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.

Drawing in My Little Studio

This is my studio when the flowering pear tree (a leaning tree) was at its peak fall color. The smaller building in the back is where I draw; the closer one with the open door is the workshop where I paint (and where the cats are fed and kept safe at night).

Where was I before all that irrelevant information?

Drawing. Drawing in the studio, using pencils. Drawing a cabin. Drawing a Mineral King cabin. Drawing a commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin.

(There. That should satisfy that greedy search engine’s demands for short sentences and repetition.)

Remember this?

It morphed into a real drawing. Here are the steps, some of which you have already seen (but I understand that you actually have a life, and may have slept since then or perhaps even drank a bit.)

Meanwhile, the rains came down outside the studio, pingety-ponging off the metal roof. How’s that for a description of the blessed, life-giving, relief-bringing, green-making, dust-removing rain?

P.S. The drawing will be better when it is scanned, rather than photographed in low light with a substandard camera. Thanks for bearing with me on this process. 

 

Dabbling, Puttering, Inching Forward

This is a scarf, knit for a friend. The colors reminded me of her, and I couldn’t decide between 2 different yarns, so I got both. It is really a dark burgundy, but both the camera and the computer lie.

None of our three cats are allowed indoors. Oops. Is that Pippin in the living room again?

Stop puttering and get to work!

I have two 10×20″ oil painting commissions to complete and mail before Christmas. This is tricky to accomplish unless I put down the camera, put down the knitting, and plant my feet in front of the easels.

It might be tricky anyway, because the photos are less than stellar, less than clear, and full of murky indiscernible things. 

After getting the beginnings of both those oil paintings accomplished, I retreated to the studio for a bit of forward motion on the commissioned pencil drawing.

Inching forward. . . 

Art Emergency

A long time customer has regular art emergencies. She is Important, and works with Important People. Sometimes those Important People suddenly retire, and then she needs a custom pencil drawing on fairly short notice.

For clarification: she was a friend long before she became Important, but all my friends are important to me. The friendship factor is what keeps me saying yes to her when she calls with an art emergency.

Previous pencil drawings for art emergencies

 

 

The beginnings

The request appeared one month before the piece was needed. The photos arrived about a week later. Since I didn’t take the photos, I don’t feel free to publish them. They were downright scary, but I am a professional, and I managed to suppress my fear (although I whined to my drawing students, warning them to NEVER say yes to projects like this–small size, design complications, poor photographs, tight deadline).

Here it is in progress. This is when I decided that 9×12″ is probably too small to be cramming in this many scenes, particularly with this many tiny windows. (Two years ago I decided that 8×10″ was too small.)

I felt fairly certain that the recipient of the drawing doesn’t follow my blog (our paths have crossed a few times, but he has been Important since I was a kid, so friendship isn’t a factor here.)

Finished!

I was able to finish the drawing in a timely manner, and even was able to deliver it.

Congratulations on a long a fruitful career, 31 years of serving the City of Visalia, Mr. Important Person!

 

 

Drawing on the Side

What does “drawing on the side” mean? Is that like salad dressing on the side?

In this case, it means that I have a pencil drawing in progress that I keep with my drawing lessons supplies. That way, if I get to lessons early or if no one shows up for class (REALLY?? Yeppers, it has happened), there is something I can work on instead of just knitting.

You thought what? That I would play on my phone? If you thought that, you don’t know me very well.

The back tree needs to be darker and there is a little patch of unfinished background.

No rush. It isn’t a commissioned pencil drawing. It is just a way to A. indulge my love of drawing, B. show my students a piece in progress, C. give them a chance to evaluate my work because we must tell one another the truth, and I want to know if they have been paying attention, D. be productive in otherwise empty time.

More Cold Water Drawing

This is the first drawing titled “Rock and Roll”, one that appeared in my 2018 calendar, sold, and now has been requested by a new customer as a do-over.

On a rainy weekend in Mineral King, I worked on the new drawing for another few hours.

 

This time I remembered to bring my Tombow pencils and also the original photos. I try to work from photos so that I am not simply interpreting a previous interpretation. Flowing water isn’t an exact subject, but I want to keep close to the original view because the customer recognized this section of river. If I stray too far, she might say it doesn’t look right.

I wrote a few reminder notes on the facing sheet, and then because of the overcast and rain, it got too dark to see the details, up there in the Land of No Electricity, Internet, or Cell Service. 

Drawing Cold Water in a Hot Month

Someone I know saw a drawing she loved at my show “Images of Home” last November and December at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery. It was called “Rock & Roll”, and she wasn’t the only one who loved it. It sold.

