How to Do a Painting Commission
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Do you get asked to do a commission? Maybe paid? Maybe not? But someone wants you to paint something for them! Their mother, or a cottage, or scene from their childhood.
It's a lovely thing to translate what they have in mind into a tangible reality. In this video, I talk about a commission I just got... How it turned out... And some of the pitfalls that can happen if you take a commission.
I hope you enjoy.
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Nothing wrong with your hands Ian , I like the way you use them to express yourself . Thank you for another good demonstration you are an excellent teacher .
Thanks so much Judy. And for the OK on hands! Best.
Think your hands are fine and expressive. Thanks for your excellent teaching.
thanks Loretta. Glad the hands are OK. Oh, and the teaching as well.
All hands look like claws! gee whiz. THANK YOU for your vids! They are VERY helpful.
Glad you are enjoying the videos. I won't worry about the hands either.
Thank you, Ian. I always find your videos useful and informative. You have a very engaging teaching manner. Not all instructors/artists possess that ability.
Thanks so much. I appreciate your letting me know.
The shadow area in the bottom section really makes a huge difference and gives the whole scene dynamic energy combined with the sky. Things are happening and come alive because of that. You really improved on the photo by those steps. Txs for showing!
Thank you Patricia. I could tell just from putting that shadow in on the drawing that it would improve the painting. I like doing the drawing in advance for that reason.
Ian, I talk with my hands as well. Great topic. I have learned a lot from your short videos. I believe they are far more impactful than going on and on until the mind cuts off. Thank you!
That is a beautiful painting. And lol - for the record, I your hands do not look like claws - they are just expressing your ideas. Thanks again for great tutorials!
Hi Deb, thanks for the thumbs up on the claws. Oh, and the painting. He really liked the final painting. A very smooth and effortless commission. All the best to you.
So glad you showed this, Ian. The logistical process you describe is pretty much what I've been taught before and done; I love though that you stress the idea of a good reference photo. And, critically, being able to see something in the reference photo that is inspiring to you as an artist. I ask myself for any commission "Is this something I would have been interested in painting if I'd discovered it myself?" The hardest and least rewarding work for an artist has got to be a commission that doesn't spark the artist's own sensibility and creativity.
Well that's it isn't it? If you're looking at it and are really not interested how great a painting are you likely to do. Hope the vanishing West is not disappearing too quickly so you run out of things to paint. Best wishes.
Your hands are fine. Anyone who complains about how your hands look isn't really interested in what you are saying. Don't pay any attention to them. You are an excellent teacher and thats all that matters.
I loved what you said about the importance of a good photo. It is so so true.
I had a commission to do a portrait of a grandfather sitting on a work mule sideways. The photo I was given was an old 2x3 inch Polaroid of the man and no mule!. The man was dead, so I couldn't take a new photo. needless to say, it was a terrible struggle for me and I wished I had never taken the job.
HI Eveyln, OK thanks for the thumbs up on the hands.
I'd have to be starving before taking a commission. I have found that in a world where people feel they have no control, once given control they go mad with instructions. I love your work and your advice by the way. I've been making my living painting for 25 years but you have brought a great deal to both my process and my results.
Thanks you, once again! I've been commissioned to do several home portraits for a local property owner of some old homes. I told him to send me some picture he liked and I'd be glad to do them. He said ' no I like to trust the artist to do what they think is best" and that is just what you were saying. I liked that, so I left his office and went and took photographs, and I've finished three of them. I had to change some of the landscaping in that some of the trees were overgrown around the house, etc, so I scaled back on that stuff, and they turned out well. I have 4 more to go and will be remembering what you said here in this video. Thank you!
That was good timing. Good luck with the rest of them.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thanks for your reply. I am finding a LOT of helpful information in your short videos.
I love that hint of the far distant trees, really pushes the distance
Your hands are fine!
You have a mastery of green like very few artists!!
Thank you for clearing my head up. It comes together more easily
Nothing wrong with your hand gestures in my opinion, in fact I'd never noticed them. I suggest you just be yourself. Thanks for another great video, great advice. On top of getting a good reference photo to begin with, I also got from you the idea that it's good to know what matters most to the person(s) commissioning you: here you mentioned how important that tree on the right was, and you paid particular attention to it. You wouldn't have known that if not for a good chat with them first.
Well the good thing about the reference photo is that is was good enough he could say I 'd like this, don't care about that, and the photo allowed for all that.
Please ignore that person about how you use your hands to express yourself. Some people have limpid hands and some others do not. Use what you were given. Great tutorial on making a painting work.
