I DID IT!
For the first time in many years, I kept track of how long this took. Getting these little people to be themselves took a very very long time. (Don’t ask—not telling). It is probably (past) time to raise my prices.
Finished.
Getting it Done Anyway
This may be the most difficult pencil drawing commission I’ve ever accepted. I’m getting it done anyway.
I showed you this yesterday. To prevent (or at least to mitigate) smearing, I work from top to bottom, left to right. Left-handers can go from right to left. (All of us need to remember to lay a piece of paper over the drawing rather than rest our hands on it while working on it.)
Each time I work on it, I revisit the faces to see if it is possible to get a closer likeness. This isn’t required by the customers, who understand that would be asking the impossible, particularly in the second section.
Not sure how to tie the various parts of the drawing together, so I left gaps for awhile. Then I started fiddling around trying to mesh one segment with the next.
I added some sky so the snow on the mountains shows up better.
Two ideas that have come as I labor through this: (1) The dudes on Tunnel Rock are slightly larger and moved over (from the photo) so they fit better with the segment above. (2) There was a gap beneath the sequoia tree, which I could have filled with a yucca as the photo showed; a better idea was to put Charlie’s bass drum with the name of the band. (Jazzberry Jam is the old name.)
Yeppers, getting it done anyway!
Dropped on my Head?
Maybe I had a stroke. A memory lapse. A fugue state. Whatever happened, I am now in the midst of the most difficult commission I have ever accepted. It breaks the Biggest Rule*, which is No Portraits, and always always always, No Face Smaller Than an Egg (in case I break the Biggest Rule).
That used to mean a chicken egg, but now, IF I were to accept a portrait commission, it would need to be an ostrich egg.
So what happened?? I accepted a commission with 14 faces the size of a hummingbird egg, and 6 faces the size of 1/4 of a hummingbird egg.
The weirdest part is that I am enjoying the challenge. This could be because I warned the customers that capturing likenesses was highly unlikely.
And yet, I am trying like crazy to capture likenesses.
Yeppers, dropped on my head.
*The Biggest Rule in my personal (unpublished) rule book of how to have an art business
Two Boys From Kansas
To show Friend/Customer how color will look on his drawing, I printed it on my unreliable printer and scribbled some color on the copy.
This passed muster (not sure about this term but it has military origins). So, I pulled out my good colored pencils (Polychromos by Faber Castell) and colored the original.
After I scanned it, I realized that I forgot to put color on 33, the number of the engine. So, now it has color there too.
Phew. Finished this very challenging pencil commission in time for Friend/Customer to deliver it for Christmas.
Maybe it is time for a long winter’s nap. . .
SIMPLY HOME RUNS UNTIL DECEMBER 29 AT CACHE.
2025 CALENDARS, AVAILABLE HERE.
One Hair Width
My friend/customer likes to challenge me. He thinks I can do things with my pencils that I am never sure I have the ability to do. We talk, I sketch, we talk some more, I revise, we talk some more—and that’s all before I begin the drawing.
I’ve shown you some of this in progress, beginning with this messy sketch.
When the very complicated and unforgiving fire truck seemed to be the easiest part, I KNEW I was in for a challenging rest of the drawing.
With time was running out, I set a deadline for finishing, and began on those little boys, working from almost impossible-to-follow photos.
After I had the boys drawn, I scanned it and sent it to Friend/Customer, who said the larger boy looked fine, but he didn’t like “the bend” of the smaller boy, whose head also looked too small.
I wanted to say, “Then why did you send me a photo with him bending?” Instead, I embiggened the little boy’s head and unbent him.
He said it looked good, then texted that Mrs. Customer thought the bigger boy’s cheek looked too chubby. How she could see this is a mystery to me. However, she knows the boys, and I trust her judgement.
The difference between a chubby cheek at this tiny scale is the width of one hair. THIS is the reason that one should never try to draw a face smaller than an egg, and I don’t mean a hummingbird egg. The boys were supposed to be drawn from the back, but the supplied photos show a tiny amount of faces. (Why am I unable to say, “NO, I CANNOT DO THIS!”?)
