Some flowers, a painting, and a lost and found sketch

A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I decided to ride bikes in Lemon Cove, because there are flat roads down there. We parked at the Lemon Cove Woman’s Club (I think that is the odd way the name is spelled), and we were just slayed by the orange blossom scent and the incredible Lady Banks rose at the clubhouse.

As wonderful as it all was, it was still a workday, so we headed back up the hill (in a car with a bike rack—remember, we were seeking flat roads to ride.)

Kaweah Arts sold a painting on their opening weekend, and I needed to replace it.

Sequoia Siblings, 6×18″
No, really, it will be good!

It was a bit of an overcast and chilly day, so I moved into the studio to begin a commissioned pencil drawing. (I’ll tell you more about this one later, as the details unfold.)

After studying 5 not-so-great photos, I made 3 sketches for the customer to determine if I could capture the Minnesota cabin for her parents’ anniversary gift. Then, I lost the sketches. Good thing I scanned them —HEY! I BET THEY ARE IN MY SCANNER!!

YIPPEE SKIPPEE, SURE ENOUGH THEY WERE!

Alrighty then, let’s just calm down. I worked off the laptop to start the drawing (because I couldn’t find the sketches).

About an hour later of checking angles, drawing, measuring, erasing, and repeating the dance several times, I ended up with this mighty impressive foundational drawing.

Gotta draw the dog before you draw the fleas. . . and this dog has many challenges. Never fear—I am up to the task.

SOLD (Took awhile. . .)

For several months, I had no work. Instead of worrying about it, I enjoyed guilt-free time at the cabin. Well, guilt-free except for the fact that the road was closed, and other people couldn’t enjoy Mineral King this past summer. Life is a series of good things and not-so-good things; we do our best with what we have been given. Or I do. Most of the time. I don’t know what you do. Maybe you just complain. . .

My point, and I do have one, is to show you that I did have a few sales. One must pay closer attention when times are a little hard, because the negatives are often much louder than the positives. Here are my positives from that slow period plus a couple of months beyond.

I am guessing on the titles and some of the sizes. Closies count. . .

Pencil, 6×9″, a commmission drawing
Pencil, 11×14″, a commmission drawing
Oranges, 5×7″, oil on panel
North Fork, 10×10″, oil on canvas
Navel, 6×6″, oil on canvas
Sawtooth, 8×8″, oil on canvas
Unspiced, oil on canvas, 6×12″
Alta and Moro After a Storm, 6×18″, oil on canvas
Craig’s View, 6×6″, oil on canvas, a commission painting
Orange Pair, oil on panel, 5×7″
Big & Tall, oil, 6×12″
This is acrylic on a 1’x3′ panel.

Drawing Sequoia, Not Just Chit-Chatting

Yesterday I showed you some oil paintings of Sequoia, the non-Mineral King part of the park. Today here are some pencil drawings (I LOVE to draw—did you know that??)

These don’t have sizes and prices. Some are sold, some might be framed, and most are probably just in a flat file in my studio. (If you want to buy any, email me at cabinart AT cabinart DOT NET—written this way so robots won’t bother me any more than they already are—and I will see if I can find the original for you.)

One or two might be available as a reproduction print. (Since I am old now, according to The Beatles, I can’t remember.)

Four Guardsmen (minus the smaller foreground trees that block these giants
Clover Creek Bridge, a fabulous structure NOT built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of about 3 pretty bridges in Tulare County. YOU CAN LEARN MORE HERE: Tulare County Treasures
Crescent Meadow
This was an experiment, and it became a blog post for my friend Carrie Lewis’s website.
This was a commission, a combination of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, showing various seasons.
This was a commission for my UPS driver, whom we saw in the Park last week. Great guy!
The Marble Fork of the Kaweah flows through the Lodgepole campground.
The Parker Group in Winter
There are impressive views of Moro Rock from the lower parts of the Generals Highway.
“Two Big” (I like this title!) This one was recently completed, is 11×14″, and can be yours for a mere $200!
I drew this from a photo shared with me by one of my drawing students (THANK YOU, JANE!). It is titled “Viewing the General”.

Gollll-eeee, I do love me some pencil. And sometimes I just cannot fathom that Sequoia National Park is visible from my house!

Fast or Good?

My drawing students get to hear me say this regularly: “You can be fast or you can be good; I get to be both.”

Now I am working on a drawing that is very very important to me, and I am choosing to be good, but S L O W.

What’s with all the pressure? This is a house I met once and immediately admired, belonging to my closest friend in the world at the time.

I began this commission pencil drawing in September.

I got this far and decided that it needs to fill the paper more, because I don’t want to just fill the bottom inch with gravel. So, I have erased the lower parts and will stretch the slate and brick walkway farther down the paper.

The shrubs are being placed willy-nilly as I see fit, because I am working from about 5 different photos, all taken at different times of the landscape development. As long as there are lavender shrubs with color at the end, my dear friend will be happy.

This is the absolute best I know how to do.

Back to the Easels and the Drawing Table

After several months of no work (i.e. lovely free time at the cabin without deadlines or guilt), work is beginning to trickle back into my days.

First, a pencil commission. (I still love to draw.)

This was the little sketch for the customer to approve or amend.

