Commissions

In the middle of November, I was approached to carte a piece of artwork for a friend as a christmas present. It was something that I happily took on. Even though my end career goal was to become a primary school teacher, I still welcome projects that allow me to paint and create work for people as it isn't something that I wish to give up. 

At the first meeting, it was discussed what the subject of the painting would be. Something that I specialise in is landscape and seascapes and so perfectly, the photo he wanted me to paint was a seascape of Boscastle, Cornwall.

Here is the photo of the landscape that the client wanted as a painting 

Other items that were discussed were what size he wished the canvas to be and when would he like the painting to be completed. As it was a Christmas present he naturally wanted it to be finished for Christmas, however, I scheduled to have it done a couple weeks before Christmas Day so that if the client wished anything to be changed, this gave me the time to do so.

With regards to the canvas size, he felt an A2 size canvas would suit. This was something i was happy with as I work a lot better on bigger pieces of work.

Week One 

I have decided that i want to use acrylic paints and palette knives to create this piece of work. It is something that I am confident with using and think that the textures the paint and palette knife will create will help to bring some life and dimension to the painting.

To start of the piece of work, I’ve just simply mapped out the bigger shapes and blocks of colour. Also, because the horizon runs right through the centre of the photo, I have used masking tape to create a sharp line. 

For the moment, Im just simply making sure that my canvas matches the reference photo before I start to lay any colour down.

I like to start from the top of the canvas and then work my way down the painting. So thats what I did, I started with the sky. The palette knives at the moment are not cooperating wonderfully. They keep sticking to the paint on the canvas and almost removing it. It is making the process quite frustrating but I am going to work through it. 

Week Two 

I have laid down most of the sky and i am now moving on to the darker shades in the sea water. The palette knives are working well and are giving texture and life that I wanted to create for this painting. 

I have started to add highlights and shadows to the waves in the sea and I am happy with how it is coming along. Because acrylics dry fairly quickly, I am able to layer the tones and colours found within the photo of the sea.

Week Three 

It is now time for me to move on to the rocks that take up most of the foreground and a bit of the background in the photo. This is the bit I am struggling with the most because the rocks/ cliffs in the background are essentially just a block of colour and on my one painting this is just coming up flat. Also the palette knives have just became more of a hindrance and so I have resorted to paint brushes to thickly apply the paint and so far, I am happy with the outcome. 

With these paintbrushes, I am also able to get the silhouettes of the cliffs in the background better and take more care with getting the shape and proportions correct. 

Week Four

I have gone over everything again with the paintbrushes and I am much happier with the outcome of the painting so far. I am now trying to tackle the rocks in the foreground of the photo and I just want seem to get the right amount of detail that I want. Because of this, I have decided to take a more abstract approach to it and just layer the colours as I see them in the photo and hopefully this gives the idea of rocks in the foreground.

Finished product 

On the last week, I just did a few finishing touches and was done to show it to the client. I was unfortunately unable to stay to my schedule and so did not leave myself that two week period to sort things out if it was needed. However, the client was happy with the finished piece as soon as he saw it so this gave me a life line really as I didn't need to add or re-do any of the painting. 

I am extremely happy with painting and I have received compliments from it which does make it all worth while. I did come across a few blips but I kept level headed and moved passed them and improved on what I had before. One thing I desperately need to work on is my time management and when I have that, I will be putting myself in a better position with my work.