Commissioned and Daily Drawings

For an artist, there is nothing as affirming as being commissioned. This means the artist is asked to create something for someone. I have been commissioned twice in the last few weeks.

One commission is for one of my baby portraits. I thoroughly enjoy doing these portraits, which are done totally in graphite on paper. I have done several of these for family members but have now also been asked to do them to be given to people I've never met. Quite affirming.

The other commission is one that will be done from various photographs of someone's cottage property. This one will be a challenge because most of my landscapes are freeform trees, rocks and water but this has a building in it and that means straight lines and precision.
I have already done a few sketches of the property from different angles and sent them to my "commissioner" to view and choose which setup they prefer and get an idea of what aspects they would like in the final painting. Do they just want the cottage with little of the surrounding trees in it? Do they want the view from the back of the cottage so you can also see the lake? Do they want mainly the surroundings depicted? Together we decided on a view from the lake towards the cottage property.

 

Above are the rough sketches made to get a feel of the composition and values. We decided to go with the second view adding the lake in the foreground and a few other details. This will be set in the summer time so there will be a  lot of green surrounding the cottage.

This is the preliminary sketch on canvas. The sketch is done
with watercolour pencil which is my habit so that it will
disappear as I paint. I can already see certain details that I
will have to alter a bit.

I will keep you posted on the progress of this painting so check in next Thursday.

Below are the daily drawings I've done this week:

Draw a summer joy

Draw something that makes you laugh.
It's not a great likeness but can you guess who?

Draw a tote bag

Draw a screw

Draw something sticky

I'm a little behind in my drawings so I'll have to catch up today. Enjoy!