Written by If you have read my blog at all you know that I enjoy taking pictures. I enjoy photographs taken by others. I love what pictures have to say without a single written or spoken word. This blog post is a little different. It’s dedicated to drawings, although I have put it in the photography category, primarily because I have a photography category.
Not too long ago, through the power of Facebook, I became friends with Miss Cindy Culberson. Technically, Cindy is my first cousin once removed. So, I guess we are relatives and friends. But this isn’t entirely why I asked her if I could dedicate a blog post to her. Cindy had shared some pictures that she had drawn, and at first look I wasn’t sure if I was looking at a photo or at a drawing. I was, and still am, amazed. I let her know how talented I think she is and from there I had this idea.
When it comes to art I am just about clueless. That’s probably true of a lot of topics, but that’s another story. I do, however, thoroughly enjoy the talents, gifts, and abilities of those who can take a skill and raise it to the level of an art form. I relate mostly to sports, to athletics, where athletes take their skills, gifts, and years of dedication to pursuing perfection in athletic performance.
In this case I can’t relate to the physical abilities to create something so beautiful by hand. I can think about the thought process in Cindy’s mind and I can guess how that works. For instance, we see the picture, the whole picture. It’s beautiful. Then I think a bit deeper and wonder how many thousands of pictures she has in her mind when creating all the pieces that come together and become a beautiful picture of something we can easily recognize. Maybe just days, or even hours before, that recognizable art was a blank canvas or a blank piece of paper. Then there was the first stroke, and the second, and so on. How many pictures were created along the way, just to arrive at a single picture?
I also think on how many hours it would take for me to have the slightest chance of making my fingers, hand, and arm actually create something even closely resembling a picture of what I had in mind, or in front of me. Thousands at least, if I ever could do it. I am lucky to sign my name correctly. Cindy is able to make that translation from actual image, to many mental images, to making her hand make the precise strokes necessary to recreate all those images, ultimately leading to a beautiful, easily recognizable drawing. This doesn’t even account for the combinations of colors used to bring each portion of the drawing to life. Amazing. Simply amazing to me.
So without further adieu, here are five drawings from Cindy Culberson. She was nice enough to share a brief thought or two regarding each of her drawings shown here. I have shared the titles of each drawing she provided, the write ups, and then the drawings themselves. Aside from adding borders here in the blog page, I have not corrected, doctored, or otherwise influenced any of these pictures. This is her work. The real deal. Cindy does not have a website at this time. I may have suggested she set one up to show off her work because I think it’s fantastic, and I am guessing I am not alone. Cindy did give me permission to include her email address so that folks could reach out to her if they so chose. She can be reached at cindylc18@yahoo.ca. I am proud of the fact that Cindy and I are related. I am happy that we are also friends. I am amazed at her talents. I am thankful for her time and willingness to share her tremendous work. I am inspired by her drawings.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
I think this is such a dainty, beautiful butterfly. I love the way it looks like he is resting so lightly on the flowers. This has long been my favorite of my drawings so far. I had such a fun time analyzing the colors to decide on what shades to combine that would be most accurate and try to do justice to such a lovely part of creation.
Lily
There is a lot of black, brown and green in nature. I did this drawing because I wanted to give some of the other colors a chance! It seems like when I finish each of my pictures there is always one small part of it that I am especially happy with. I love how the petal in the bottom left corner came together and, I hope, displays the distinctive texture of these flowers. Mostly though, I love the vibrant, cheerful colors in this piece.
Chickadee
I must admit that I wasn’t entirely happy with how this drawing turned out, which is mostly because I am a perfectionist and tend to expect a little too much from myself. What I love about this drawing is the way it came to be. I base my drawings on photographs that my Dad has taken and thanks to his love of birds, nature and unique photography, I have more material to give me inspiration than I will ever be able to get to. I had a request for a drawing of a chickadee and since we did not have a photo of one, my Dad and I went “chickadee hunting”. Time spent in the woods, by groves of trees along the side of the road, dodging puddles on trails by the river during a rainy summer week, playing a bird call on Dad’s MP3 in an attempt to get a picture of the New Brunswick provincial bird, was a lot of fun and a great memory made with my Dad.
Eastern Bluebird
I did this drawing for my sister and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It’s such a simple setting of a bluebird poised on the roof of a shed but I feel like it has a peaceful, quiet quality to it. I’m always a little amazed when these turn out actually looking like what I’m trying to get it to look like!
Viceroy Butterfly
I had a love-hate relationship with this drawing during its creation. It took the most time to complete of any of my other pieces by far (29 hours in total). I chose this one to do for a special aunt of mine, as the dainty white flowers just reminded me of her. But after hours upon hours of drawing little white flowers I have to say I wasn’t too eager to see them again for a long time! However the detail in the flowers, which actually have a number of colors making up those petals, and especially the butterfly, left me thinking about the amazing God who made them. A butterfly is such a tiny, weightless creature, but its wings have the most incredibly fine detail. It’s a pretty awesome thing to think about.
