commission

The Maid of Honour's gift

I was commissioned earlier this year to paint a bridal bouquet as the wedding gift from her maid of honour. It was a large painting full of challenges including exotic frilly white flowers, working from photographs and potential composition issues. Lucky I like a challenge.

It was quite a large bouquet and the finished painting is probably slightly larger than life. I was supplied with the photos as the nuptials took place interstate. This meant compositionally I had to make decisions based on the best pictures supplied and create the composition by combining several images.

Initially I toyed with the idea of a background but as it progressed I abandoned that idea because there was so much going on in the bouquet it just didn't need a background. I liked the simple elegance of presenting just the beautiful bouquet of flowers.

So the first challenge was getting the drawing and composition set. The final picture became a melding of the two images above, with only a few adjustments along the way to make the composition work for me. On consultation with my client we decided to leave out the trailing flowers to keep to a squarer image.

I took photos along the way to show the progression of the painting. I am pleased with the the finished picture and learned heaps from the job. I hope the bride enjoys it as a lasting memory of her big day.

 

New and Challenging.

Early this year I was commissioned to produce a series of illustrations for a one off childrens book. It is intended as a personal gift and so won't be published.  The brief was; an adult male, a girl and a rabbit, an Easter story set in a local snowplay area called Corin Forest.

This was an interesting proposition. Last year I participated in The 52 Week Illustration Challenge, which was founded by a childrens book author who wanted to extend her drawing/ illustration skills. Participating in this challenge meant producing an illustration each week to a different one word topic. I found it was a way to get me drawing subjects and styles I may not otherwise tackle. Drawing people for example is not something I do regularly, so this commission presented me with an opportunity to work further outside my comfort zone and explore the possbilities.

Story book illustrators have their own unique set of problems to solve. The drawings are there to complement and help tell the story. Continuity of both characters and the environment to put them in was an interesting challenge. As someone not used to drawing people I am now faced with drawing the same person repeatedly, doing and expressing something different from one page to the next! Tricky!

It was quite fun letting go of the constraints of Botanical drawing wherein you have to be acurate and true to the subject, in this my imagination got a look in. Guided by the authors story it was up to me to provide an environment on the page for the three characters to inhabit.

 

I am reasonably happy with how it turned out, given that I had very limited time and I am a first time book illustrator. I learnt heaps and found I quite enjoyed the experience plus my client seemed happy- what more could I ask for?

To see the full suite of Illustrations click here.

 

The finished product.

The finished product.