That tiny adjustment was accepted. Friend/Customer asked if I was going to put anything on the lower third of the drawing, and I replied, “Nah, I’m gonna quit and sign it now.” (Of course I was just kidding around, but wanted to poke at him for putting me through this stressful, make-it-up, mind-reading exercise.)
The grasses and wildflowers were also very challenging, because I had no photo for this completely fabricated scene. It was a large piece of real estate to cover with the tiny point of a pencil, but being the professional that I am, I soldiered on. When everything was planted and landscaped, I scanned the drawing yet again and sent it for approval.
The next plan is to print this out and experiment with color. I will put red on the firetruck, yellow on the sunflowers, and something on the boys’ tee shirts, most likely blue. Friend/Customer asked if I could do it on a copy first so that they can approve this non-erasable addition before it goes onto the original.
If the practice piece passes muster, I will add the colors. Then I might just go have a cigarette.* Stay tuned. . .
SIMPLY HOME
The show hangs until December 29. You can see the show at CACHE in Exeter, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, because as you know, everything looks better in person. The hours are posted on CACHE’s website. (Scroll down to see the hours.)
2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE
*Take it easy. . . I’ve never smoked in my life and never will.
Some Yardening, Some Walking, Some Drawing
(And I made cookies that morning too.)
TODAY OUR POWER WILL BE OUT FOR THE BULK OF THE DAY, SO IF YOU ORDER A CALENDAR, EMAIL ME, OR COMMENT ON THIS POST, YOU WON’T BE GETTING A RESPONSE UNTIL THE EVENING OR TOMORROW.
FIRST, 2025 CALENDARS. Available HERE.
YARDENING
I decided to dig the sweet potatoes that have been growing for around 6-8 months, if you count the time I started them In the kitchen window last spring. One sent its roots outside of the gopher basket, and of course that’s exactly where my shovel went. I put my wizened aged hand in the second photo so you can see how big they got. Last year they were about the size of my thumb, so I determined if this year wasn’t a decent crop, I wouldn’t bother again. “Decent”? That’s pretty subjective, considering this is the produce of about 10 plants. (Thank a farmer, if you know one. Without them, we’d be pretty hungry.)
Someone was watching from above.
My paperwhites bloom in December. Three Rivers doesn’t experience very much winter weather.
WALKING IN THREE RIVERS
Such a beautiful day required a walk. This sycamore is magnificent! A friend told me it had the largest leaves she’d ever seen on a sycamore; we figured out that she only sees the ones that grow in town, not the natives which are old and have lived by a source of water for decades (centuries??)
DRAWING IN PENCIL
Finally, I got myself into the studio to inch ahead on this very challenging commissioned pencil drawing. That “vending machine” was potentially going to keep me awake at night if I didn’t get it figured out. It may not be recognizable to a fireman, but that’s as “right” as it is going to be. (The paper is white; it looks gray because I used the phone under low light conditions to take this photo.)
I worked a bit harder on the two little boys, size, location, and shapes. Ditto for the sunflowers. I don’t know Kansas wildflowers, but I know that the state wildflower is a sunflower. If I can fake a vending machine on the side of a firetruck, I should be able to handle sunflowers. (No, it’s not a vending machine; that’s how it appeared to my ignorant self.)
SIMPLY HOME
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
You Want Me to Draw WHAT??
Good thing that you (and my customers) know that I know how to draw, or this rough sketch would cause everyone to back away slowly, wondering how I could call myself an artist.
This is a compilation, a conglomerate, a composite, of unrelated photos, following the ideas and instructions of a customer/friend with an interesting request. We have worked well together in the past; he answers all my questions thoroughly, tells me the truth, and I persist until he lets me know that I have gotten it.
When I started drawing on big girl paper. I was nervous, so I started with the sky, moving forward to the distant landscape, and then, as detailed and difficult as it is, the firetruck was still preferable to the little boys.
