Private Commisioned Christmas Card, Pt.1

posted 11.18.09 at 12:00 am
 Something I've never done on the blog, and I don't know why, is to digest a project I'm working on from start to finish.
Seems like a good idea, right?

Usually when I get a job like this, it ends up being a computer job, meaning all the sketches and final are drawn on the Cintiq: For this section of this journal, here's some of the original sketches I came up with, and the 3 kids they're of... The Photo Reference

What I do first is take into consideration what the client wants, and work out a rough sketch.  Normally this step would take a lot of paper and lots of erasing, but the beauty of the computer is that all the erasing and rearranging happens on the screen.  The amount of time saved here is priceless!  But... I don't have sketchbooks filled with trial and error drawings of commissions like these either.  
Obviously this is before any of the caricatures are fleshed out.  These faces are basically just placeholders.
To recap what the client asked for, (you'll love this), the little one is swimmer, the middle is a hockey player and the big one is graduating.  And a cartoony Santa is in there somewhere.
Whew!
This sketch I thought was pretty boring, and I wasn't upset when the client thought so as well.  They wanted it more animated.  Good thing, because I would have fallen asleep painting this.
Yesterday morning I whipped up this version: That's way more fun.  And go figure, the first sketch took about two hours, and this one took 30 minutes.  
It's clear I had more fun with the second.   I always say, you can tell by the final result if the artist actually enjoyed the work.  If it's a piece the artist just does for the money and no joy, it can't really be explained, but that mindset shines through.  
But... That's a long blog post topic for the future.

So, once I got the layout approved, this morning I did the actual caricatures.  This part probably should have been done first, as it's not easy showing a client a sketch with roughed in faces, to have them use their imagination that those faces will be done later.  But, I am more comfortable working out the composition first and leaving the caricatures till last, so I know when drawing the faces where they'll be looking, what angle to draw, etc.

So, here's the final caricatures I came up with:
Now I goto final.  I'm doing it the old fashioned way, with watercolors.  I'll document that process and post when I'm finished.

Wish me luck!

on the board      

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