Another Christmas Commission
 

These two are being delivered today to the father, giving this to his wife for Christmas. I got the commission at a "shop night" at his large software company, he is one of the managers. He asked this morning, "did any of your artist friends see them yet and what did they think?" Well I told him they have been in my studio, but will be delivered to the gallery this afternoon. It is hard to get the color and brightness right on my screen. The color and tonal range are more accurate in the boy's portrait. They are graphite/charcoal/white pastel on Canson MiTienes Moonstone paper.

I really did not enjoy these two, again I had to go with terrible photos, The boy's was his senior pic and the girl's was a FLASH photo she sent me (she send me twenty pics, none of them good) So, again this was the best I had to work with. I think these are the last commissions I do without good reference, my own photo shoot and sitting with the subject myself to do a quick sketch (this is the best way to reach maximum results I am proud of)

Nonetheless, I would like to get your feedback before I take them to the gallery. I really appreciate it. Last night I came very close to deciding to give the money back to the client!

Reference pics
 

Thought you'd enjoy these to see

Hi Patricia,
I think you did a great job working from these photos. I would not give them their money back or even hint at that you were not satisfied with the drawings. I think you should be very pleased with the results. I tried working from someone else's photos long ago, and I gave up half-way through the drawing.

Hi Patty,

You have nothing to worry about! I have found that our clients tend to be far less critical than our fellow artist friends, or we ourselves for that matter. The main thing is that the client is pleased with the results and that will be apparent as soon as they see it and respond to your work.

I especially think the young man is drawn very sensitively. Nice...

Thank you Kenneth for your words of encouragement and your story, I read it just before leaving to deliver the portraits and it helped me.

You know when ours are the only eyes we oversee everything.
Enzie your words were so kind, and I appreciate them. I will never do this again, promise to deliver a portrait on a day which I am not finished, I could have postponed the date till tomorrow, but Nooooo...I had to make myself crazy. I finished the girl up late last night and of course the ugly fairy came in the middle of the night and ruined her ! So up until 30 minutes before I delivered it I altered the drawing. I did not like the white pastel at all (she has BIG artificial streaks in her hair) so I took most of it out. I think it looks better.

The good news is that the client was very happy and paid the commission. So all is well that ends well. Now I have ONE MORE to do before Christmas. I love it, being this bus!

Pat--

Really fine job with what you had to work with, which wasn't so bad...I've worked from worse on some posthumous jobs. All your decisions were spot on.

As regards the butterflies, they're normal. But as the deodorant commercial used to say, "Never let 'em see you sweat." You earned every penny.