She got in touch to ask for the drawing, and I showed her three others that are available.

Every Drop

Life Source

Rough & Tumble

Nope. She wants Rock & Roll. 

So, I offered to draw it again, and she said yes. Her deadline is about 6 weeks away, but because it doesn’t require a drafting table with a straight edge, I took it to the cabin and dove in.(Yep, I said that.)

All I had was my 2017 calendar picture to work from because it was too hot in the studio down the hill to look for the original photos.

I also didn’t remember to take my current favorite pencils (Tombow) up the hill, but I have plenty of other pencils to choose from. It was quite pleasant to just put in an hour or two for several days running.

Using pencils, oil paint, and murals, I make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

(Unless you just filled your gas tank on the way back from the grocery store before opening your electric bill.)

 

Testing my Skills with a Sunflower

While you were reading about Mineral King, I may have been cowering in the air conditioned studio, testing my drawing skills with a sunflower. 

Does that make you curious?
My Kansas artist friend Carrie Lewis gives a colored pencil drawing challenge each month in her magazine Colored Pencil Magic.

The last issue had a few references to me, so she sent me a copy of the magazine. I proofread for her, and then asked permission to take that month’s drawing challenge, working from a sunflower photo that she provided. Of course it was a sunflower, the state flower of Kansas.

I cropped it significantly, because there was an odd-shaped scrap of good paper ready to go. (That means easy to grab.) I didn’t spend a ton of time drawing it because a sunflower is a forgiving shape, and I just wanted to start coloring. (Serious colored pencil artists call it “painting”, but I just can’t bring myself to call it that, not being serious about colored pencil and being an actual painter.)

I rotated it around multiple times, both while working on the shapes and while coloring. My printer is a bit weak, so I worked from Carrie’s photo on the laptop. See? Weak.

Yellow isn’t an easy color for me to use, probably due to the fact that I rarely draw (or even paint) yellow things, so I don’t know yellow colored pencils very well. Hence, a cheat sheet.

When it was finished, I scanned it.

Then I got the bright idea to test my drawing skills, since I accidentally drew it almost the same size as the weak print. Can I actually see proportions and shapes correctly? To find out, I traced the print and then laid the tracing over the completed drawing. 

Not great, wouldn’t work on something that really mattered such as a building or a face, but it’s not too bad for just sort of throwing it together while cowering in the air conditioning.

Next time, maybe I should warn myself that there might be a test and then try harder.

P.S. Thanks, Carrie!

 

Look What I Tried Next With Colored Pencils

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blogSometimes I just live on the edge. In 2019 I took a plein air oil painting workshop, wanting to learn the skills of slamming out a painting before the light changed too much. It wasn’t easy for this studio artist who is used to a fixed environment, working from my own zillion photos. It wasn’t easy for this near-sighted artist who has fought to see clearly her entire life to enjoy painting loosey-goosey. Blurry on purpose?? Why would anyone do that?

Being somewhat adventurous with my art doesn’t come easily to me. However, I took a clipboard with a piece of good paper and my box of twelve (times two) colored pencils down to a spot along the creek in Mineral King.

First I photographed the scene so I would know what to do if/when the light changed or if it took too long and I needed to finish it in the studio. (Please, please, let me work in my studio, you mean bossy fake plein air artist!)

Then I began drawing, this time using Polychromos, because they don’t need sharpening as often as Prismacolor and they don’t break as easily. I chose brown for sketching, because the plein air oil painting teacher had us put our first layers down in a brown.

This is hard. Maybe I should just do the Honeymoon Cabin as it looks from this perch in the dirt.

Never mind. Focus, Central California Artist!

Forget all that brown. I want to start coloring, because I know it will take umpty-umpt layers to even vaguely approximate the colors I see.

This is hard. These colors are inadequate. My hiney is sore from sitting on this dirt perch. Other people are hanging out together having fun.

Why exactly am I doing this?

No good reason. Guess I’ll stop now and head back to the cabin. 

Maybe I will finish this, and maybe I won’t. I have several paintings waiting to be done, and there will be payments when I am finished. 

Sounds like an easy decision.

Is 12 Enough Colors for these Little Projects?

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog. I wonder why colored pencil manufacturers chose to put twelve colors in their starter sets. Why not ten? Why not fifteen?

I wonder why they chose the twelve that they chose. Why this red and not that one? Why these particular blues? And greens?

Life is full of unanswered questions.

Here is my colored pencil drawing using only twelve Prismacolor colored pencils.

Here is my colored pencil drawing using only twelve Polychromos colored pencils (made by Staedtler).

Wait until you see what I tried next. . .