Cabin Commission

The upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, will have 268 pencil drawings of cabins and cabin details.

Not everyone is pleased with the way I have represented his cabin. Most people are gracious about it and know that the book is an overview, rather than a documentary or a complete album.

One friend was not sure about how to tell me that she didn’t want to buy the original drawing of her cabin. She asked a few polite questions, and I got it. I told her that I can redraw it for her any way that she wants. She said, “But I don’t want to add to your work!” I replied, “Darlin’, that’s how I earn my living!” We laughed, and she commissioned me to draw her cabin.

I took many photos and then did a sketch for her, complete with lots of notes.

After I was sure that I knew what she wanted, I started.

commissioned pencil drawing of cabin in progress

After I got this far, I got a little worried and needed reassurance that I was on the right track.

She gave me the okay, so I finished it.

Commissioned pencil drawing of cabin

 She was thrilled, so of course so am I!

Fancy Drawing of a Not Fancy Cabin

This is the final drawing of the commissioned pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin. The customer chose “A”, asked that the sign size be reduced and that plenty of scraggly branches be added to that large tree in front that she affectionately referred to as “the old man”.

It was fun! Drawing cabins is one of the best parts of my business, Cabinart.

Complicated Drawing of a Simple Cabin

A nice lady wrote to me to ask if I would draw her Wilsonia cabin for her. She said it is plain, or perhaps she said “it’s not fancy”, but it means a lot to her family.

I knew which cabin it was. It wasn’t one that I planned to show in the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia.  There are 214 cabins in Wilsonia, and there are lots of reasons that not every cabin made it in the book.

But, I have been accepting commissions to draw cabins in pencil since 1987. It’s what I do! My business is Cabin Art. 

So, I took photos of her cabin from many angles. It was hard to find the most interesting angle, and hard to see something special.

These aren’t the photos I ended up using, but these are like those “before” photos when someone gets a makeover. You know – out-of-date glasses, limp hair, no make up, bad light, old sweatshirt. (Substitute tied up hair and flannel shirt, and you’ve got a picture of me while painting.)

 

The customer requested a collage, which gives plenty of opportunity to dress up a picture. I did 2 versions and sent the sketches to her.

Come back on Monday to see which she chose and how it turned out!

Want to Know What is Happening to the Book Project?

What book?

pencil drawing of Wilsonia cabin

So glad you asked! It is The Cabins of Wilsonia.

I’ve proofed the book in every way that I can think of. Until every possible proofing method has been exhausted, I don’t want to send it off to the printer. Besides, it takes money before they will print, so. . .

. . .I will be pre-selling it and selling the original drawings in Wilsonia on July 5, gathering the dollars needed to pay the printer and binder and shipper.

To learn more about the proofing configurations, calisthenics and craziness, you are invited to visit my Cabins of Wilsonia site today. (It will open in a new window so you won’t lose your place here.) You are invited to visit that site any day. Did you know that?

Random Facts About Squirreliness

Sometimes a list helps. I’ve been making lists for years, sometimes as an aid to memory and efficiency, and sometimes for the sense of satisfaction gained from checking off things.

Today’s list is in the first category. I hope this is helpful for you.

  1. The comments on my blog may be working again. Anyone want to try?
  2. I’ve updated my page called “Where To Buy“. Want to look? It is under the Artist tab on my website. There are addresses, phone numbers and website links for most, and hours when I know them.
  3. The contact button works intermittently. This has to do with my ability (inability?) to update pages on my website. When it is disabled, supposedly I am able to add new pictures to the pages. Sometimes I forget to reactivate it. (Maybe a list would help me. . . ?)
  4. I haven’t been able to successfully update the oil paintings and pencil drawings on my site. It seems as if I have added them, but the pictures just appear as little question marks.
  5. My former web designer is working to simplify the design of my website so I am able to update things without getting in line to hear back from her replacement. He must be very very popular. I could give you a list of the steps to update, but you’d be bored silly.
  6. When the design has been simplified, things might be squirrely-looking for awhile.

 

Invitation to Visit Wilsonia Blog

Did you know that I have another blog?

“Cabin on a Sunlit Meadow” – sold

 

Yeppers.

It is called The Cabins of Wilsonia. For almost three years I’ve been working on a book of pencil drawings of the cabin community Wilsonia at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.

The process is documented here. If you click on the highlighted word “here”, it will open in a new window with my other blog.

