The Clearing

I just finished a painting that I'd like to share. It's for a marriage retreat lodge that will soon be built near Brenham called "The Clearing."

I was contacted by my friend Lori a few weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in doing an illustration for one of their clients. I did a brochure for her employer, Texas Log Homes, last fall and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to do some more work for them. That, and I'd like to transition into illustrating children's so I was really interested in a paying gig that would allow me to practice.

The drawback was that there was nothing in existence for me to work from except an architect's elevation drawing. Oh, and they wanted it with just a little more than three weeks turnaround.

So I got to work drawing. Trying to draw a building that doesn't exist from a straight-on drawing and trying to show depth and size is actually pretty tough. After several starts, I finally got a sketch that I likes and that I thought was decent enough to proceed. So I scanned it and began working with it in Photoshop.

Then I got some voicemails and an e-mail on Friday from the owners of The Clearing. They wanted the art early for a brochure. I wasn't ready to give it to them, but I promised that I would have it by the end of the weekend.

After several hours of work, I took a look at it and realized that my perspective was all off. It didn't become clear until it was painted how bad it was. It was like MC Escher got together with Salvador Dali and decided to build a log cabin. This is the first version:

So on Sunday morning, I started over. Sitting in the living room drinking my coffee with Kristi, I began sketching. What miraculously appeared was what I originally envisioned, but somehow abandoned. So I scanned it and began working feverishly. Having just done all this the day before, it went pretty quickly.

I fixed a few things that I didn't like from the first draft and experimented with some different ways of doing some things. I worked most of the day, with a 2-hour break to go to the Scarecrow Festival in Chappell Hill with the family. Finally, at about 7pm, I finished. Here's the final result:

I think you'll agree that it's much better.