Category Archives: Photos

More Photos That Won’t Be Drawn. . .

. . . at least they won’t be drawings in the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia but they might be drawn or painted for other purposes. Making decisions is a continual part of building a book. Sometimes I think I need a supervisor who will tell me what to do so I can question her decisions instead of always talking to myself.

I didn’t get much knitting done because when I go to Wilsonia, I am working, rather than being on vacation. However, when I am in Mineral King, I knit a great deal! Well, I don’t actually knit great deals. I actually knit sweaters, socks, and scarves. Actually. (There – have I ruined the word “actually” for you?)

Even though I continue to photograph this scene over and over because of the color of the umbrella against the wood color, a version of this will appear in the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia. (please forgive the repetition of the title – it is to assist the ubiquitous Mr. Google in finding this blog for new readers.)

A version of this might also appear in the book. All the greenery is a real booger to draw. However, I am a master at drawing boogery things.

Stop laughing.

Okay, go ahead and laugh. I want this blog to be fun!

Cabin Photos That Won’t Become Drawings. . .

. . . because they are about color rather than detail.

(This one would work, but I don’t need the book to have more pages – these decision are DIFFICULT!)

Cabin Life in Wilsonia, Part Three

The saga continues of my cabin life in Wilsonia. This is from only 4 days!! How do people stand the excitement of being there all summer long??

20. Meeting a family from all over California who gathered at their cabin and learning of their very rich history (as in full, not wealthy, although it could have been, but we didn’t get into that!). Almost every time I make new friends in Wilsonia, we discover connections in common.

21. Meeting Katie, whom I talked to on the phone last spring when she scheduled a star thistle eradication spraying appointment for my home in Three Rivers. Really! I recognized her voice when she told me where she works! What a cutie! (Isn’t everyone in their 20s cute??)

22. Re-meeting the superintendent, reassuring him that I don’t have cabins both in Mineral King and Wilsonia and that I am NOT stalking him, and learning that “Woody” is short for Woodrow – would you believe he is named after Woodrow Wilson?? Isn’t that really interesting??

23. Meeting Jill’s brother, Dave’s brother, and Dave’s brother’s wife, who remembers meeting me at my Exeter studio or some show I did way back when. Wow! Thanks, Marguerite!

24. Meeting Ty, who is a fantastic (and perhaps a little crazy) hiker, and hearing his adventuresome tales. This man KNOWS the area!

25. Further cementing my friendship with the wonderful Sheri, who gave me a tour of her beautiful cabin, which is a perfect blend of old and new. (More kudos to the master craftsman Mark Vetter.)

26. Discussing the oddities of running a one-person-business with the very talented and good-natured Paul. We share the inability to properly bill people who have become friends. (DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR WEAKNESSES, I beg you!!)

Original pencil drawing, Redwood & Dogwood, 14×11″, matted and framed, $400, available for sale here (Please forgive the shameless self-promotion. In spite of all the fun, I am earning a living here too.)

27. Meeting David, who is on a quest to visit every one of the largest Sequoias – twenty? forty? We had such a good time looking through his books and maps – Good luck on this, Dave! I will be in touch as I learn a few facts to share with you.

28. Learning with Dick and Mel how to handle the reproduction of my drawings for this project. No conclusions reached yet, but thank you for letting me practice with you two!

29. Enjoying more of the Best Grapes I Have Ever Eaten In My Entire Life – thank you Jill and Dave!

If you made it to the end of this post, you deserve a reward. How about a little eye candy?

There. Isn’t that restful? I hope you feel refreshed after our WWW (Whirlwind Weekend in Wilsonia)

Cabin Photography

Here are some of the photographs of beauty among the cabins of Wilsonia. (I’m talking about the real cabins of Wilsonia, not the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia which will not contain photos – didn’t want you to be confused. Or maybe I am confusing you with this paragraph. When it is about the book, it will be capitalized and italicized. Bet you figured that out on your own already.)

Are you just bowled over, wowed and half-dead from the beauty? Might need to catch your breath, maybe wipe a tear?

Yeah. I know. That’s how I feel sometimes too.

Different Kinds of Photography

Do you remember back in the olden days of film cameras? Not everyone had a camera, and those who did, used them sparingly.

I was a bit of a dork, because I had 2 cameras going at a time and kept them in the trunk of my car. One was for color prints, and the other was for either black and white, or slides.

Slides?? Are you kidding me? What useless little items they have become.

But, I digress. Now we are all photographers.

When I carry my camera around Wilsonia, I am recording moments and details of cabins for the purpose of drawing. (Hey Mr. Google, the book will be called The Cabins of Wilsonia). These photos need to have great light, good composition, and visible detail. With my computer, I can straighten out sloping cabins (okay, it was me who was sloping with the camera, but you know what I mean), lighten shadows, darken blown-out highlights, increase contrast, and crop. (I love cropping. It was the best thing about working in a dark room back in the days of film photography.)

If someone has commissioned me to draw their cabin outside of the book project, my photos are much more specifically for documentation. I photograph the cabin from several angles, and pull in the details of each angle with the telephoto lens. I have to photograph things that are hidden behind trees, photograph the tops of the trees, back up, get close, and figure out anything that might be a little hard to understand from a photo. (What a weird chimney base. I wonder why those shingles are different sizes. What’s up with those sagging boards?)

As I walk around Wilsonia to become more familiar with each street and cabin, I continue to see beautiful shots that just wouldn’t translate into pencil drawings. They are simply beautiful – colors, light, things that might make nice paintings.

