One for you, one for me

It's not Wednesday, but this is what I wanted to post about this last Wednesday, and by the time this coming Wednesday rolls around, I am going to want to post about the current projects I am working on now. So. Blog time.

I spent the last week or so working on a fairly large commission. 12 x 16 inches, acrylic, canvas, this:

I loved working on it. Genuinely, I really love working on commissioned work. Just knowing the painting is actually going to be loved and live somewhere besides my stairwell in what we affectionately refer to as the "limbo gallery" (or worse, in the closet) while it desperately waits for a home adds a whole level of motivation to my work. 

Commissions are where I really focus, use, and improve my technical skills.  

I start with the solid, well planned outline. Especially with pets I have to get general fur pattern and quirks down so that the recipient (in this case, the son of the client, it'll be a surprise birthday gift) knows it's THEIR pet. 

I usually start with the eyes. Sometimes I do eyes, nose, ears, sometimes I save nose and ears for later. Mostly depends what paint I already have out.

I focus, on all my work, really, the most detail around the eyes and rest of the face. The face usually takes about as long as the rest of the body combined.

I use reference pictures, of course. I used to use my laptop but now I print them out to size. Half so I can see them with my glasses off so I don't give myself a migraine and half so I don't get any more paint on my laptop. (Besides, I found printer ink for really cheap on amazon and definitely write it off as a business expense now, so I can justify myself.)

There was a time when my realism would be an aim for complete realism. It isn't anymore. I leave in brush strokes and raised bits of paint and little things that whisper "this is a painting". It's a lot less stressful this way, which makes the piece turn out better.

Cat number two, was of course added in the same way. Face, body. Then the white wall behind them sponged on, then the fridge painted in. 

Roughly, this took me 6-7 hours from deciding on the composition to finished painting. I only really spent about 2 hours at a time on it (I measure my time in Seabound albums, currently. So I'd listen to both their albums I really love and then quit for a while). 

And in between those times, I took a break from painting by painting. 

I had this idea for a mixed media painting with acrylic and oil floating around in my skull. When I sketched her out, I just had to follow through and do her.

She turned out, as my work often does when I am left to my own devices, a lot more grungy and dark than I had originally intended. Somewhere the whimsy was lost, probably in my mood this week. 

I let her oils dry before adding the rest of the acrylic.

And here she is. With wild flowers in her hair, waiting to be reborn. This was for me. 

It's funny, because if I were to pick between the two paintings to say "this is what I am capable of" I would tend towards picking her over the cats. I've noticed that time and time again, the pieces I like the most seem to be the least popular ones - wherever. If I post them on instagram or show people my artwork. Invariably, the work that I feel like is my style, my creativity, my spark, passion and good ideas merits a very lukewarm response compared to the rest of it. 

Which is, of course, a matter of taste and perfectly fine. Because canvas was buy one get two free so I got two extras both times I bought canvas for commissions this last week. I'll keep stretching my technical skills on what sells and my wings on what makes me warm.