A Challenging Pencil Commission

A regular customer wants to republish a book. The original drawing from the cover is missing, and it doesn’t look very good when scanned from a printed book. They asked me to redraw it, and to add color so it has the look of an old hand-tinted black and white photo. All I have to look at is a blurry dark photo and someone else’s drawing. Someone Else (never met her) drew it using the provided photo and other photos of unknown origin. This means there is some vital information missing. It is very difficult to draw from other people’s drawings, particularly when you don’t know the subject very well.

I saw this and thought, “Oh Missy Scarlett, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies”. I have painted and drawn a few mules, but it was under strict supervision and with good reference photos!

At least it is in a place I recognize and have drawn or painted a couple of times. A couple of dozen times!

Well, oops. Where is the mule? Where is the man leading the mule? Where is the man sitting on the boulder? Where did the previous artist get those images?

Where will I get those images? I can’t accurately and confidently draw things that I cannot see.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

5 Things in the Life of a Central California Artist

Aren’t lists helpful? Back in the olden days (the 1970s), I was working some dumb boring job. At the end of some days, I got to see my best friend who was in college in the same town. I’d trudge through the day, doing my mindless boring job, and every time I thought of something to tell her, I’d write it on a little piece of paper. When I got to her house, I’d pull the list out of my pocket and share my thoughts or questions or ideas with her. She used to laugh, but it wasn’t derisive. I think she laughed because it was a bit weird, but so be it. It worked. Still does.

Turning Leaf XIV, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $50

(Email me using the Contact the Artist tab above to buy)

But I digress. Here are a few things happening this month in the life of this Central California artist. This will give you an idea of all that is involved to earn a living as an artist in this rural place.

  1. The upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia is supposed to be arriving on or around November 21. The early bird price of $70 including tax and shipping is good until November 19.
  2. There is a lovely little show in the dining room at Sierra Subs in Three Rivers called “Hidden in the Leaves”. I have 2 paintings in the show, one of which is shown above.
  3. My 2015 calendar of oil paintings called Beautiful Tulare County is now available (see Monday’s post)
  4. On Saturday, November 15 from 9 – 4 at the Three Rivers Memorial Building is fun little arts/craft fair called the Senior League Holiday Bazaar. It is a low key event, with a big variety of items for sale by those who made said items. One of the hottest things there is homemade jelly and jam. (I hope another hot item is my calendar!)
  5. I’m working on a very challenging pencil commission right now. Stay tuned for details and in-progress pictures.

Cabin Commission

The upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, will have 268 pencil drawings of cabins and cabin details.

Not everyone is pleased with the way I have represented his cabin. Most people are gracious about it and know that the book is an overview, rather than a documentary or a complete album.

One friend was not sure about how to tell me that she didn’t want to buy the original drawing of her cabin. She asked a few polite questions, and I got it. I told her that I can redraw it for her any way that she wants. She said, “But I don’t want to add to your work!” I replied, “Darlin’, that’s how I earn my living!” We laughed, and she commissioned me to draw her cabin.

I took many photos and then did a sketch for her, complete with lots of notes.

After I was sure that I knew what she wanted, I started.

commissioned pencil drawing of cabin in progress

After I got this far, I got a little worried and needed reassurance that I was on the right track.

She gave me the okay, so I finished it.

Commissioned pencil drawing of cabin

 She was thrilled, so of course so am I!

Fancy Drawing of a Not Fancy Cabin

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.

Complicated Drawing of a Simple Cabin

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!

Crazy Hard Pencil Commission – DONE!

Remember that crazy hard pencil commission of those two miniature fuzzy faces? (You can see it in the October 2 blog post.)

The customer/friend asked me to make an adjustment to the boy’s cheek because his face was more narrow than round in real life (couldn’t prove it by me or by that photo). Adjustment made, I began the rest of the drawing. It turned out like this:

She thought that by adjusting his cheek, his face went out of balance. Yup. His face is crooked. Why? You might need a microscope to see it. Why don’t I just show you the corrected version:

Can you see the difference? Neither can I, but it showed up under the giant magnifying light at the drawing table. After I got the customer’s approval, I scanned it, then spray fixed it, then added a bit of red to the trailer and blue to the trike.

No, you aren’t blind. I didn’t scan it again after adding the color.

Commissioned Pencil Drawing of Wilsonia Cabin

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 Good Challenge (Or a Crazy-Hard Pencil Commission)

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. . .

What Is The California Artist Doing?

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.

Wilsonia cabin door pencil drawing

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?

sketches for a pencil drawing commission of a cabin