A couple months ago I stumbled across a website for artists in the Western New York area. It has listings for opportunities in museums, retail stores, and events or festivals, as well as a place to list your contact information in case someone wanted to get a hold of you about your work. I signed right up (yay for free advertising!), and then forgot about the website.
Over time I got a couple emails here and there about doing a drawing, but nothing ever came of the inquiries, so I forgot about the website again.
That is until I got another email, which leads me to this piece…
Title: Untitled
Size: 11 x 14
Medium: Graphite on paper
When: July 2015
Time to complete: About 15 hours over two weeks
Purpose: Commission by Luke P.; it’s to be a gift for his girlfriend’s birthday
Thought process: Luke was so easy to work with. He knew just what he wanted, he was flexible with my timing and busy schedule, and was very encouraging through the whole process. The only changes made to the photograph was I cropped it a little for a better composition, and I added a hawk into the pine tree in the upper right corner.
Complications with the piece: For the most part, this piece was very straight forward and was complication free, woo hoo! The thing that was hardest was doing all the grass. It’s pretty monotonous, but I think it’s the best grass I’ve drawn 🙂
Oooh, the tombstones were also tricky. There is a lot of intricate detail in the two closest ones, and getting the pictures just right on them was hard. They turned out great, though!
Favorite part: Seeing it done. I know I say that about all my pieces, but I do love seeing all my hard work pay off. Luke’s excitement about the piece is also a great thing!
Least favorite part: I’m actually pretty happy with this piece!
Fun tidbits:
– This is my first piece that I’ve done for someone I’ve never met! Luke and I have done all the planning, detail work, and talking either via text, phone calls, or emails, and I’ll be shipping this to him instead of hand delivering it! It was stressful on my part just because he was taking a leap of faith with my work and has only seen my online portfolio, never anything in person, and I didn’t want to disappoint him!
– The hawk was added to symbolize her brother. Not only has Luke’s girlfriend lost her mother, but she lost her brother as well. He had said that he would come back as a hawk one day, so Luke thought it would be a nice addition to the drawing. I love adding little details into my pieces that just add to the meaning, and I was more than happy to add the hawk.
– It took longer to do the line of trees in the back than it took to do the rest of the drawing, including all the tombstones!
– Luke is planning on getting this piece custom framed and he has promised me a picture when it’s all finished 🙂
***Edited 7/29: Just got a picture of the piece all framed today! It looks FANTASTIC!
Don’t forget to check back soon as I’ll be finishing up Epic (just finished!!!), Rivendell, illustrations for Boathouse book 1, and will soon be starting another Lord of the Rings drawing (woo hoo!)! I’ll be posting lots of teaser pictures next week on Facebook!
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