybe. People who aren’t artists think there is some sort of woo-woo inspiration thing that causes artists to do our thing.

I am more practical. There is beauty everywhere, subjects that would make great paintings, but as a professional, I have to take into account what my customers (and potential customers) want.

So, more than inspiration, I was seeking information, but needed help to find it, and then, right on time, the Lord provided. (If you are not a person of faith, you might credit “the universe”. That’s too woo-woo for me.)

 

 

 

Three Versions of the Favorite Scene

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

Version One

Mr. Customer gave me permission to show his 12×36″ commissioned oil painting in progress on the blog.

Version Two

This 10×20″ oil painting has been hanging around (literally), waiting its turn at the easel. It is just part of the series I began back in February to build up the inventory of my favorite subject in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Hmmm, I think I may have overdone the size exaggeration of Castle Rocks.

Version Three

This 18×36″ oil painting is one that is destined to hang in the dining area of my house, IF I ever complete it and IF it doesn’t sell (because I can always paint another one).

Thus we conclude eensy progress on three oil paintings of the best things about living in Tulare County in the spring, after a wet winter, when there is snow on the mountains, fruit on the trees, green on the hills, and gratitude and happiness in my heart.

Somewhere North of Tahoe, Explained

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

By “Somewhere North of Tahoe, Explained”, I mean the painting, not the location. Having received permission to show you the photos supplied by the customer, I thought you might like seeing what I had to work with and the final outcome, all together in one post.

The first photo is too dark but has a dramatic sky, snow on the distant peaks, and the meadow portion is green. The second shows better detail so that I can understand the landscape.

Both appear to have been taken using a wide-angle lens. This means that distant mountains seem farther and smaller than they probably look in person. 

Neither photo is the same proportions as the final painting needed to be.

Since both photos seem to have been taken from the same spot, I figured the log must be an important element. I can tell that the close shrubs are sagebrush, and the distant shrubs across the meadow are probably willows.

Most of my guesses are based on having painted similar scenes of Mineral King, but because they are guesses, I did this sketch for the customers to approve, or improve so it suited their vision.

I got lucky on two counts: 1. they liked everything; 2. they weren’t scared off by the scribbly sketch.

You saw all the steps; here is the gussied up photo when it was dry enough (and sunny enough) to take one for my records. (For some reason, the meadow appears fluorescent here, but fear not, it looks fine on the painting).The painting was picked up by the customer on Saturday. She sent me this photo of it in place.What a terrific solution for a window that looks out onto someone else’s cobwebby wall!From this:

To this:
. 

Somewhere North of Tahoe, Completed!

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

 

My drawing students and I have all experienced an odd phenomenon: we can look at a piece of our art and think “DONE”, and then look at a photo of it either on a camera or on a screen, and see everything that isn’t quite right. 

While studying the painting in the photo above, I made a list.

  • fix dark halos around sage
  • sage needs shadows on the ground
  • more splinters and cracks on log
  • better shadow on ground by log
  • shadow by log clump of sage
  • add light stems to sage
  • more gravel by log
  • bump up the ridge so not so straight
  • smooth out clouds on the right (some strong edges need to be softened)
  • tree on right looks unnatural – needs a bit more darks, and make the light parts more consistent
  • Fix 2nd tree on the left. The darks aren’t right – connect them? Add some light on the left side?
  • Finish sage on the bottom left of painting and the bottom right – missing details
  • slightly greener grass in meadow
  • dark patches added to meadow

That’s a long list, but each item is a small maneuver.

While I was engaged in this exercise, the customer emailed to say they are coming to town on the weekend, and no rush, but will it be ready? 

YES, IT WILL!

Have a look as it progressed to completion. These are tiny corrections, so you may not be able to discern the difference between before and after that list of details was finished.

 

This last photo is signed. When it is dry, I will spray varnish it and take the best photo I can. 

I have been communicating with the wife; this place, somewhere north of Tahoe, is special to the husband, who took the reference photos. I wonder if she has been showing him the emailed progression photos.

 

 

Seven More Photos of Progression

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

The session began with the commissioned oil painting in an odd size on Masonite board looking like this. 

I planted a tree on the left and indicated where 2 small trees would go next to the larger one.

The distant shrubs got a bit more details. Maybe. Maybe I was just licking the painting with the brush at this point.

The pair of smaller trees has some form now. Trees are growing in the distance on the right side.

Now there are definitely trees with definition on the right side, definitively.

Now I have started cleaning the various greens from my paintbrush by spreading them on the lower shrubs, which I am sure are sagebrush. This place might be similar to Mineral King in elevation, because it shares many characteristics.

Now the meadow has more paint, and the log has more details.

I am starting to really like this painting, which I have decided to call “Somewhere North of Tahoe”. Too bad I didn’t get my donkey in gear earlier this morning or I could have this painting finished now.

 

 

Odd Job, One Layer After Another

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

This painting felt too big and too hard, so I broke the process down into steps. First, I decided that the sky couldn’t be beyond my abilities, and I mixed up the blues.

It didn’t seem beyond my grasp to shape the tops of the distant peaks.

How hard could the rest of the sky be?

Not wanting to waste the blue paint, I used it up on the 12×36″ commissioned oil painting without a deadline (THANK YOU, DM!)

I’ve painted plenty of clouds before, and they are very forgiving. That seemed like a good next step. Just mix some gray, and put it where the clouds might be darker, then put white on the bright places and smooth the two together. 

By this time, I was cold and wanted to go in the house. Instead, I turned on the stereo and put in a couple of CDs that I used to love but haven’t thought about in years. With Selah singing to me, I tackled the mountain with all its detail.

The music was going, and I forgot about being cold, forgot about wanting to go inside, forgot about thinking it was too hard, and I painted as if inspired, because maybe I was.

Time flew, I was having fun, and when it was time to quit for the day, I didn’t want to. However, the two CDs were done, and my knees hurt from standing so long.

Selah helped so much that I ordered a new CD from them. (2020 was the release date of “Step Into My Story”; sounds new to me). Yes, I put actual Compact Disks on an actual stereo and listen to it through actual speakers, actually. Why wouldn’t I? I have these items and they work beautifully. I can crank the volume without injuring my ears, and sing along without injuring anyone else’s.

Two Large (Not Too Large)

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

Large One

Remember this mess?

It’s getting incrementally better.

It seems as if the paint dries more slowly on Masonite board than on canvas. Of course, that could be the result of ongoing winterlike weather.

Large Two

What is this elongated canvas for??

It is for the sketch on the bottom!

Mr. Customer has a memory of seeing snow covered Sierra from Highway 198 on a brilliant day in January of 1969, a year similar to this year in precipitation amounts. We have been exchanging photographs and discussing ideas for several months, and he has decided on a 12×36″ painting. It is a pleasure to be painting more of my favorite scenery, the quintessential* Tulare County scene, for someone who appreciates it as much as I do!

*purest, most characteristic, ultimate