Commission Accomplished…
I delivered my first commission piece this morning! My client was a sweet friend from college whose family had lost their beloved Golden Retriever last year. The artwork will be a gift for her husband for Christmas.
I wasn’t prepared for how nervous I’d be creating this piece for a client. My biggest goal in illustrating animals (and people, for that matter) is to capture their personality in their facial expressions. If I can’t recreate the expression, I have not succeeded…and that is just for my artwork, in general. Add in a paying client and I want to create the character in the animal and satisfy the client. It was a bit intimidating, to say the least.
This piece took me about 3 – 4 weeks to complete. I was working from a photograph and the final piece was about 8 times larger than the photo. It is in colored pencil and oil and wax pastel on Stonehenge 300 gsm. paper. I met with my friend once before I got started to see exactly what she envisioned. I met with her again when the piece was mostly complete to “tweak” parts of the illustration that were not quite right. I texted several iPhone photos of the drawing while it was in progress.
Here is a photo of the final work:
She was a beautiful dog and all of her photos showed what a great personality she had. I love the grin on her face! My friend was happy with the final product and for that I am grateful. As an artist however, I’m never 100% satisfied with anything I create. There is always room for improvement. I also feel like if I ever become completely happy with a piece, then I probably have become complacent. I look at each piece I do as a learning experience and I always hope to grow with each step. Thank you, my friend for trusting me with this beautiful girl! I can’t wait to see what your husband thinks on Christmas morning.
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