This past week has been mostly dedicated to commission work (and modeling). I received a commission from a wonderful lady in New York to draw 3 portraits. It has been a pleasure working with her and i'm very fortunate.
That said, I will now go into the process i currently go through. First, I get the expectations, dates and numbers on the clear. I draw up thumbnails exploring various compositions, shapes/value relationships and I let the customer pick one/give feedback and then pay. I then do a nearly finished drawing giving a better idea of what the final product will look like (pencil)... very time consuming but necessary, specially when you're working with pen and ink... there are very few revisions that can be done with this medium and none of them involve taking away or correcting. So at this stage I take some final notes from the customer before i head into the final product.
After approval I start the final drawing. I use a specific kind of paper which is very delicate, so god forbid i get it dirty, bend it, rip it, put tape on it, etc. Even the pen sometimes causes acts of violence on the surface. It's rice paper, and it's textured, so i also have to know how the drawing is going to look on the paper so that a big chunk of texture doesn't fall in the middle of a portrait... better leave that stuff floating around the sides. Obviously the surface the drawing paper itself lies on top of matters as well, whether its hard or slightly padded, smooth, etc will give the pen park a different flow. The pen itself needs to have even pressure throughout lest it 'bleed'... which, if it's abad bleed you'd have to start a new drawing. Ill also mention that inevitably an error will occur, i've never had a 'perfect' drawing. The trick to getting around those is making it look intentional. Most of the time you can pull it off... sometimes you can't. I once had a drawing i was working on for a show, it was fairly large and difficult... it was... what... 40"x15" or something... i was touching things up at the end and i think i heard someone calling me, or something attracted my attention and i left the pen on the paper for a second too long... there was a blot. I spent alot of hours trying to correct the error, changing the compositon, value arrangement, markmaking (the blot was not the type of language i was using) and finally... the drawing got trashed. So it happens. Lastly i'll mention that not all references are created equal. I've mostly received ok references, but sometimes they really tilt more on the direction of not... when even upon request the client cannot provide a better alternative i sometimes find myself combining two or three references to get the portrait i need.
These drawings don't take hours, they take days/weeks to finish because it is a slow build of of very fine lines. The repitition of the pattern alone takes hours of focus since i try to get it somewhat evenly spaced and pressured. The correct drawing has to be there, and also the pen has to be in it's ideal state of ink.. meaning, new pens show up with stronger lines, older pens you can get away with finer ones and are more sensitive to pressure. They all bleed if you don't take care.
Anyhow... back on point. When the commission is finished (if its a couple at once i wait until they are all done, so i can feel free to touch up others as i finish some to make sure they feel like a unit and a sort of communication is going on between them) i send final pix, hopefully get an approval then ship it off to its new owner. (i added this in a rush just now... i'll organize it properly later.)
For what it's worth, the final product does look really nice and i'm super excited to see what i'll end up doing with this medium in terms of pattern, application, process etc. I know i'm barely at the tip of the iceberg with these.
I'm not posting the current drawings since they are commissions, when all is done i'll ask permission.
Another word.... I do not have a big name and am starting in my career... if i charged hourly for the amount of work that is going into these i'd get less then a dollar an hr. Whether that's right or wrong at this point is irrelevant, it's important that i'm at least getting my art moving and getting paid for it... people don't know how much work goes into these... they wouldn't be willing to pay for it. Specially if you're just starting out.
Thought number two... As i wait for my russian student visa and details. I'm considering where else i may travel, and how to continue making ends meet in other countries for temporary stays. I will always have to regroup in Cali and New York... but meanwhile, i can still linger, search and discover and make great art... whether it sells or not is another question.
My goal, as an artist, is to perfect my craft and always work as honestly as i can and to the best of my ability. My direction in life is one of endless study and travel.
No photos today again, i'm using a friends computer. Gotta go.
