
As I mentioned earlier, I thought I would share a bit about the commissions I'm working on. I'm just finishing the first piece, which is turning out to be one of the most complex paintings I've done. The commission is for two Rottweiler puppies and the setting chosen was a garden bench on the clients property in the Hollywood Hills. Behind the bench is a near and distant landscape that I composited from several locations on the property. Because I have spent so much time doing still lifes, I haven't done much landscape work, so these paintings have an added learning curve. This image is of one of the heads...I will post the whole painting when it is finished and framed, hopefully next week.
I haven't been doing this for very long, but I have to say that I have worked with some wonderful and interesting people and this client is no different. The next painting is of his other dog, which will be in another landscape setting. More on that in a couple weeks.
Any painters reading this will understand that, for me, one of the biggest challenges of commissions is the change to my personal relationship with my painting. The dynamic is different when I am painting to please someone else from when I am painting for myself. It has been tricky figuring out how to center myself when I am painting so that I am not always aware of the client and their opinion while I am painting because this seriously hampers creativity, making it less likely that the client will be satisfied.