She made a couple of suggestions, and I scribbled a few notes for further verification.

This is a house I visited. Actually, I visited the people there, but the house really stuck in my memory as very attractive. It will be quite fun to draw.

I worked on the herd of buffalo for the upcoming show at CACHE, called “A Bovine State of Mind”.

It might be finished, but I will wait to sign it until I am completely sure there is nothing left to improve.

I remembered that the Holiday Bazaar in Three Rivers is coming November 18, 2023. This is the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving. It is time to think about beefing up my inventory of smaller paintings for this annual boutique at the Remorial Building. (Remorial, liberry, prolly. . . bet you can translate these words).

Yep, messy, but the first layers always are.

It’s great to be producing art again, both with pencils and oil paints!

Another Interruption, This Time for Drawing

 

Once again, we interrupt our broadcast for this drawing.

Ever notice the annoyance of the English language, where a noun and a verb can be exactly the same word? And I didn’t actually mean “broadcast”, because we are in a series of posts about cabin life. This drawing fits the category of cabin life but it isn’t about cabin life; it’s about pencil drawing.

Get on with it, will ya??

An old friend (that seems to be where most of my work comes from, but new friends and young friends are welcome to commission me; even friends I haven’t met yet are welcome here) expressed an interest in a drawing from The Cabins of Wilsonia. 

Alas, it was gone.

We had a few options: 1. Oh well, sorry; 2. Buy another book, Sir, and rip out the page; 3. I can draw it for you again.

My wise friend chose option #3.

Have a look at the original photo that I used.

As always, working from a photo isn’t straightforward copying. Every photo has its indiscernible parts, because real life is messy. 

Because my friend was wanting the drawing from the book, I used that old drawing to help me make decisions. (I didn’t lie: although the original is gone, it’s still on my laptop.)

Then, I thought about it a bit more and decided that I ought to be able to do a better job now. That was 10 years ago, and I was cranking out those 272 (was that really the number??) drawings at a rapid pace. This time, there was no deadline. My friend’s only requirement was specific dimensions to go with another drawing, like a matched set.

Here is the other drawing.

And here is its new partner.

(The difference in darkness has something to do with the computer reproduction, not a change in pencils or pressure on the paper.)

This picnic table appears in the chapter called “Brewer”, which is the name of the road in Wilsonia depicted in that chapter. (I got clever that way.) The funny part is that I could not remember where this photo actually was, and I just put it on Brewer because I thought it looked good with the chaise lounge. 

Apparently my friend thought the same. He has actually had a strong influence over my art career, so this makes sense.

Thank you, DB!

Drawing Because I Can

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Sometimes I draw simply because I love to draw. I try to hold back, because my flat files are full. When I have a good reason and know the drawing will not simply be stored in my files, then get outta my way.

(“Outta” is like “prolly” and “liberry”: words I like in spite of being an editor and a proofreader.)

An acquaintance did me a big favor, so I am drawing her cabin. 

I started several months ago, then set it aside because of paid work. My work priority order is this: 1. commissions with a deadline; 2. commissions without a deadline; 3. building up inventory of subjects that will prolly sell; 4. reworking paintings that haven’t sold; 5. whatever I feel like painting or drawing.

This one is considered to be Category #2. The customer isn’t commissioning me because she doesn’t know she is a customer. I am commissioning myself.

What does commission mean? That’s another topic for another blog post.

This is the drawing before I tackled it with Photoshop Junior to prepare it for eventual printing, which most likely won’t happen.

And this is after I converted it to grayscale and erased any errant lines or spots, most likely the result of a scanner screen that WILL NOT come clean, which is most likely the result of scanning paintings that aren’t quite dry, which is most likely the result of being in a hurry, which is most like the result of any number of unfortunate incidents such as not planning ahead, pulling weeds or taking walks instead of working, or choosing to draw something without a deadline instead of painting to build up inventory.

Where were we?

Oh. The finished drawing.

Now I am outta here.

Quick Day, Quick Draw

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The very fastest days are the ones spent in my studio, drawing with pencils, listening to podcasts. It took me about 2 hours to do this drawing. . .

NOT!* Just felt like it because there were so many interesting podcasts to listen to. And, because I love to draw. (have I ever told you that before?)

We will miss our UPS driver when he retires. And we will probably learn to really like the new one. 

*A long time ago I had jobs where I would work the entire day, then look at my watch and see it was only 9:30 in the morning.

Better When Scanned

This pencil drawing commission of a Mineral King cabin is finished. 

First, I went over the whole drawing with a giant magnifying glass and fixed everything that needed a bit of polishing.

Then, I scanned the drawing.

No matter how carefully I clean the glass on the scanner, there are always little black specks. No matter how many different ways I adjust the settings for scanning, there are always gray areas that should simply be paper white.

So, I clean it up with Photoshop Junior (Photoshop Elements).

Can you tell the difference? At this small size, it might be difficult to see the little improvements. However, I keep track of (almost) all my work, because I never know when I might need a good version for a calendar, some cards, some sort of advertising, to impress a potential customer. . . and to think I used to either make a photocopy or take a slide! 

Speaking of calendars, there are still some 2023 Mineral King HIKES calendars available here.

$20, including tax and mailing.