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.

More Orange Groves in Pencil

I have two new pencil commissions, both of orange groves with foothills and mountains in the distance. 

I love this stuff! (Big happy face emoji could fit here but this is a blog, not a text, and we speak English here, not hieroglyphics).

Here are 4 ideas for the customer to choose from or develop into something else. Good thing she knows that I can draw.

She didn’t specify whether she prefers horizontal or vertical, nor did we establish which part of the mountains she prefers: Alta Peak with Castle Rocks or a bit farther south to show Sawtooth and Homer’s Nose.

She did say that she wanted a little bit of color.

You probably have a clear favorite but it is the customer’s opinion that will prevail.

More About Drawing as a Skill

I teach people how to draw, working from photographs. Because it is a skill, not a talent, we need a still photograph, on paper, so that we can measure, rotate the photo and the drawing to view it from other angles, and work as slowly as necessary.When I began drawing, I was a slave to the photographs that I worked from. I learned how to draw from real life, but nothing would hold still long enough so that I could measure. I didn’t have the skill, the instruction, the freedom and confidence to just loosen up and let my pencil fly around, getting close enough. 

It has taken me many years to be able to draw without reference photos. I can only do this on a few subjects, and I have to check with at least one of three things before I am convinced that it is a decent piece of work: 1. a reference photo, 2. the scene in real life, 3. after a bit of time, just study it to see if it is truly believable.

I am still learning. You too can learn.

Here are links to previous blog posts about drawing lessons:

Lighthearted Lessons

(More) Lighthearted Lessons

Drawing Lessons — Fast or Good

P.S. Today’s drawings are from my drawing students.

Pencil Oranges, Aiming for Perfection

It is time for me to really study this pencil commission. The pencil drawing needs to be perfect, because the next step is to spray it with a fixative, to prevent smearing when I add colored pencil to a few areas. 

Mr. Customer asked for clouds, so I decided some wispy types would add texture, variety, and interest without becoming too busy. Everything else is highly detailed, so the sky needs to be somewhat visually restful. 

All this remains to be inspected:

  1. The trees must look believable as they recede into the distance. 
  2. The ground needs to have texture, but not so much that it competes with the leaves.
  3. The closest branches need to have the largest leaves and fruit.
  4. The sky needs to be dark enough to show off the clouds, snow on Sawtooth, and the windmachine.
  5. The little girls have to be perfect. 

After I addressed all those items, I scanned the drawing, cleaned up the scanner messes (it ALWAYS leaves spots, and the paper color scans as gray), and emailed it to Mr. and Mrs. Customer for their final approval.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time, or as my dad used to say, “Time will tell”. Meanwhile, I will continue to. . .

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

Oranges in Pencil, The Point

What’s my point? Not the point of my pencil. The point of all this careful drawing and explaining is to make everything in this custom pencil drawing believable.
I have added a ladder to the wind machine, smoothed the sky, and begun the lower leaves and oranges on the bottom left. Have a look at the 2 little girls, the way I see them under the giant lighted magnifying glass. They truly are almost impossible to draw and hardly show up. But they will have color on them at the end, so they will be more visually significant.

Building up the foliage is tedious; some might say “restful”; others might call it “zen”. The tedium is alleviated by the continual need to check the sizes of the leaves and fruit, thinking about where they are landing on the rows of diminishing sizes. 

I also worked on the ground a bit. I want it to look real and as always, believable. Usually within an orchard, there are many dead leaves, broken sticks, and dropped fruit. So, I will put some of this in but be careful to not have it too noticeable, because it isn’t the point. What is the point??

Believability!

And More Orange Groves

Remember this painting?

A friend saw it and wondered if I could draw a similar scene in pencil, this time adding in two little girls. Because I love to draw, love to draw and paint orange groves, and really like my friend, I said yes.

Ahem. There isn’t a photo of the two little girls from the back, walking together holding hands, because one doesn’t even walk yet. 

My friend sent me photos of the girls as they look now. Then I went to The Duck (search engine DuckDuckGo) to see if I could find helpful photos. 

From those photos, I did this little sketch.

Good thing my friend knows that I know how to draw. He was very taken with the sketch, so I think this idea will work, IF I CAN DRAW TWO LITTLE GIRLS THAT I CANNOT SEE!

No pressure or any undue stress.

Just shut up and pick up your pencils, Central California Artist.