My second custom portrait was for my Mom and biggest fan, and is so far my most time consuming and rewarding piece. Hence why you have not heard from me on top of traveling almost every weekend in April.
Keeper and Nora are two flat coated retrievers in the Adams household and my Mom had snapped a picture on her cell phone of them sleeping together. She has always preferred my ink drawings and this piece is done in a technique called stippling. However, I chose to do this piece as a 18x24 which had my husband laughing at me whenever I worked on it.
For works larger than 11x14 for ink/pastel and 16x20 for paint, I like to get the pictures blown up. This allows me to see shades that I can miss on a small photo file. I loosely trace where the shapes start and end. The quality of the photo can make it difficult to get a real feel for the placement of the subjects. For the gaps that I can't differentiate I feel out in sketching.
This is the first picture of the process. The image blown up in black and white, the tracing paper and the lightly lined piece ready for ink. I was standing on my couch for this picture to try to get them all in the shot. I took these photos on my cell phone camera. I often take pictures throughout the stages and into editing.
So it begins! The below pic is about 12 hours in to the piece.
Getting darker shades in there and the wood grain.
I utilize my cell phone when I get to the finalizing stages, beyond building the ink density and forming the final "lines." I was introduced the smartphones in December 2012 and found that I can draw on my photos. This is great! Why is it great? Well I can take a break from hunching myself over it get up and walk away and come back with fresh eyes and not worry about losing my train of thought. Its a mental game and can last a long time. Its my least favorite part of the process-approaching that fine line of "Should I touch it anymore? Am I really done? Ommigawd I don't want to ruin it!" Sometimes I will put of a piece in that stage for days to weeks until I can tackle it with a determined spirit. Crossing the line in ink can be devastatingly emotional. I learned those lessons in college so now I'm extremely cautious. I circled my "needs work" spots and reevaluate a section at a time. Staring at millions of ink dots up close can make it hard to see the bigger picture for overall shading so I sometimes set it up across the room and walk past it a few times and look at it from different angles.
This custom piece took me over a month to do in my spare hours around my full time job. I lost count of the hours it actually took. I'm guessing closerto 60 hours. The finished product makes me smile. It also helps that I am crazy in love with these dogs. Keeper is our handsome boy and my model sometimes, and Nora is my sweet girl with sass to spare when its dinner time.
I got a simple black frame for this piece and it now hangs in the living room of the house I grew up in.
Here is some close up details:
This was a learning experience on how much is my time worth and I can tell you I won't do another one of these for less than $450.00 My parents get a discount ;)
My Mom has also given me the OK to make prints of this piece. Titled "Sleeping Flatties"
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