A big part of your intent is emphasized or minimized with those hand gestures, aiding my interpretation, while keeping my attention for longer spans than I usually can with videos. I don't struggle to be present for yours and can tolerate several in sequence, while others I have challenge to sit through just one. I may even pick up a brush and learn oil; I work in dry pastel.
I love watching you paint! This is very nice. You are always so giving and sharing of your knowledge. Thank you!
Thanks Gayle. All the best, Ian
Beautiful artwork! I like it.
One of your most useful videos. Thank you! I have a commission that I am lamenting over and not sure if it is the photo or my ability. I love watching your videos!
Amazing! Thank you for sharing! Watching your videos is like meditation. I just received your book 'Mastering composition' plus DVD and I love it. It opens my eyes. Thank you for your work.
Hi Lisa, glad you are enjoying the videos. And hope you find the book helpful as well.
I struggle so much with commissions, it feels inauthentic in so many cases. Thank you for addressing this subject.
If you feel unauthentic, you ARE. Find a way to incorporate your client vision into YOUR painting, not let THEM decide everything. They are NOT the ARTIST! They hire you, for YOU.
Your lessons are the best. I have been hoping to find an instructor with an orientation towards abstraction as well as a roadmap for solid composition. Thanks so much for generously sharing your valuable lessons.
My internet oriented 25 yr old son said the trolls are like salt on watermelon. It highlights the greatness of your work. He says it is expected a bit in all big communities.
So glad to see the farm fence made it into the finished painting - because other than planting the trees, the fence is the only element likely actually built, touched, by their great grandfather, and subsequent generations. For a farm, the fences are the claim to the lands, they physically define its history.
Hi Jim, it's interesting he said three things about the photo that were important. The tree on the right that they climbed in as kids, the big trees at the back and those fence posts that his grandfather put in. Fortunately they were varied in size and spacing, even in the photo.
Wow! Beautiful!
Beautiful painting Ian.
I found this video interesting and helpful , because I just did a large commission of 4- 30”x40” paintings for a friend. I have done a couple commissions before and did not enjoy the experience. When my friend explained what she wanted and I saw her reference photos I got excited because they were good and well, it is a pandemic and I wanted to keep busy. I had to make some small composition tweaks that she approved, but she wanted me to be as true as possible to her images. Although I tried to simplify ,I am not as great at the simplification process as you instruct so Your video is helpful for the future. In the end we were both happy and I considered it time well spent in a pandemic.
Thanks so much for sharing. Stay healthy.
HI Joyce, that is the main thing - client is happy. Nothing is worst than a back and forth trying to make someone happy.
You are good teacher Ian
I appreciate your telling me Rudy. Best wishes.
I found this so helpful and fascinating at the same time. Helpful to reinforce that only a great reference photo can inspire a good painting. Second, to hear your thinking process as you progress through the painting. Thanks so much for these teachings!
You are so welcome Renee. Glad you found it helpful.
Love your work Sir. Thank you for sharing. Some of us have claws, some of them have mittens. Love from Cape Town.
Claws or not, your videos are incredible. Beautiful painting!
Glad you like them!
Arthritis is common with age. Those nasty commenters will get their claws too, unless they die early 😂
So good Ian. It’s so wonderful your client would have been with tears 🙏🏻
You did a great job índeed!
A beautiful painting indeed.
New to the channel and just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying your Tuesday videos.
Beautiful,they will be thrilled with it! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Excellent!
Brilliant as always. My nightmare is a commission with terrible photos. Been there too many times... thank you for good advice. This composition has helped me enormously with a photo I took recently that I want to paint and was lost. When I looked at the meadow in real life it was a on one of those “ oh that’s peaceful” moments, but this darn tree on the left was bugging me. How to take it out, but NOT fall off the left side of the painting. Master you gave me the answer. There is a reason why I am devouring your pearls of wisdom. Now the trick is to get them to stick! 🤣🤣
Hi Alison, I have seen some people trying to do commissions from the most dismal reference. And then wonder why they are having so much trouble. I always choose to blame the reference and not myself! Delighted you are enjoying the videos.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition you are truly a master with this concept of composition and really good at teaching it. I was once told by a teacher it really can’t be taught, it is intuitive... ahhh not helpful . So happy I found your book and your methods. Baby steps...it will become more natural with practice..
If no good photos are provided, you can politely decline the job. Be authentic. You are the artist and you decide!
excellent great omg you are fantastic !!!!!
Thanks so much Jean Pierre. Best wishes.
