Odd Job, Day 2

After my customer sent me a chart of colors to include, it was time to try it with Photoshop Junior to see how it would look. Looking at her list of colors within the Coat of Arms, I saw that green was missing, so that became the background. 

This is actually the 2nd or 3rd iteration from many conversations and adjustments as we worked out the design together.

The pointy-pokey waving arms didn’t please her, so she sent many other design to consider. I developed a more ribbon-like look on the left side.

The symbolic Farewell Gap needed simplification too.

We had a few more discussions about black outlines, smoothing out some of the bends in the purple ribbon.

 

Everything is now ironed out, so it time to move to canvas. 

Tomorrow. . . 

P.S. I am guest posting once a week on the Mineral King Preservation Society website, under the topic of “An Artist’s Inspiration”. The first post went live yesterday. www.mineralking.org

Decision on the Morphing Commission

While I was working on the backpacks in the commissioned oil painting of Lost Canyon, wondering if I’d be able to move the stream and trail, the answer came back as a definite “no”. They wanted the trail to remain across the bottom of the canvas.

When someone hires me to paint something specific, that someone is my boss.

I kept working my way down the scenery toward the backpacks, figuring out what to put in those large areas where I didn’t have any photos to guide me, figuring out how to make the stream flow in a believable manner, adding rocks, shrubs, trees, and textures.

The color isn’t accurate here because it was photographed in low light at the end of a painting day. But I wanted you to see how this is coming along, particularly the backpacks! This is my favorite way of painting – drawing with my paintbrush.

What remains to be painted: the hiking poles, the lower grasses, and of course wildflowers in the grasses.

Morphing Commission Continued

Last week I showed you a commissioned oil painting with a changing plan, and I was waiting for customer approval to move the stream and the trail into a new position, to match the cobbled together photo below.

While I was waiting for the answer, I continued to detail the rocks on the mountain in the distance.

There is no way to copy each rock, green patch and tree especially when combining multiple photos. The idea is to make it believable.

Working upside down helps me see what is really there, not what I think or hope is there. It forces me to see the shapes correctly.

As I studied it and worked on it, I began seeing ways to make the scene have more distance. This was by pulling the green patches up into the rocks in smaller and smaller pieces.Then, I moved to the backpacks, because regardless of the customers’ decision, they would remain in the same position.

More will be revealed. . .

Morphing Commission

A blog reader became a friend and then a customer. He asked me to paint this photo of Lost Canyon for his wife and himself.

I started the painting. Scary, eh? Good thing he knows that I can paint.

Then I thought, “Just wait a minute here – if this is Lost Canyon, I want to see the backside of Sawtooth!” So, I put together Plan B and showed my Friend/Customer.

He said yes, so I kept painting, this time adding in Sawtooth.

Then I thought the plan for the stream doesn’t look right, and the trail doesn’t look right either. Yes, it follows the original photo, but we’ve been to Lost Canyon, and we can do better.

So, I put together Plan C with the help of the internet and photoshop. These are fantastic tools for an artist who accepts commissions of subjects she knows for people who communicate well.

Now I await the decision of Friend/Customer and Wife. Will they agree with this change? It is probably unusual for an artist to tell the customer how to do things on a commissioned piece. Of course I will defer to his opinion – he has commissioned the piece and I will not be finished until he is happy with it.

Odd Job, Part 3

This is how the painting of the odd oval job progressed, with mind changing throughout as it came into being.

There was a sign of this label along Freeway 5 in Norwalk, a landmark to watch for as kids on a car trip to Southern California. Our name was (and still is) Marshburn, and my parents said that this is “the other side of the family”.

In college, I had the pleasure of meeting some of those “other siders”, my third cousins. One of them got in touch with me a few years ago, so I had his contact information. He graciously put me in touch with his dad, who sent me the more usable version of the label. In the process, we got to visit via email, and I learned that contrary to the information I received while growing up, my family actually was “the other side”!

