Hot Day in the Orange Grove

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog. Just another hot day at the easel, painting another orange grove.

Is it an “orange grove” or an “orange orchard”? We tend to call it “orange grove” or “orchard”. Some people call it a “ranch”, but I have yet to see any cattle in an orange grove. 

Commissioned Oil Painting

The swamp cooler kept me at the easel working on this commissioned oil painting until early evening. Growing leaves takes some time, particularly on a 16×20″ custom oil painting.


Reference Photos

In spite of being a familiar subject to paint, the piece is a challenge due to the melding of multiple scenes in multiple lights with multiple sizes and perspectives. My goal is consistency, believability, and of course, beauty. Always beauty, along with as close I can get to truth while fabricating the scene.

Here are a few of the dozen or so photos that I referred to. (Not showing the children because I respect people’s privacy here on the World Wide Web).

I love this photo. If I could have figured out how to put the children in this one and have the sizes all make sense AND be large enough to paint some detail, I would have used this one.

The painting still needs orange blossoms, and might need a wind machine. And because I believe it depicts the best part of Tulare County*, I will probably keep polishing it, drawing with my paintbrush, not wanting to quit.

Good thing there isn’t a deadline.

*I asked Ecosia (a new-to-me search engine instead of DuckDuckGo) to find me information on “the best of Tulare County” and it went to the Exeter Sun-Gazette, an article about Tulare County leading the nation in illiteracy. Sigh.

 

 

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.