Focusing on Drawing Instead of Smoke

When the air is hazardous as it was at the beginning of last week, I just closed myself into the studio and focused on a large commissioned pencil collage. It made 9 hours fly by, and I forgot about the smoke outside.

You last saw the drawing at this stage:

This is what happened In 2 days of drawing.

Wow, sometimes I impress myself. 

Excuse me. That was obnoxious. You probably are interested in a bit of a story about this drawing rather than some puffed up bloviation by a Central California artist who complains about smoke unless she is tooting her own horn.

This drawing will be a gift (not from me but from the customer) to a lady pilot who lives in this house along an airstrip, has her own hangar, and a view of a lake. Her husband was also a pilot, designed the house and hangar, and he recently died. Our lady pilot will be selling and moving away, and her friend commissioned me to do this piece for her. 

These are remarkable people, both the giver and the recipient, and it is a privilege to participate in their lives, even on the outer fringes.

Happy Birthday, JG!

A Cat Called Chaos

A Chat Called Chaos? A Cat Called Caos? Never mind. Here is the story.
 
In 2004 I drew a cat for some folks who actually brought him to my studio. This was in the days of film cameras (Nope, not an Early Adopter of anything), so I didn’t save a photo of the drawing. Snowcat’s people recently asked me to draw their current cat, Chaos, and although I remembered Snowcat, I couldn’t remember the drawing. They sent me a photo.That was one alert cat!! When I was taking his photos, I reached out to touch him. He pulled away in a very subtle but arrogant manner. Made me laugh.
 
Their current cat spent the first 2 years of his life in a dog grooming shop and used to create chaos there. He is getting up in age, so they asked me to draw him, sending a handful of digital photos.
Chaos looks more alert in the lower photo, but the man appears to be strangling the cat. I asked for a few more photos with a different hand position.
This is less worrisome for the cat’s survivability, but the hand appears larger than the cat’s head. That won’t do.
 
I decided to just start drawing and figure it out as I go.
The weird orangish tint is due to the smoky light coming through the window over my drawing table.
This time to photograph it, I carried it outside for better light.
To be continued. . .
 
 

When It Is Too Smoky To Paint…

… then I draw. (Unless I spend time on the computer designing a calendar, a new coloring book, a custom collage drawing, or some cards). But yesterday, I drew.

In 2022, the Gateway Bridge, AKA Pumpkin Hollow Bridge, will be 100 years old. This means there will be some attention on the bridge, which will probably bring about some opportunities to sell images of the bridge. Remember, I am a business person whose product is art, although I often act like an artist trying to figure out the business end of things.

People often confuse my favorite bridge, Oak Grove, with the Gateway Bridge. Let me help you with this:

Oak Grove: single arch, deep canyon of the East Fork of the Kaweah River, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road

Gateway Bridge: three arches, shallower canyon of the convergence of the East Fork and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River, just below the entrance to Sequoia National Park on Highway 198

This new pencil drawing is 9×12″, unframed, and I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. That will be a business decision, and yesterday I was focused on being an artist.

P.S. The top view is supposed to look like this:

Drawing While Paradise Burns

That’s Paradise Ridge, not Paradise the town, which we know burned a couple of years ago (or was it last year? It’s all a smoky blur).

Trail Guy and I spent a good chunk of a morning talking about what to take, making piles, filling boxes. All the while, we had no intention of evacuating unless the fire gave us no choice. 

What are these relics? Is that ash? Are there any treats? Tucker wants to know.

After getting our piles somewhat in order (oh dear, I have way too many sweaters – how am I supposed to decide which ones to leave behind, possibly to never see again??), I went out to the studio to get some work done. Having an emergency doesn’t give me license to create emergencies for my customers.

This drawing might be a little bit too hard for me. Many details are hidden in shadow, and there is a horse. (At least his tongue is inside his mouth). It is good to tackle the hardest part first.

There might be a problem with his feet, so I moved onto the things that I can do with one hand tied behind my back and half my brain occupied with wildfires (and sweaters).

Working from the laptop screen definitely has its advantages. I can embiggen the photos and even lighten the shadows to understand what the various black blobs are.I drew most of the afternoon while listening to helicopters overhead, a welcome sound after they were silent throughout the smoky and worrisome morning.

And this is how it looked at the end of the day.

This is a commissioned pencil drawing of a cabin in Montana for a repeat customer who is a joy to work with and for.

In case you were wondering about the reference to the horse’s tongue, here you go.

 

A Horse Named Taco. . .

. . . not a horse with no name. (Might have felt good to be out of the rain, but Taco was in the fog.)

A drawing student showed me a photo that she would like to draw. I cropped it, converted it to black and white, and enhanced a few details for her to have the best version available. After all that work, I realized that I would LOVE to draw it, and not only did she give me permission, she provided a piece of paper.

I have plenty of my own paper, but she had 3 different types, wondering which one to use; I was curious about one of them. I mainly use Strathmore 400 series Bristol smooth finish, and this one was Strathmore 500 series Bristol plate finish, which is a little too slick for my needs. However, it has been decades since I used it, the higher quality (500 series is the best) seemed to have a little more texture than I remembered, and I was curious.