Today and tomorrow I’ll be posting over there. I didn’t want you to think I’d quit on my real blog.

This is my real blog. Did you know that? I love writing this blog. Yeah, yeah, I know we are supposed to love people and use things. . . it is just the sloppy vernacular of my lazy generation that causes me to state it that way.

For over a year I’ve been missing from this blog about one day a week. You might have thought I had gotten lazy about regular posting, but I was over there.

I’m sorry for not inviting you sooner.

You are invited now.

Beautiful Pencil Drawing

Every Tuesday I teach people how to draw at the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter. Been doing it for 20 years or so. You can learn about it here. Drawing Lessons

My drawing students are wonderful. They work hard, and they learn and they do beautiful drawings.

jennifer_edited-1

This beautiful woman drew her beautiful granddaughter. It is her first portrait, which is one of the hardest subjects to tackle. She has been drawing with me about 2-1/2 years, and honestly, she had a bit of a head start because she used to touch up portrait photos. But that doesn’t mean this wasn’t hard – it was hard! Everything is hard, so pick something you love, because you’ll be staring at it for a long time.

P.S. Today is my 6th Blogiversary. I still haven’t run out of things to write about!

Drawing Sequoia

Sequoia Natural History Association has sold my work for many years. Great organization – they stock and man the visitor centers and ranger stations throughout Sequoia. They do a lot more, but this post isn’t about them. It is about a drawing I am working on in hopes that they will add it to their inventory in the near future.

This is how the bridge over the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River looked during my recent visit to Sequoia National Park. This bridge is in the Lodgepole Campground.

This is the pencil drawing and the photos I’m working from. The white spaces in the photo are unfinished or sunshine, not snow.

Just in case you were wondering. . .

And I think bridges are remarkable pieces of architecture. They are simple spans over space, but they can be so elegant. Stone work, rustic wood, flowing water – what’s not to like?

Drawing in Pencil

I’m drawing in pencil because I love to. There might be a purpose to these drawings in progress, and it might be to keep from doing repetitive and boring work on the computer for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia. The book isn’t repetitive and boring; the computer work is both of those things plus IMPOSSIBLE. No worries, I’ll figure it out or figure out who to ask for help. Meanwhile, I am drawing, a very therapeutic and productive procrastination technique.

This is a scene I’ve painted in a horizontal format, and one that I’ve lent the photo to a drawing student so she could draw it. I might have drawn it before, but I’ve slept since then. Actually, this drawing might be finished in this photo. Here, have a closer look:

This is the Generals Highway, above the Sequoia Park entrance at Ash Mountain but below Hospital Rock. You can see yucca in bloom (this is from a photo taken in June) and Moro Rock in the distance. Just a typical scene from Three Rivers, California. . . yawn.

But wait – there’s more!

This is an unfinished pencil drawing of a “Sheltie” named Wally.

Okay, I admit it. This is now finished too.

Turning Away Work

Really? Turn away work? Who would do that?

Me, that’s who.

Why?

Because I know my limitations.

The story: 

An acquaintance called me to take a look at an old photo of a pilot posing on the wing of his aircraft in the 1940s. It was an 8×10 black and white photo, the man was about 1-1/2″ high (he was in a squat) and his face may have been about 1/2″ high.

If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it.

I could see the man’s face with really strong magnifying lenses, but to reproduce it accurately and in color (that was the point of him calling me), it would have been extremely time consuming. A dot here, erase, move the dot slightly left, erase, move the dot slightly higher, oops now he looks like a Cyclops. . . that is how those tiny portraits go.

I speak from hard-won experience. No faces smaller than an egg.

Once in awhile I get lucky and succeed with these tiny tiny faces, but it is after a serious and honest conversation with the customer about their expectations and my abilities. Remember this?

(Well, oops, the link broke and I don’t know what it was.)

So I recommended that the potential customer find someone who is very skilled with Adobe Photoshop to take the crud out and put some color in.

However, if would like to have it drawn large, perhaps 16×20, some sort of size that would bring the man’s face up to the size of an egg, then yes, I am the artist he wants!

Nice man. I think it will be good to do work for him in the future. He appreciated my honesty, and he said that he just hadn’t allowed enough in his budget for a larger drawing.

In my experience, people rarely allow enough in their budgets for art. Oh well, got a good blog post out of it. Waste not, want not. (Stop thinking “nothing ventured, nothing gained” – I can hear you out there!)