Virtual Drawing Lesson 3

C really got on a roll and made great progress. Most of my students don’t work at home, and I continually remind them “no tests, no grades, no homework, no deadlines”. I should probably add “no guilt” because often they act as if they have done something wrong when they come to class without having done anything. But C is working very determinedly at home on her own, and it is most impressive.

This time I demonstrated the ear on the right (Rocky’s left ear), the nose/mouth (muzzle??), the fuzzes at the top of the forelock (“bangs”), and a bit of the mane to show that the clumps of hair actually cast shadows.

After she goes through these instructions, she’ll scan the drawing once more for a final analysis. This is about the 3rd or 4th drawing I’ve helped her with, and it is the quickest she has ever completed a drawing.

It is apparent that I could use a bit more planning and organization when I demonstrate and write the instructions. C and I are learning together how to engage in drawing lessons when not in person, and based on her progress with this drawing,I think it is a successful experiment.

 

Last Pencil Commission

This is the last drawing I did with a pre-Christmas deadline. It is a Mineral King cabin, and no, I will not publish the name as this is the World Wide Web and I respect people’s privacy.

It was a joy to draw a cabin that I am familiar with, one that I was able to take all the necessary photos instead of just working with one or two provided photos that were missing a lot of detail.

See these photos? I found them all helpful and necessary. This is my favorite kind of commission, but as you have seen on my blog over the past couple of months, I say yes to many challenging custom art jobs.

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

Reluctant Portrait

About 20 years ago I decided to learn how to draw people that can be recognized. This was a business decision: I have a love for architecture, not faces. It was very difficult, but I did quite a few portraits.

Later, I decided that portraits are best left to those who don’t have to sweat bullets in capturing likenesses.

This fall, a portrait came back to haunt me. A man I don’t know emailed me to say I had drawn his dad, and now would I draw his mom.

The request came during a lull in custom jobs, and against my better judgement while ignoring my lack of expertise in this area, I said yes.

He sent me this photo of the drawing of his dad. 

He also sent me several somewhat blurry photos of his mom with a request to put her next to her beloved carved bear. I know this fine lady, and was determined to do a good job. Several of my drawing students also know her, so without telling them who it was, I took the drawing to lessons and showed them.

What a thrill when they said, “That’s [Her Name]!!” (This is the World Wide Web, so I am not publishing the name of the subject.)

Now, I am returning to my policy of no portraits. My students said, “The plaid blouse must have been difficult”. It was easier than her face.

I haven’t heard back, and I hope the family was pleased (and doesn’t have any more members to be pencilized.)

Christmas Cabin Surprise

A friend asked me to draw this cabin, another one that didn’t survive the wildfires. Her photos were fairly inadequate, but my confidence in making up things is growing. This is due to experience, both with cabins, and knowing that most people don’t observe detail to the degree that I do when drawing.

The front door of a place is the most important feature, and this one is hidden by the dual trees. I asked my friend if I could remove those trees and if she could describe the front door. She said yes to both.

When custom art jobs are tricky, meaning when there aren’t adequate photos, a sketch is often helpful.  This one has an unusual roof shape on the left gable end, and a surprisingly wide chimney, along with steps that were hidden behind the tree that I removed.

The sketch was approved, so I did the drawing. 

 

Pre-Christmas Gift

Someone I have never met contacted me to draw a house I’ve never seen. When I received the photo, I marked it with colored circles, and sent an email asking for closer photos or descriptions of what each circle contained. 

The customer was very responsive, and sent helpful photos of each area. This was on a tight deadline, and silly me, I forgot to mention the rush charge. I also didn’t save the detail photos of each area of mystery, because space on my laptop is limited.

You can see that the photo was taken with a phone, using the built-in wide-angle lens. This distorts things – the verticals aren’t vertical, and distant things look farther away while closer things appear too big.

Time was fleeing quickly, so I just dove in. Often if I draw the parts I can see and understand, then the other parts aren’t so daunting and can be faked somewhat.

Thanks to great communication with the customer, I was able to finish the drawing well ahead of the requested date and also get good instructions about the parts that the original photo didn’t explain.

P.S. I love to draw!

Custom Dogs

Many artists get their start in custom work by drawing or paintings people’s pets. My start came with architecture, specifically cabins. “Cabinart” – get it? 

Occasionally I get commissioned to draw or paint people’s pets, more dogs than cats. Here is the most recent, shown here today because I feel fairly confident that the intended recipient doesn’t know about me or this blog.

Just for curiosity’s sake, have a look at a few previous custom dog drawings:

In case you are wondering, here is information about custom dog drawings (cats too):

  1. Being eye-level with the animal makes for better photos than looking down at them. Notice the difference between the top drawing and the lower three.
  2. Black animals are extremely hard to photograph and thus to draw; seeing details is almost impossible.
  3. Clothing on animals is just weird; I have no earthly idea what the various parts and pieces of clothing are on the top drawing, and the less I understand what I am seeing, the more difficult it is to draw it.
  4. Usually people want little lap dogs of undetermined ancestry, the type of dog that makes me want to scream while standing on a chair. I manage to keep my panic at bay while armed with pencils. (German Shepherds, Australian Shepherds and yellow Labradors are more my style, although cats will always be my preference.)
  5. There is still time to have your pet drawn, but there will be a rush charge.

Rush Drawing Commission

The custom art jobs are slowly getting completed. Many of them cannot be shown, because the recipients might be readers of this blog. Can’t be giving away secrets like that just before Christmas!

This is a drawing that the recipient has already received. It began with some sketches.

The customer didn’t want these subjects shown this way. (Why did they – customer and assistant – send me these photos to work from??)

I tried again from the photos they specified out of the batches they had sent to me. (Often multiple photos help me see details that might be obstructed by shade or trees or trash cans or cars or. . .)

This was accepted, but the customer requested that the upper left image not be on a tilt.

It was a rush job, so I spent all day on a Saturday and a few hours on Sunday completing the drawing.

The upper right scene was drawn from another rush job for the same customer several years ago.

P.S. This was a very challenging job, causing me to rethink my custom prices and available sizes for collages. I know for sure now that 9×12″ is too small for this amount of detail (BRICKS – oy vey!)

One Bite at a Time

Or, if you read Anne Lamott, one bird at a time*. That’s the way I will accomplish this large complicated custom pencil drawing.

My large paper has more texture than I am used to. This will mean adding more layers than usual.
As a right-hander, there is less smearing if I work top to bottom, left to right. (This isn’t smeared all over the center – it is the shadow cast by my magnifying light.)

The paper’s texture means that smearing is more of a problem than usual, so I cover it with tissue paper for protection whenever I leave the studio.

As with many of my projects, I start out wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew. Once I see a little progress, my confidence returns, and pretty soon I start really enjoying the project. This one is no different; each segment gives a sense of accomplishment, so instead of thinking that the end is far away, I get to experience many little endings.

*Anne Lamott wrote a book about writing called Bird By Bird.

 

It’s Complicated

I have learned to draw from photos on my laptop instead of mediocre prints from my mediocre printer on mediocre paper and instead of waiting for high quality prints from Shutterfly. This means I can enlarge on the screen for understanding the detail more. This also means I can’t measure. Everything is a mixed bag.

The complicated custom collage drawing began with these photos, and even more.

Then I began laying it out on the giant piece of paper, using the approved sketch as my map. 14×18″ is a lot of real estate to cover with the point of a pencil.

Can you see the lines on the paper? “Just barely” is the answer I am looking for.

This is a big job, a complicated one, but I, your Central California artist am up for the task.