All of this happened because my first cousin’s wife commissioned this painting as a gift for their anniversary.

Congratulations, Bruce and Shellie, on your many years of marriage! (and thank you for the privilege of painting this for you.)

The painting was a hit, and Bruce gave permission to show this picture.

 

Odd Job, Part 2

Last week I left you hanging on the cliff of Why Is The Central California Artist Doing Such an Odd Job?

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. Besides, this was a fun challenge.

I began tracing the design on the oval, which was a little different shape than the design. This required a bit more adjusting.

It is the first time I’ve used graphite paper to transfer and trace onto canvas so I wasn’t sure it would work.It did, so I finished with the lettering.

Then I saw that the farmer needed to be larger on the canvas than on the actual label so there wouldn’t be so much blank space.

Yep, hard to see. Let’s add some oil paint, a first layer, and think about what colors should be used in the painting. The customer and I agreed that the colors in the actual labels weren’t going to look good on a painting.

Let’s continue this tomorrow. 

A Tree Grows in the Studio

The photo taken with the iPhone looks yellowish.
Pippin slept behind me while I painted. He is the sweetest of the 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and Jackson is intense, focused on whatever he wants (usually food).
Lots and lots of branches.
The rocks and grasses were a nice break from all those branches.

At the end of a painting day, the light in the studio photographs bluish. 

I just work here.

 

Tulare County’s Best

Mountains and citrus are two things that make Tulare County special. Having grown up in an orange grove (don’t worry, we lived in a house, and thank you for your concern) with an almost daily view of the mountains, this scene is one of my favorite things about living here. The combination is a regular source of inspiration for my art; although I don’t paint it very much, I want to. (It isn’t all that popular in Mineral King. . . fancy that!)

We* went looking for the same view in order to see the detail more clearly. Although we didn’t find the same exact viewpoint, the day was clear and I got enough information to complete the painting. 

Well, oops. Moro Rock was in the wrong place. It didn’t actually show in my original reference photo, so I just made it up. The lower one is the correct placement.

We’ve had snow in the high country, so I changed that most distant ridge to a snowy situation.

I think it is finished now. Time will tell. I might just keep getting ideas about how to improve it. I might not want to finish it. I might want to hang it in our dining area. 

Figuring out how to photograph these large paintings is a challenge.

*Trail Guy and I, not the royal “we” or a mouse in my pocket.

Chasing a View

This painting is still on the easel, waiting for more visual information so I can properly detail the distant hills and mountains.

Trail Guy and I went driving around, looking for the spot where the original photo was taken. We couldn’t figure it out, but found several that were close.

Castle Rocks appeared quite clearly, and although they aren’t in my painting, they could be.
There’s Alta Peak with the same next level of hills as in the photo.
Here’s Alta Peak with the same 2 next levels.
Never mind. I want to paint this as a new one.
And this wants to be painted too.

Although we didn’t find the same view (I was elevated above the grove – where was this??), I now have some helpful details and a whole bunch of new photos from which to work.

Another Big Tree

While I was in Georgia last spring, when people asked me where I was from, I was very specific and replied, “CENTRAL California; no one knows about us, no one cares, but we feed the world.” The unspoken part was “I am NOT from Los Angeles or The Bay Area, so assume nothing about me”.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (just a euphemism, don’t worry, I haven’t moved), I am thinking about what to paint on those large canvases.

As I think about my self-ascribed descriptor, “The Central California Artist”, I want to be painting things that truly represent Central California, specifically Tulare County.

Not only does Tulare County have the largest trees by volume (Sequoia Gigantea), we also have the largest of the American oak trees, our valley oaks (quercus lobata).

All-righty then!

Yikes. Gotta start somewhere. 

Don’t be afraid. I can do this!!

P.S. Did you get my 2019 calendar, “A Touch of Color”? This tree was Miss February. It was a horizontal rectangle, but the painting will be a square. I untangled the branches in the drawing so it will serve as a helpful guide in the painting.