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/blog. Sometimes 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. . .

 

Variety in the Working Life of a Central California Artist

There you go, Search Engines. Hope you like that ridiculously long title.

I had a day of great variety, all of it interesting, all of it productive

  1. This book, Adventures in Boy Scouting, will soon be available as an ebook through Bookbaby. It took a lot of learning, and a lot of proofreading. The print version is available at the Three Rivers Mercantile, Three Rivers Historical Museum, and BookBaby.com. 
  2. After enjoying the nice fire in the house (in the wood stove—no need to be concerned) while proofreading (we had a few cold days), I moved to the painting workshop to do a bit of polishing on the Fiftieth Bouquet oil painting. “Polishing” here means making some small corrections. The roses, red bow, vase, coaster and background are not finished.
  3. I detailed the mountains and put a second layer on my favorite scene.

  4. Then I left the painting workshop and moved into the studio to finish a drawing. After scanning it, I sent it to the customer to get her approval before spray-fixing it and then adding color.

It was a good day of working on projects that are all presold. While it is fun to just paint and draw what I want, it is more satisfying to paint and draw for other people, particularly when they choose subjects that float my boat.

In case you have forgotten because I haven’t shouted this at you for awhile:

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.

 

Crying “Uncle” and Throwing in the Towel

The agreement with my customer M was that I would try to capture a likeness in her Dad’s face. If I was unable to do that, we would understand and accept that this job is beyond my ability. It is EXACTLY the kind of drawing job that I have struggled with for many years, and finally decided to stop accepting commissions for.

BUT, M is my friend and a great communicator, and I want to please her. I also like testing myself from time to time to see if I have improved.

Attempt # 3 was a reject.

Attempt #4 was a reject.

Attempt #5 was sent to M with this: “If this one isn’t right, then I am crying “uncle”, accepting the fact that this is beyond my ability, and throwing in the towel. (Jeopardy music in the background as the drawing awaits its fate. . .)”

I recognized that I was falling into the trap of trying to do the impossible. I thought that I had chosen a large enough piece of paper to include the whole scene with faces large enough to draw, but I was wrong. The most minute change, a slight dab of the eraser, half a pencil point width change, using HB instead H or H instead of 3H (those are pencil hardness/darkness indicators), a vague variation in paper texture. . . all I am doing is tickling the paper and hoping something works. 

So, for once in my career of accepting challenges that are beyond my ability to execute well in a manner that pleases the customer, I am willing to quit on this one and STOP SAYING YES TO THESE TYPES OF COMMISSIONS.

Nope. Didn’t look like M’s dad. Bye-bye, drawing.

P.S. M, it is not your fault. It is mine for saying yes when I knew better. Thank you for your patience and for the opportunity to try one more time and then finally accept reality.

See? I have tried and tried and tried with these tiny faces in the past:

More Can’t See ‘Ems  This one worked because the customer didn’t know the people personally.

Custom Pencil Drawings Another one where the customer said a likeness wasn’t necessary.

P.S. I didn’t cry. It is just a figure of speech. Thank you for your concern.

 

 

Eensy Forward Motion

As I struggle along on this pencil drawing commission of faces that are too small for me to capture a likeness, you get to see the progress.

This is the original photo.

This is my first attempt at capturing M’s Dad accurately.

This is a scanned and enlarged version of the faces.

Here is the second version of my drawing.

And finally, so you will understand what I am working with, here is the drawing with a ruler.

Phooey. The inch marks don’t show.  M’s dad’s face is 1-3/4″ high. That’s all.

That’s all I can stand of this today. I will go pull some weeds, because that doesn’t require perfection.