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. . .
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?
Being able to draw scenes like this is one of the main reasons I am a California artist in Tulare County. Don’t you just want to live here?
Forget it – we have high unemployment, bad air, and lots of fat people.
There. A one-woman population control committee. That’s me!
The commissioned pencil drawing presented several challenges. When a place is really beautiful, visually captivating, unusually interesting, my oh my it is difficult to choose the right view!
I didn’t intend to draw this view but thought it made a nice photo.
The door by which one enters a building is considered the “face” and is usually the most welcoming view.
Since it is actually the office of a ranching business, showing the tank with the name was a good commercial idea.
This used to be the front door. It faced the afternoon sun, and with the stone steps and the view beyond, I was a goner. But I knew it wasn’t even worth showing to the customer because this sort of view is not why people commission me to draw their houses and offices and cabins and ranch offices.
This is the view which attracted my attention to this beautiful house way back when. . . with the orange trees recently topped, the house really shows up well. Unfortunately, topped trees look sort of like a weird lumpy lawn.
I’m drawing my brains out, working on The Cabins of Wilsonia. (Okay, I’m not really drawing my brains out – I need them for stuff like posting to my blog. Try not to take me too literally here.) When I get commissions, I take a break from that Giant Project.
There is a house here in Tulare County that I have admired for years. It is on a road I really like – it is curvy, against the foothills, and it meanders through citrus country. A friend was hired to do some work at this house and provided the name and address of the owner.
I had the audacity to write a letter introducing myself and asking if he would like to hire me to draw the house.
He did not respond.
I was embarrassed, but got over it. If I was a really good business person, I probably would have followed up with a phone call. Alas, I don’t want to be sellsy, so I let it go.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the man’s wife, via a common friend. (She isn’t really “common” – she is actually quite special. But, what I meant is that she is a friend to me and to the wife. Try not to take me so literally here.) She asked if I could draw the house for her hubby’s upcoming birthday. She mentioned that I had written to her husband awhile back – I was a little embarrassed, but also pleased that my self-promotion hadn’t been too sellsy.
Trail Guy and I went to the house to get some photos. Now that he is retired, he gets involved in the more fun parts of my business. He also does errands for me so I can draw uninterrupted.
These are not the photos I am using for the drawing – because it is a birthday surprise, and because there is a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that the man reads my blog, I’m not showing you those yet.
On the off chance that he does read my blog, he won’t know which view I am drawing. Sneaky of me, yes?
Now that I only have Perkins, I am especially vulnerable to any and all cats. Try not to take advantage of this weakness, please.
If I didn’t love living in Three Rivers, I’d want to live here. Of course, I thought that when I was in Blowing Rock, Washington, and Downers Grove. Stop it.
2013 brings a new focus to my professional life as a California artist, a “regionalist from Quaintsville”.
I’ve told you about the book I am drawing, writing and publishing – The Cabins of Wilsonia.
You’ve seen drawings as they are completed and read my groanings as I wonder how I will ever finish the project.
I will spend 2013 focusing solely on the book. No painting, no shows, no painting for future shows.
(Okay, that’s not entirely true. I will paint for the 2 places that sell my work and I will paint commissions.)
I will also accept pencil commissions and teach drawing lessons. (This artist has no intention of starving!)
It means that I will post to this blog 2-3 times a week instead of 5 days.
Yeppers, you can follow the progress on my book at dubya-dubya-dubya-dot-the-cabins-of-wilsonia-dot-com.
I’ve separated out this project from my regular blog for several business reasons, most of which you might find boring. And I NEVER want my blog to be b o r i n g.
So, here we go – a complete year of drawing! Can’t wait. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE to draw? 😎
Yesterday I ended my post about inspirational beach photos by saying I felt so inspired I would go draw a cabin. You thought I was making that up?
This is a commissioned pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin. The cabin owners emailed me several photos with some specific instructions, and this is the result.
I love to draw.
In knitting, there are regular discussions about whether one is a product knitter or a process knitter. This is in reference to one’s motivation – is it the journey that you enjoy, or is it the destination?
When it comes to drawing, I am both a process and a product artist. The pencil feels like an extension of my hand which is an extension of my eye and my brain.This makes it immensely satisfying to build a drawing.
In addition to enjoying the journey, it is always a thrill to see the finished piece. Getting to my destination never loses its buzz. My latest drawing is usually my favorite.
(Painting is a completely different story, and in the interest of not going into a navel-gazing session here on the blog, we’ll just stick to drawing for now. You’re welcome.)
Seems to me that in order to finish a project, you have to want the product AND enjoy the process. One without the other equals more unfinished stuff, or UFOs, as knitters call them. (Un Finished Objects)
Finished pencil drawing for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia
Not yet. Looks finished. It isn’t. It will stay in the studio for awhile so I can evaluate it, refine it, spend some time adding a few more layers, emphasizing the contrast, darkening the darks, and finally, taking a decent photo.