Tag Archives: Wilsonia cabin

Visiting Wilsonia

After spending days, weeks and months just drawing, designing, studying photos and thinking about Wilsonia, it feels almost dreamlike to be there in person.

I was privileged to be a guest in this little cabin:

If it weren’t for the fact that the water heater has only a 10 gallon capacity, I might be tempted to move in permanently. Smart folks, my hosts! 😎 This might be my favorite cabin. (I know, I say that a lot!)

Visiting Wilsonia causes my project to become more complicated. As I become more familiar with the cabins and the community, I get to know them all better and I keep seeing more things to draw.

I redesigned some of the pages to accommodate more drawings, and added several pages. This means that I need to complete more than the 230 drawings on the schedule for 2013.

It might be good to stop visiting Wilsonia until the drawings are completed and the design is set in cement.

But, then I’d miss you all. Wow, your friendliness, hospitality, enthusiasm and support just bowls me over!

Thank you, Wilsonia!

Neal Won!

As an aside, I have an Unca Neil (yep, that’s how we say and spell it), had a friend named Niel, and now I have a friend named Neal who won my little contest. It was a “name that street”, based on a pencil drawing for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia.

(sorry to be so redundant – rumor has it that Mr. Google can find a site easier if I repeat the important words like “pencil drawing” and “cabins of Wilsonia”.)

As I meet and talk with people around Wilsonia, I often have questions about various cabins and lots. It has been very surprising to me to hear, “We never go to that part” or “I only know my immediate neighborhood”, or “I don’t really know the street names”. Maybe my book will help with some of that by creating interest in other neighborhoods.

But I digress. Neal knew exactly where this drawing is:

It is looking down Pine Street. Since I am not naming cabins in my book, I don’t name them on the blog either. I believe in protecting privacy. Besides, cabins change owners in Wilsonia, and if I name a cabin and then it changes hands, my book will be quickly outdated. Nosirree, I’m going for timeless.

What did Neal win? A package of notecards with this image on the front:

Way to go, Neal!!

Counting Difficulties

Remember I said that all the drawings for July were completed?

Apparently I have a counting problem, or an overeager approach that short-circuits reality.

Now I’m scrambling to finish the drawing quota for July.

Well. oops. Good thing it is still July, or I might have to fire myself.

A Whole Street of Cabins

Here is the last drawing to meet my July quota. I got ahead so that I could enjoy some time off. You didn’t think I’d just flake away without doing my work, did you? Wouldn’t be able to have 230 completed drawings by December 31, 2013 with that attitude!

Before I actually spent time in Wilsonia, I contemplated how I might be able to get 200 something cabins drawn. I envisioned pictures like this, with multiple cabins in a single drawing.

Hahahaha!

There are maybe, just m a y b e four places I’ve been able to do this.

Can anyone name the street? First one to comment on the blog with the correct answer gets a prize! Neal won!

Just Drawing, and Drawing, AND DRAWING SOME MORE

Excuse me for shouting. I might be getting a little cranky. Heat does that. That’s why people go to their cabins in Wilsonia in the summer – to get out of the heat.

Before I start complaining, I’ll just show you another completed drawing and quietly go back to the drawing board. (Do you know anyone else who can honestly say that?)

I had planned to do a different angle of this cabin. The roof is interesting from that other angle, but the light wasn’t so good. I redesigned the page and chose this angle with its dappled light on the stone chimney.

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.

Natalie Talked Me Through

Drawing 145 pictures in one year’s time can get boring, tedious and lonely. I love to draw, but occasionally there are signs that my enthusiasm is wavering.

Last week I found myself enmeshed in a terrible web of procrastination. I did some oil painting, organizing, painting of cupboards in the workshop, blogging, reading for fun, gardening, errands, and even attempted to balance the checkbooks.

When I do stuff with numbers by choice, you KNOW there is a problem.

No worries – enter NATALIE! We met in 1986, are close in age but far in geography. We had an agreement to write letters in spite of email, and we have stuck to that agreement with some exceptions. Natalie emailed me last week to ask if there was a time she could call me on the phone, because she wanted a real conversation. What a friend!

We talked for TWO HOURS while I worked on this pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin:

Thank you, my dear friend Natalie, for talking me through, for helping me figure out some things, for taking the time to catch me up on your life, for the incredible gift of committed friendship for 27 years.

Why Blog About A Book In Progress?

Pencil drawing of Wilsonia cabin door. (Thank you, Captain Obvious!)

For you:

You can track my progress,
You can hold me accountable, because working on my own can get a little squishy.
You can correct any misinformation I have about your cabin community,
You can ask any questions about my process or progress
You can share this project with your cabin friends and family
You can stay current. When someone wonders how it is going or if it is going, you can have the answers or send them to my blog!

For me:

To have a record of my progress
To be held accountable
To get more accurate information if I mess up
To answer any questions you have
To share the project
To keep you current

Hmmm. That sounded a bit redundant. Captain Obvious is alive and well on the writing end of this blog.

Let Your Flag Fly (and ask lots of questions)

Most Wilsonia cabin folks fly their American flags while at their cabins. If these were commissioned drawings, I’d ask to put color in the flags. Alas, I don’t think any of us could afford the book if it was printed in color.

This is cropped. I love to crop stuff. You might have noticed.

When building a book like this, there are so many things to consider. Look at this list:

1. Color or not? Will it reproduce well? Will it cost more to reproduce? If I put color in the drawings, will they reproduce decently in a single color of ink?

2. Who will print this book? It is too soon to talk to printing companies. I tried this in 2011 and had several hungry (rabid?) sales people calling me. (Hey Printing Sales Guy – The book isn’t yet designed or drawn: I just asked the simple question of “Can you print this sort of book or not?” DON’T CALL to try and sell me something – it is Way Too Early.)

3. When can I sell the original drawings? If I let them go and find out I didn’t scan them properly, I will be in trouble, groveling to get them back, scrambling around trying to find who has what, taking them out of frames, trying not to wreck the framing. . . oh my.

4. If I crop cabins and draw them the way I like, the shapes and sizes to make the book the most interesting, will anyone want the originals?

See what I mean? questions, questions, questions.

Anyone out there have a crystal ball to lend me so I can get some definitive answers?

Four Months is One Third

A three month block is often called a “Quarter”. Why don’t we refer to a four month block of time as a “Third”?

I have asked questions like this my entire life. Inquiring minds want to know many things, and we sometimes end up annoying the rest of the world. Other times, we find folks who have always wondered but didn’t ask. And then there are those who laugh at us for asking. . .

The end of April is the end of a Third of a year of drawing the cabins of Wilsonia in pencil. Lots and lots and even more pencil drawings are stacking up in my studio and on my computer.

In April, I finished Mason, Meadow, and am currently working on Palisades Street. (Bet you didn’t know there is a Palisades Street.) It isn’t really a street. It shows on the map and there is a sign, but in reality, it is the yard area of 3 cabins that were all in the same family at one time.

Nope, this isn’t on Palisades. I’m not identifying individual cabins. I have a strong thing about other people’s privacy.

Next, look out Park Street, here I come, armed with pencils and ready to draw. No, I didn’t say “Park Avenue”. I may be the only pencil artist doing this, but it isn’t Monopoly.