..for your photo of the feed mill in Vernon. I literally have not picked up an expressive pencil (except to doodle while on hold) for twenty years. Your photo was a great comp of shadows and form. I found myself scratching at it until I got to the edges and that's where you stop. It was great therapy, I may do some more.
I called this "Vernon, Texas - Study in rust and shadows"
That's a thousand times better than the best I ever did. The only things I can draw are flies and water.
paden cash, post: 411324, member: 20 wrote: ..for your photo of the feed mill in Vernon. I literally have not picked up an expressive pencil (except to doodle while on hold) for twenty years. Your photo was a great comp of shadows and form. I found myself scratching at it until I got to the edges and that's where you stop. It was great therapy, I may do some more.
I called this "Vernon, Texas - Study in rust and shadows"
That's a pretty good drawing, but let's get the title right. That feed mill is in Throckmorton, down US 183 from Vernon. The mills, gins, and silos are invariably interesting in the right light and some evidence of time never hurts, either.
Sorry about the location but the title's not written down anywhere anyway. Just good low sun filtered by a rusting hulk. It was an interesting comp, and the more I studied it the deeper it got. I enjoyed scratching on it.
That's pretty impressive. I've always been jealous of people with artistic ability. The best I can draw is a stick man, and that's only if I have a straight edge and a quarter.
paden cash, post: 411339, member: 20 wrote: Sorry about the location but the title's not written down anywhere anyway. Just good low sun filtered by a rusting hulk. It was an interesting comp, and the more I studied it the deeper it got. I enjoyed scratching on it.
I wasn't knocking the drawing. I particularly admire the clever way that rendered the Johnson grass growing along the foundation of the scale house.
paden cash, post: 411339, member: 20 wrote: Sorry about the location but the title's not written down anywhere anyway.
I can understand, though, why you'd think that the scene was in Vernon. Here's a description of Vernon from the 1910 edition of "The Texas Almanac and Industrial Guide" that explains the natural superiority of both the city and indeed all of Wilbarger County:
Geez Paden
Nice
Now you can illustrate your stories too.
Like to see a sketch of Bills66.
Kent McMillan, post: 411346, member: 3 wrote: I wasn't knocking the drawing. I particularly admire the clever way that rendered the Johnson grass growing along the foundation of the scale house.
I knew you weren't knocking the drawing. It was actually your composition anyway. That grass is the first of that particular strain that has sprouted in at least 17 years. I can't remember the year I last saw it, but it was pre-millennium. It was actually a little awkward it has been so long.
My hand is not as steady as it used to be and my astigmatic eyes leave evidence. But just as horn player may temporarily lose his lip but not his passion; maybe a little practice and WD40 can get things moving again.
I put something down because it was no longer enjoyable. I may pick it back up if it feels good. It has so far.
ps - it's so hardly noticeable I couldn't tell if you had actually seen it or not; but in your photo, below the hoppers on the right the field of view travels to infinity, maybe down an old RR grade or highway...or maybe I just made it that way in my mind. Continuity of depth is a difficult thing to capture. But aesthetically your composition has all the proper factors: horizon, foreground, infinity, discernible mass providing focus between those and dramatic light carefully balancing the entire field of view.
Excellent. Too bad art doesn't pay better. Then you could survey just for fun.
paden cash, post: 411351, member: 20 wrote: ps - it's so hardly noticeable I couldn't tell if you had actually seen it or not; but in your photo, below the hoppers on the right the field of view travels to infinity, maybe down an old RR grade or highway...or maybe I just made it that way in my mind. Continuity of depth is a difficult thing to capture. But aesthetically your composition has all the proper factors: horizon, foreground, infinity, discernible mass providing focus between those and dramatic light carefully balancing the entire field of view.
Yes, that distant view was part of what interested me about that photo. The thing itself is like a rusty castle as rendered on the dry end of the Great Plains by Piranesi.
On the subject of feed mills, here's another one. This is in Flatonia, Texas. When I was taking this photo, standing in a public street, a guy who told me he was the manager of the mill came over, very bothered that anyone might be taking a photo of the place. I never figured out what his problem was, but most likely he was just nuts.
Then there is this one in Jourdanton that looks like some alien machines rusting in their tracks:
And here's a feed mill in the distance to the side of a one-point perspective down the tracks. I took that in Ballinger, Texas when I was working on a boundary dispute in Concho County and the nearest motel accomodations were in Ballinger, such as they were.
About the best thing in Concho County, aside from an incredible gallery of Texas Indian pictographs along the river near Paint Rock was the county courthouse.
C Billingsley, post: 411344, member: 1965 wrote: That's pretty impressive. I've always been jealous of people with artistic ability. The best I can draw is a stick man, and that's only if I have a straight edge and a quarter.
My drawing is so bad they won't let me draw sketches of my field work.
