A complicated new commission

Roman church

I got this commission last week and it is a doozie. It is a church in Rome where the client’s niece is getting married this fall. It took 3+ days for the pencil up which still leaves out a lot of detail. I bet it takes 4+ days to ink in. Fortunately, the watercolor overlay will be relatively quick.

The Final Wedding Gift Commission

All inked up

It seems surprising, but all of the commissions the last two months have been for wedding gifts. I guess the wedding industry has gotten started again after the pandemic. I wonder if this was the wedding venue, for the reception, or just a building that is special for the couple.

Wedding gift commission

I have done quite a few of these wedding commissions now, but none more complicated than this one. Between the arched setbacks in the front, the stained glass windows, and mostly skewed perspectives reference photos to adjust, the layout was quite long and extensive. It took a long time to get the square tower to look square. I am happy with the final drawing, though, even if there is no color required.

All inked up

A very simple preliminary drawing

A Stone Barn Painting

Stone Barn

Penciled up barn

I tried painting a stone barn a few years ago when I decided to take up acrylic painting again after 30 years. Needless to say, it did not go well. Stone is easy for me with the inks, but painting it totally eluded me. This start is much better.

Pastel Finish

All done with this one. I am glad that the trees were purplish to add some color. There wasn’t much in the way of flowers or contrast on the home exterior to break up all of the gray and white, so having the extra tree color was a great thing. I ended up using some brown to tone down the pinks and purples and that seemed to work out well.

The second commission of the year

Inked in

Penciled up

I have to take a brief break from finishing the Boise painting because I just got another home commission. And after the complexity of the last one, this commission seems a lot easier. Even with all of the hip roof lines, dormers, and stone, the layout and inking didn’t take very long. It is a good thing the front ornamental trees are purplish, though. The house is white stone and with gray and white siding above. It would have been pretty dichromatic with just the green and white.

An Abstract Cityscape

Downtown Boise inked up

Pencil drawing of Boise

My son wants an abstractish painting of downtime Boise from a distance. I located some of the pictures I took at the Boise Train Depot in 2018 showing the downtown vista from there and came up with this as a start. Probably not much more ink detail, just swaths of color. Wish me luck.

A pretty big and complicated commission

Courtyard expanse

10 days of inking

Original pencil up

Well, I have been fairly quiet on the posting front due to this large and complicated commission. It’s not only 20X14 but probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. It also took the most time I have ever put into a commission – 3 weeks in total. I worked on the pencil drawing over 4 days, the inking for ten and the coloring for five. Not much idle time. I tended work in two sessions a day to keep my mind fresh. It was too easy to get mesmerized and lose track of exactly what I was doing and make mistakes, especially during the inking. Still it was fun to do and I am proud of the outcome.

Finished #4 Christmas commission

Well, it’s done and with the client in time for Christmas. Thank you USPS. I like the interplay of the brick, the stone, and stucco with all of the curves in the facade and on the roof. That is one complicated chimney too, with the double flues and stepped rise. The flowered shrubs add a bit of color accent which is always good. It is certainly one of the more interesting portraits I have done in a while.

Number four for the holidays.

Inked

Pencil drawing

This is definitely the biggest and most complicated of the four Christmas commissions. What number three lacked in complexity, this made up for in spades.It has brickwork, stonework, a large chimney, and multiple gables and roof lines. It took an extra day to draw up and two more days to ink. At least it is a 14X9 instead of 10X8. So much detail here.

I did like the “wave” in the limestone blocks transition to brick and the random placement of white limestone into the bricks. It will be easier to see in the color version (pastel again).