It has a section in the middle of the side that looks like a vending machine. WHAT?? That part can just sit quietly until I have no choice but to tackle it. It often behooves me to procrastinate on difficult sections, because . . . you know what I am going to say. . . say it with me. . . “MORE WILL BE REVEALED!”
The most difficult aspect of this type of drawing is figuring out what sizes the various parts need to be in relation to each other.
Each day that I work on this, I text the day’s progress to the customers. The reasons are so they know I’m working and tell me that I am doing a good job.
(When my drawing students want to draw things this difficult, I say no. When they persist, I am convinced they hate me.)
SIMPLY HOME
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
2025 CALENDAR, AVAILABLE HERE. $25
Sold in Spring: 17 Paintings, 3 Pencil Drawings
Sales were slow last year, mostly due to the fact of my three selling locations either being closed or taking a big hit of one sort or another.
This spring, things broke loose, opened up, took off. Have a look! (I may have forgotten some, because I fell out of the habit of keeping track.)
It was the usual blend of citrus, poppies, redwood trees, and Mineral King, with two of the river during peak run-off season. I do have a few other subjects, but these continue to be the most popular. The largest size painting was 11×14 10×30″; most of the buyers were either getting gifts or souvenirs. And people buy paintings of what they have experienced, so I do my best to keep things seasonally appropriate.
The pencil commission of the dog was from some old friends, and I am so touched that they still think of me when they have an art need. (“Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.”)
The pencil commission of a cabin was the biggest thrill, because it came from a stranger who found me through the internet, and a thrill because drawing cabins in pencil is my strongest skill, the thing I enjoy the most. Paintings sell better, so I will continue to paint. One day I might actually have confidence in my abilities in that department. Always practicing, always learning, and hopefully, always improving. . .
Tomorrow: Nine Things Learned in May
Drawing a Pennsylvania Dog in Pencil
Pencil Pennsylvanian? Pennsyl Pennsylvanian? Pencil Pencilvanian?
Never mind.
His name was Elvis, and some friends of his former owner commissioned me to draw him.
All those inferior progress photos were taken with an inferior phone camera. Here is the finished drawing, scanned, photoshopped, ready for delivery.
Finished Pencil Drawing of a Cabin
I sure do know how to stretch a story out. . . have you noticed how many people use the cliché “long story short”, and then proceed to make a short story even longer? I am sort of doing that here, except I break it into chapters for you, because of another cliché that applies to many blog posts: TLDR (Too long, didn’t read).
Here is scanned Minnesota cabin drawing before I scrubbed it up on Photoshop Junior.
Here it is converted to gray scale with all the chuds erased and the paper color also erased. Chuds are marks on the scanning bed—this word came from the days when I worked in a frame shop. Sometimes after you’d get a piece of art all sealed up under the mat and frame and backing, with paper secured over the back, you’d flip it over and there would be a little something under the glass. My co-workers called these little somethings “chuds”.
A few more thoughts. It was a thrill to have a stranger find me over the interwebs, because people are always contacting me to say that my Google ratings are too low and that they can help me. (No thanks, you creepy Stalking Strangers; how did you find me on Google if my ratings are too low??)
The customer was a pleasure to deal with. She mailed a check when I told her that PayPal takes a bite, she replied quickly when I asked for more information, and she even marked up the photos so I would know who was on first and what was on second.
Alas, I learned something the hard way. A few months ago, I raised my prices for pencil drawings. It had been years (decades??), and it just seemed like a wise move. BUT I DIDN’T RAISE THEM ON MY WEBSITE. Sigh.
Someone could use a business manager, an administrative assistant, a Girl Friday, a right-hand man. Hmm, I guess that’s the problem: my man is left-handed!
P.S. If you are curious about my prices, you can see them here: Pencil Drawing Prices. I only show the smallest and the largest, because sometimes it is all just too much information and too much work. (I’d rather be drawing.)