Time to make the doughnuts...

Okay, I am back at my easel working diligently(?) on my commission piece. I've got another one in the wings but it will not be documented nearly as much as this one has been.

For those of you who wondered what I was talking about when I said last time that "Coming soon: mermaids!", well, I still don't have a mermaid ready to display yet but I AM working on them. I have a request for a mermaid painting for my niece/flower girl/cutest thing in the world (right next to her little sister), that will be given to her for her birthday. Her birthday is in November which is a heck of a lot closer than it was 6 months ago when the idea was first put forth to me. So I am pulling out all of the preliminary sketches I've been playing with for six months and seeing which compositions work best, what kind of style I want to zzzzz.... What?!? You don't care about all of that technical artsy crap? Don't blame ya'. It's fun to do (for me anyway) but talking about it is for teachers and know-it-all art students. But I may get a few of the better ones and see if anyone has an opinion on the overall look of the mermaids.

Back to the now. Here is the latest work done on my fisherman. Hope you like it.

A Brief Respite...

I am not stopping work on the painting out of laziness. (Maybe a little.) But mostly, I just need to let it sit for a day or two so I can finish it up. Some of the oil paints don't dry that quickly and if you don't let them dry a bit, you just end up pushing them around the canvas for no reason. So for right now, it might be a day or two before I can update with any significant changes. Sorry for any disappointment this may incur but don't worry. Coming soon: mermaids!

Coming up with titles for these is tedious...

Seriously. This message is for anyone else who commissions a painting: I probably WON'T put up an update every day. This gets monotonous. Plus it takes away time I could be painting. I'm still new to the whole marketing myself bit, and according to those in the know it actually does take up quite a bit of your time, energy, and money to market yourself. I'm much more okay with that than I used to be but really I don't think I will post with daily advances on a painting. (Unless there is a mass protest to see my process in action. But I doubt it.)

So here is the next step in my Fisherman oil. The client had actually said something about doing away with the boats in the background to make the surroundings more natural, but I don't think I like that idea. The beauty of this photo is it is a family icon. The picture itself. Not even the moment really, because I'm pretty sure that none of the rest of the family was there. (Client was probably WAY too young.) So therefore the actual photograph is what is embedded in the families mind. A photo of dad youthfully basking in the pride of a giant honking lake fish. So enjoy the next evolution of a painting.

Commission Part III: The Reckoning

I have to post my most recent progress on the commission as I don't want the client to think I'm goofing off. Okay, maybe that and the title of the post are a WEE bit over dramatic. I just want to try and post something every day I have done a bit to the painting, even if it is just a little. So here you go.

Commission process: Part 2

I am making an attempt to fully document the process from blank canvas to fully realized painting. So for the next few days or so, I will be posting my friend's commissioned piece here as it slowly comes together into the finished product. Here is what has been done since yesterday:



I think it's coming along nicely.

Paintmonkey Studios Is Now Taking Commissions!

Yes, for the first time ever, Paintmonkey Studios is accepting commission work. For whatever reasons before (uncertainty of my abilities, afraid of taking on too much at once, not broke enough), I am now ready to tackle any and all customers who would like a Paintmonkey original of their very own.

I was actually very uncertain of my own abilities for a very long time and only allowed myself to paint within a very narrow frame of reference and comfort. But recently as I've allowed myself to expand my view of possibility, I have realized that there is nothing I am not willing to try artistically.

Last night I started my first commission for a friend. She had a photo of her dad she really liked and wanted me to reproduce it in oils. This is the first days' work:



Not bad for an hour's work. And it was actually a lot of fun. So if you have an idea of something that you have always wanted for a painting, leave me a comment or get in touch with me through The Paintmonkey Studios fan page. I will be glad to talk and see what I can do for you.

Pen and Inks

I've been working with pen and inks for most of my life. Whenever a relative who doesn't spend that much time with you hears that your interest is "art", generally you get a bottle of india ink and a quill pen of some sort. I used to get aggravated at it (I mean come on, I've got a bottle of ink NOW that I've been using for close to 10 years. I just don't go through it that quickly.), but now I'm kind of glad that I got all that ink lo those many, many years in a row.

For one thing I can whip out pen and inks in a fairly short amount of time. They became kind of my fallback "when you've got artist's block" way to shake loose the old creativity. Any time I am stuck for inspiration, I can always go do a pen and ink of anything and it usually helps me get started on something else. Throw out a couple of nice little pen and inks and you've started looking at the world in a compositional kind of way again.

And the second and most important reason is simply this: I like pen and inks. I always have, I always will. I am drawn more to an artist's drawings and ink sketches than to full blown paintings. I like the paintings mind you, but more than likely I will probably like the planning stages more. It is a view into the artist's workings that you sometimes can't see in the polish of a finished painting.

So I decided to post a few drawings I've been working on lately (and a couple that aren't THAT recent) because I've gotten a little burned out on painting in the past couple of weeks and wanted to get back to the basics. I had fun doing them and I hope you like them.