On a not-too-terribly-hot day, I did what a friend described as “sauna drawing” in the studio while my air conditioner was getting replaced. (Tony didn’t need any supervision, but I hung around in case he needed anything.) The drawing went quickly because the photo was so clear, but I did change a bland water tank in the photo to old boards. The paper was indeed too smooth for me – stroke marks showed up more, and it smeared too easily for my normal style; however, the smearing was very effective when it came time to put “fog” over the building in the background.

A Horse Named Taco, graphite pencil on acid free paper, 11×14″, unframed,  price unknown (make an offer?)

Involved

Success breeds success. After finishing the two custom pencil drawings, it seemed easy to just finish the third. 

Yeppers. Still procrastinating on the giant pencil commission of the big old country house. Productively procrastinating, because I really do like to finish things.

I started out taking photos so I could show you the steps, but then I got so involved that I forgot to stop and take more pictures.

It would have been easier if the tree in the foreground was pruned before the photographer took the shot, but alas, no one was thinking about the fact that someday, some pencil artist might want to know what was behind the branch. I decided it must have been hiding a dormer window.

There are quite a few erasing tools showing up in those 2 progress photos. I used to think that erasing meant I was just an incompetent artist; eventually I have learned to accept it as part of drawing.

Nothing left to procrastinate with, so it is time to become involved with the giant pencil drawing of the big old country house. 

Intimidated

I began working on the 16×20″ commissioned pencil drawing of the big old country house. It is a challenge, due to combining several views into one scene, and due to the size. It is intimidating, so I decided to warm up to the task by working on the little old houses from the single little old photos.

No people will be included in the drawing. Can’t see ’em, can’t draw ’em.

That was fun and maybe even a little bit easy. Not too easy, because some of it just had to be guessed at. There is a mop drying on the roof, a broom leaning up against the front window, and the handle of a hoe or shovel leaning against the wall. I don’t know what those vines are or what is supporting them. The shingles on the roof were hard until I figured out how to duplicate the pattern. Grass, in case you are interested, is just organized scribbling.

NEXT! I love to draw, particularly architectural subjects. But you knew that, didn’t you?

Using pencils, oil paint, and murals, I make art that people can understand of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

Mr. Curly Becomes “Buck”

In the ongoing virtual drawing lessons, (actually happening via email rather than Zoom or video) the horse that my student C is drawing has a name, and it isn’t Mr. Curly; the name is Buck. This reminds me of a scene in a Chronicles of Narnia movie (one of the few movies I have seen or actually remember anything) of one of the kids riding a horse. He says to the horse, “Giddy-up, Horsie.” The horse turns his head back a bit and says in a very disgusted and dignified voice, “The name is Phillip.”

Please excuse the digression.

C sent me her drawing with the eyes completed. I circled one eye in red, then wrote up the notes demonstrating the next steps. I hope you can read my writing. But perhaps you don’t care, and only came to look at the photos.

Virtual Drawing Lesson 4

C sent me her drawing with a list of 5 questions. This time I was more orderly, instead of making little patches of topics all over the paper. She only had one area that I needed to demonstrate, but I handwrote the entire sheet of instructions anyway. Then I realized that no one else would want to read all that scribbling.

Here is her drawing:

And here is a more concise list of instructions.

  1. There are a couple of scratches on the drawing. These can be fixed with a super sharp 2H or lighter pencil, working under a magnifying glass. (Yes, it is difficult – I can do this, and you may address me as “Dr. Pencil”.)
  2. Her decision to make the horse’s upper lip look more like reality than the photo was a good decision. (You may address me as “The Mayor of Realville”).
  3. She circled an area of the chest and said it didn’t look right to her. I told her it is because the strokes are too long, and I demonstrated those, scanned them, and emailed the scan. 
  4. When I spray-fix my drawings, I use Blair Matte Spray Fixative to keep my drawings from smearing. Beware: it alters the colors of some colored pencils (had a terrible spray fix accident once, still scarred), and I always try a little squirt first to make sure the nozzle isn’t clogged. 
  5. The best paper for my style of drawing is Strathmore (brand) Bristol (weight) Smooth (surface) 400 Series (quality).

I provide most of the paper to my drawing students in person. There are many things that are better about taking drawing lessons in person, but we are doing the best we can with this. I think C is doing a great job in communicating clearly, working on her own, and encouraging her reluctant instructor to push through her annoyance with technology.

Collaborative Drawing

A former drawing student lost her cabin in the Creek Fire this past summer. I asked her if I could draw it for her; she said yes and sent photos.

This former student participated in an art show a few years ago, along with 2 other advanced students and me. I asked those 2 others if they wanted to join me in drawing the cabin, and they both said yes. We all really like our friend and wanted to express our sympathy.

It took awhile to figure out what to draw, how to fit it together, who should draw which part, and even how to sign it. 

It took awhile, but we did it! Our friend was very touched, particularly by the fact that we each had a part.