Note: this section is intended for private customers. Please contact me if you'd like design for commercial use with full ownership/reproduction rights.

 

Nice to know about commissions:

 

When you commission an artist, you're hiring a person to draw a motive of your choosing. Doing this makes you an essential part of the creative process, especially if the motive isn't something you have a photograph of, but is conceptual stuff like characters, mascots, tattoos, a purple unicorn, or other stuff that lives in the realm of imagination but which you think the personal style of your chosen artist would bring to life. "Style" is the keyword here, because what you are paying me for is to see your concept or photograph expressed through my approach to art: my colours, composition, imagination and so on.

 

Alright! So what type of commission are you interested in? The two most common types are:

 

1. People portraits

2. Conceptual motives

 

You are my source of inspiration, especially if the commission is for concept art. In such commissions, it's necessary with some back-and-forth communication about what your idea is all about (clothing, colours, background, mood, etc), and I can ask questions.

 

In people portraits, you supply me with one or more reference photos that will be used to base things such as anatomy and personality on. Note that background, clothes and atmosphere doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the reference photo, unless you want it to. You can also say "take the pose from this picture and the expression from this one and the cat from that" if there are certain elements from different photos you'd like merged. Think of this as a great opportunity for you to get your camera out to play around and have some fun. If the portrait is of your friend or family member, get together and do these pictures together instead of just going through the drawers for alrightish pictures already taken.

 

I draw in two different kinds of mediums, digital and traditional. Digital means computer art in Photoshop CS3. Traditional means everything, well, traditional, such as watercolour, pens, pencils. In traditional media, the physical artwork is included in the price of the commission, and is shipped to you. In digital commissions, there's no real world piece. You receive a copy of the Photoshop file in its original resolution, and you can make prints of it to give to family/friends as you like, as long as there's no money involved.

 

Here's a cutout from what could easily be a reference photo:

 

Notice the sharpness of the details, the backlighting, the subtle shadows falling across the skin:

 

This photo belongs to Drea Ford and is used with permission. Check out her galleries at http://clickypenpixiexstock.deviantart.com/

 

 

Keep these points in mind when you take your pictures, and you can't go wrong:

 

a. Sharpness

b. Defined shadows and light (just stick a lamp somewhere and the shadows take care of themselves)

c. Details visible (a high resolution picture where you can zoom in)

d. Colour photo

 

Don't worry about making it aesthetic, since the point of a reference photo isn't to have it be a work of art (if it was, I'd rather not use it from fear of copyright infringement ;)), but to have it contain as much raw information about the subject as possible. Pictures with a lot of information always lead to a higher degree of realism in the drawing, because I don't have to invent or guess at important physical markers, so to speak. At the same time, when realism is secured, there's room to be creative with the piece, which results in having both realism and interesting art - in my case, that would be the touch of fantasy/surrealism.

 

In general, the better reference material you supply me with, the more efficiently I'll be able to work, and the fewer hours you have to buy.

 

Here is a chart with my prices, set up in the number of hours you commission me for versus wage:

 

 

Version 1	1-5 hours	20 euro/hour
Version 2	6-10 hours	18 euro/hour
Version 3	11-15 hours	15 euro/hour
Version 4	16-20 hours	13 euro/hour
Version 5	21-30 hours	11 euro/hour
Version 6	31-50 hours	9 euro/hour
Version 7	Above 50 hours	7 euro/hour

 

 

So what can I accomplish in x number of hours? The three drawings below are my latest pieces, and are interesting in relation to eachother, because they say something about time versus complexity. Drawing a portrait where face, neck and shoulders are included and supplying it with a simple, classic background takes not so long. In this type of picture, time will be spent on skin, facial and hair details and looks very nice in about 15 hours. Hours beyond that depend on how much will be included in your drawing besides hair, face, background and shoulders. Objects (like the chess pieces), depthy perspective (foreground, middleground and background) and an original background take time to build up. The level of details you desire, or the resolution, is another factor to consider. I detail the face the most by default, because likeness is the first priority in portraits, and work outwards from that depending on my goals for the picture. But detailing a picture is something you can do until the earth stops turning, it 's the endurance of the artist or time priorities that set the limit.

 

 

. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .

 

 

It's worth noting that there's a difference between timecomsumption in computer art versus traditional art. In traditional art, you can't just draw and erase forever because it wears down the paper. It's rare I've spent more than 30 hours on a traditional medium drawing, but this also means that traditional paintings are more likely to be inaccurate anatomically, and for that reason I recommend Photoshop for portraits and traditional art for concept art.

 

So how does it work once you know what you want? If you have msn, add me: carina2b@hotmail.com. If not, email me at that address or use the contact form. The first thing we will do, is discuss what kind of commission you want. If I accept the commission, a price will be set and I will give you the dates for when I begin the commission and when I expect it to be finished. Commissions are paid before I begin working on them. The usual payment method is Paypal. I expect to stay in touch with you when I draw, for inspiration and questions. If you like, you can follow the work in progress and give feedback.

 

The whole process of a commissioned drawing is really a fun and creative project, so set some time off for it, take pictures or practice visualizing your motive (so you can explain it), and you're welcome to use me as a sparring partner in figuring out your what you want. Maybe you can even end up drawing it yourself. ;)