Well, oops.

Have you ever drawn or written something in pencil and had it smear? It happens.

another pencil drawing for “The Cabins of Wilsonia”

As a right hander, I draw from left to right and top to bottom. If I have to go back over something, I put a piece of paper on the drawing and rest my hand on that instead of on the graphite already on the paper. (Pencils are made out of graphite and clay – the more graphite, the blacker and smearier the pencil. Just sayin’, in case you care about stuff like that.)

When a finished drawing gets framed immediately, I don’t spray fix it.

Spray fixative smells awful, and I’m not entirely convinced that in 100 years it won’t turn green or something else undesirable. And OF COURSE in 100 years my drawings will be worth a fortune for your grandchildren or great grandchildren!

But, when a drawing gets hauled around and shown to my drawing students and pulled in and out of its protective holder and put in and out of the scanner several times, it seems prudent to spray fix it.

You know how spray cans of stuff usually state a temperature range that is ideal for using the product? Uh, they mean it.

Last week I sprayed a couple of drawings early in the morning. The heat hadn’t been on in my studio, of course, and this is January during a bit of a cold snap. (cold for central California – stop sneering, those of you from Minnesota!)

Oh-oh. There was a puddle of spray in the middle of one of the drawings, and it sort of ran a little bit. I hustled the drawings into the house and set them on a teevee tray in front of the wood stove.

In about a half an hour, they had both dried, and the papers had sort of curled up. QUICK, put a weight on those things!

My husband, AKA Trail Guy, was quite concerned about the puddle. “Hey, there’s a wet spot on that picture!!”

I thought, “Oh well, live and learn. 143 drawings to do, 144, what’s the diff?”

But, I was Very Relieved that it turned out okay. (Nope, not the drawing pictured above. I’m not telling you which one had the near miss!)

Where is Wilsonia?

You know that cliche’ “You learn something new every day”?

I’d like to learn more about this chair on Fern Street.

I recently learned that Wilsonia is in Tulare County!

Who cares? Me, the folks at Tulare County Treasures and of course, the county tax collectors.

I care because my art career and business focus on the beauty of Tulare County. It felt sort of wrong, outside of my area, losing my focus, infringing on other artists’ territory to draw a book on the cabins of Wilsonia. Yes, I am cabinart, but there are many gifted artists in Fresno County, where I thought Wilsonia is. (was? what is the right way to say this??)

What is Tulare County Treasures? You can read about them on the link above, but since you are here, I’ll tell you. This is a group of volunteers who know and love the good things of Tulare County. They are authors, historians, artists, and leaders. (I attended their first meeting but realized it would be stupid for me to add any more to my life. Just wanted you to know I rubbed shoulders briefly with local big shots. Please be impressed.)

They are gathering information and photographs, building a website, making maps and a brochure to the places in TC that are special and open to the public. They asked for permission to use some of my artwork of Mineral King and Wilsonia. Silly me, I said yes before thinking “WAIT! Wilsonia is in Fresno County!”

Then I asked Gus and Neal, my go-to-guys for all things Wilsonia, and both of them confirmed that Wilsonia is indeed in Tulare County!

Who knew? (The tax collector, but who cares about that stuff?)

So, I am thrilled, just thrilled I say. One of my little obstacles to the legitimacy of this book has been shattered, obliterated, vaporized, G O N E, and now this Tulare County/California artist is ready to DRAW!!!

Did you know that about Wilsonia??

Drawing #86 is on the Table

Oh yeah, I’m drawing! Here is #86 out of 230.

What’s all that stuff on the table? Clockwise from left:

3 brands of pencils ranging in hardess from 2H to 8B
the list of sizes to draw in order to fit properly on the book pages
more photos on the yellow legal pad AKA “my brains”
the chart showing the pages I’m currently working on – these are little scribbly sketches that show me which drawings will be what size on each page
various tools – erasing shield, triangle, sharpener, drafting brush, eraser (yup, sometimes I need one) Several of these tools are typically used by architects, engineers and draftsmen. They are very helpful in the sort of exact precise drawing that I love to do!
Photos – gotta have ’em! One of my favorite artists, Jack White says “All realistic artists either work from photos or they lie about it.” He also told me to ditch the pencils and take up oil painting. Sigh. Can’t do it – love my pencils!
And finally, the drawing itself. It is on 11×14″ paper. I work from left to right, top to bottom. This is so my hand doesn’t smear the picture as I wander aimlessly around the page. With 145 drawings hanging over my head, I’d better not be wandering aimlessly around anything!

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.)

The Second Wilsonia Cabin I Drew

Okay, if you start counting with the Gordon’s A-frame, then the Coll-Inn Too is #2 and this is actually #3. But since I can’t remember drawing the Gordon’s cabin, I still think of this as #2.

My friend Sara called to see if the Wilsonia folks could auction or raffle a certificate for a drawing of a cabin at one of the annual meetings. Since I am CABINART (that is the name of my studio because originally all I did was draw cabins), I said yes. She bought a certificate for an 8×10 drawing, and it raised some money for the community.

Jack and Alitta were the recipients, and they were both delighted and delightful!

The First Wilsonia Cabin I Drew

I thought it was Gus and Barbara’s “Coll-Inn Too”. Turns out I drew Pat Gordon’s A-frame on Chinquapin before I knew anything about Wilsonia! I don’t remember, didn’t take any photos, have no memory of it. I’m grateful to Pat for reminding me that I drew her cabin!

However, the first cabin I REMEMBER drawing is the Coll-Inn Too. I don’t remember how Gus found me. He emailed me photos, I asked for more. He emailed those. I asked for more. He send more. I probably asked for even more. For some reason, maybe because I was too busy or too lazy or don’t charge enough for commissions, I didn’t drive to Wilsonia and look at the cabin with my own eyes.

Despite all the difficulty I gave to Gus, we had a great time communicating about the details of his cabin. He and Barbara had a zillion notecards printed with the image, and it is rumored that thank you notes are sent for any and all reasons so they can get those cards used!

I did make Barbara’s happy bear look grumpy. We discovered that he does look grumpy from the angle I drew him! She forgave me, and we are friends. 😎

Welcome to the Cabins of Wilsonia

This blog is the go-to place for current information on the upcoming book “The Cabins of Wilsonia”.

Here I will show you drawings in progress. But I won’t show you all of the drawings, because I want you to have some surprises when the book is published.

I will keep you updated on how far along I am in the 230+ drawings for the book, I’ll share some of my photos, your stories, and the inside business of self-publishing a book while simultaneously earning a living.

It is my hope that you will enjoy this blog and share it with family members, friends and cabin neighbors.

You will be able to comment, ask me questions, and read what your fellow blog-followers think.

You can see that I’ve chosen the Finck’s cabin as the header for this blog. This is because it cropped well to fit the space well. (On the original drawing, there are taller trees.) I may change the top drawing from time to time, because sometimes I just like variety.

The Cabins of Wilsonia

A picture book about a cabin community