That’s a weird thought – does this mean that pencil drawings aren’t beautiful?

Nope. Some things look best as color photographs, some as black and white photos, some as pencil drawings, and some as paintings.

Different is just different, not qualitative.

End of lecture. Here is your reward for hanging with me to the end:

P.S. This umbrella is a beautiful green that the camera couldn’t pick up no matter how much I messed with it on the computer. Maybe it would make a nice painting. . .

Your Opinion Requested

When you design your own book, it is hard to know when to stop messing around with the design.

While in Wilsonia last week, I spent time at a cabin that I have already drawn. I wasn’t sure the angle was the best one, but at the time it seemed to be the only one.

wilsonia cabin

I was wrong. Now, I have to decide if it needs to be redrawn. Perhaps I should have left my camera at home for this trip. Decisions, decisions. . . where is the big boss to tell me what to do?? Oh – in the mirror? Hmmm, she doesn’t look adequate for the job. . .

May I have your opinions on this?

Thanks. You can comment by hitting “Leave a Reply” or email me at cabinart at cabinart dot net. (I wrote it out that way because someone somewhere sometime said you shouldn’t put your eddress in your blog or all the robots and spiders and trolls will bother you. Better safe than sorry!)

Jeffrey Shooting Star Amidst More Street Confusion

The Cabins of Wilsonia will be in one color of ink. I’m drawing the cabins in pencil, and graphite is gray. This means the book will most likely be printed in the gray ink that most closely matches the color of the pencils.

All the photos from which I am working are in color. Sometimes I have convert one to black and white, because otherwise it is hard to tell if it will look any good in pencil.

For example, a cabin with bright blue shutters normally is known and appreciated for its bright blue shutters. How will that look in pencil? Will the drawing just look so-so?

The meadow that can be seen from Sierra Lane/Drive/Road (see? I can’t figure out this Wilsonia street designation!) is awash with Jeffrey Shooting Star in early July. It is fabulous. Of course, the color is the fabulous part.

You’ve probably seen these. They like to grow with their feet wet.

I photographed a cabin on Alta, looking across that meadow from Sierra. (If I just say the name without the designation of Avenue/Way/Street then there is no confusion.) I thought it was a great way to show off the cabin’s superior location.

However, if the big deal about the view is the color, is there a point to drawing it in pencil?

I think the light across the meadow in the lower photo makes this second view the clear winner.

And those Jeffrey Shooting Stars? They can be our little secret. We wouldn’t want 100s of looky-loos flooding Sierra Lane and turning it into Sierra Highway each July.

How You Gonna Draw THIS?

Whoa. Not a lot of visual information here to draw this cabin. Maybe I can see more in another photo.

Umm, maybe not. How about with better light?

Nice stumps. Any other photos?

Decent light, but so much is hidden by trees and branches. Guess you’ll have to check back in tomorrow to see how the drawing turned out!

How To Draw a Book, Chapter 6

Before beginning The Cabins of Wilsonia, I had to answer some basic and somewhat complex questions. Those were covered in Chapters 1-5.

Once those questions were answered satisfactorily, I had to figure out how to tackle this monumental project.

1. Learn your subject first.

I visited Wilsonia, staying with friends in the Masonic Tract. They left after the first night, and then I was on my own. For a week, I walked daily through the streets with my camera, learning the names of the streets, meeting people, learning shortcuts, trying to understand the layout. I learned that many of the cabin folks don’t know all of Wilsonia. I learned that parallel streets confuse me. I learned that I’d better have a map, lists and charts.

2. Make a plan.

After asking several people if they had an opinion or an idea of how to organize the book into chapters and getting no clear answer, I knew I was on my own.

That’s good – it is my book, after all! Can’t expect other people to solve my problems. But, it was good to ask for opinions to make sure I wasn’t overlooking something obvious to a seasoned citizen of the community.

By street in alphabetical order. That’s how the chapters will be organized.

3. Gather your information.

In my book, this means taking zillions of photos. Every day, looking for different angles, different lights at different times of day, more details, the settings of each cabin, the best possible views – photograph, photograph and photograph some more. And don’t forget to mark down which photos are on which street! Don’t mix them up! Don’t get confused, no matter how many photos of cabins with chimneys on the gable end you see in one day.

The chimneys are all different and I DO know where each one of these cabins is located!

How to Begin Drawing A Book

If you are a studio artist, one who works inside a building at a drawing table with a giant magnifying light and a T-square, you begin with photographs.

I must have photographed this cabin 2 dozen times. Each time I was certain the light was better than the last.

In the summer of 2011, I stayed in Wilsonia 3 different times.

The Jeffrey Shooting Stars were so gorgeous, and that is not something that I can depict in pencil.

Every day (except on the two when I was really sick, but let’s not talk about that) I was walking the streets of Wilsonia. I needed to become familiar, really familiar with all the cabins and all the streets.

Did you know there are 21 28 streets in Wilsonia? Did you know that there are 212 cabins?

That’s a lot of walking, and a lot of cabins, and a lot of photographs. I was in Cabin Artist Heaven – every where I looked, there was something wonderful and new to see, photograph and draw.

You might be new to my art. If so, you might not know that my art business is called Cabinart. I began drawing the cabins in Mineral King, working strictly in pencil.

I love to draw!

Any questions so far? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! (At the top of the post, it says “Leave A Reply”. You can click this and ask or tell me anything you want me to know.)