My Latest, Greatest Portrait Commission
Dec 23, 2009 On my Easel
After being holed up in my house for the past four days, I have finally finished my last Christmas commission of the year!
I was contacted about two weeks ago by Alan, who wanted to know if it was too late for a portrait. I told him of course it wasn’t; then he told me he wanted a drawing of his entire family of twelve people and their dog! I have to admit, I hummed and hawed a bit. I knew I could do it, I just wasn’t sure if I could fit it into my schedule along with my own Christmas stuff.
In the end, I had to say yes. It was a special circumstance and I very much wanted to help Alan make this work!
It was a couple days before we were able to meet, choose photographs and hammer out a composition. Alan wanted a large portrait of his wife, surrounded by smaller pictures of his family. Basically, the drawing was to be all about his wife, with everyone else supporting her.
In the end, it took about thirty-five hours of drawing, countless revisions, and at least fifteen different photos to complete this! I used one photo for each of the small figures (some I used a second photo to reference certain facial features). Alan’s wife was made up of a combination of three pictures: one for the face, one for the body, and a third for the mouth.
Long story short, I have been working on this drawing to the exclusion of almost everything else! I haven’t seen Twitter in days, haven’t updated my Facebook page, and haven’t been able to check out my favorite blogs. My house is a shambles, there’s no food in the fridge and I have about six hours of laundry to do. Today, I left my house for the first time in three days!
As much as I’m glad to be done, it has been a pleasure working with Alan on this project. I think it turned out amazingly well and I hope his wife absolutely loves it!
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December 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Wow !!! fantabulous
u have not only given tips on drawing but also inspiring me for my journey
is it just the pencil or u have any fixative too ? .. too good to be appreciated without knowing the techniques used in it
December 24th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Miranda! Congratulation for this stunning piece of work and for the person who has the privilege to own it now. The people live, they all look happy, they are perfect, the dog is too:). I just can feel how it feels to be done with this, after all those hours you spent with this portrait. Wonderful work. Have a good, relaxing Christmas time now:)
greetings from Andrea
December 24th, 2009 at 11:02 am
all I can say is WOW!! It’s just beautiful, amazing work!
Thanks for the encouragement and Merry Christmas to you too
December 27th, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] was reminded of this lesson, which I have applied to my entire life, during my recent portrait marathon. No matter how tight the deadline, no matter how much
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Thanks for all the kind comments!
Yes, I do fix all of my drawings, it helps to protect them from smudgy fingers!