Thank you very much for your videos. I learn a lot and they are also very inspiring. Do whatever you do with your hands! That comment made me angry
Very timely. I'm negotiating my first commission, and this gives me some questions to ask so I know better what's important to the client. Thank you.
Hi Ralph, wants important to the client. And to you. Glad it was timely.
So inspiring and informative. It always makes me feel like grabbing my paintbrushes. I should make a point of drawing a sketch first , it is such a good tool.
Hands blessed by The Divine 👐🙏👐
Such a beautiful painting!
Great job, you really bought your A game to this!
Bit rude saying Claws, but would suggest hand exercises before arthritis gets to be a nuisance! Speaking from experience. Was trying to comment on the Large Painting post which was great. So helpful how you explain your process as you paint.
HI Suzanne, glad you liked the video. I think I've always used my hands that way. It isn't because of age.
What a lovely soft atmospheric painting. Can't really see the relevance of what shape your hands take. What you are saying and demonstrating should be what viewers are concentrating upon.
You did a great job of recreating the photo. Thank you
Hi Javanthi, well I hope it didn't look too much like the photo. Glad you like it.
Hahaha!! Thank you Boris .
Ohhhh Gosh.....it’s beautiful.
Great video and painting.
Thank you for another interesting and great video!
Glad you liked it Hannah.
Hi Ian.I watching your very impressive videos...In this video,the foreground shadow is too big..There has to be a good big tree on left side to cast that shadow.Overall I liked your every tutorial...Thanks 🙏
super!
Wonderful work!!!
Thanks Marianne.
Great hands! (I'm a 43 year old girl).
Don’t worry about your hands. What you say is much more important. Thanks
thank you!! noticed you gave the painting some drama by adding strong light/shadow details.!
I suppose that is the biggest tool we have to create drama. The big shapes of light and dark. Glad you liked the video.
Great video, thank you. Is that a general rule of thumb, 50% in advance (after customer approves sketch) and 50% upon completion?
Pretty much. It saves you from all the work and then them saying they don't want it. It means they trust your work enough to commit properly.
Thanks Ian.
I'm shocked to hear that anyone would say anything about your hands being 'claw like'. That's incredibly rude. Sheesh. Beautiful painting.
Good JOb..... hope you aren't going stir crazy.... lets go paint when this craziness is over :)
Yes Greg, let's do that when this all settles down.
I like your claws! Hahaaaaa.....it’s You!
Your commission is for what I call a “Portrait of Places”, and therein are certain small details, such as the size and spacing of the fence posts, which record the nature and history of that place - which are meaningful elements recognizable to those who have a connection to that Place.
I feel like I responded to this for some reason. But the fellow said the fence posts, as it happens, were important because his grandfather put them in. And fortunately the size and variety and spacing was engaging.
That, is a really great painting. In previous videos when you've mentioned showing the illusion of space in a picture you have used an expressive motion with both of your hands gradually turning your fingers outward to show movement through space. This gesture is probably what they were referring to.
That reminds me of a topic that I've been thinking a lot about recently. About the technique of seeing everything in front of you not as three dimensional objects in space, but as flat abstract shapes of color. This is the technique that was written about by Harold Speed in his book "The Practice and Science of Drawing", and by John Ruskin in his book "The Elements of Drawing".
Ruskin called this technique the "naive vision" trick because it's looking at things where part of your mind is almost naively looking at things and not even recognizing what it's looking at, or even seeing it as three dimensional. Instead, the mind sees what's in front of it as just flat abstract shapes of colors. Ruskin's book was very good, but I found Harold Speed's explains this technique even better.
Great channel you have here by the way, thank you for it.
Write shorter comments. It's not a place to write an opus, noone will read it (aside from losers who got no life amd can sit here all day reading your huge run-on passage).
How do you pull the blue sky color into the green tree without picking up the green color? I remember you saying that you don't use a medium which might dry the paint more quickly. Thank you, by the way. I am a loyal follower.
Maybe this is thick oil paint? It surely is not watercolour...
Hello master Ian, I love your paintings and appreciate very much your teachings in all areas. I would like to know what would you recommend using as support for a large landscape. I am trying to paint larger and my new goal is something like 32 in x 40 in. So far I have painted all my landscapes on moderated sizes up to 24 in x 30 on canvas boards or stretched canvas.
Hi Oscar, I like painting on stretched canvas when painting bigger, like 32 x 40. I suppose the main thing, unless you want to stretch them yourself, is you'll have to use the sizes available. Sometimes that can be a bit limiting.
how much do u think we should charge for a painting , if u make a video about that please
Ian you draw really good .. goes without saying .. that seems to ensure that the painting comes out more detailed or no ?
I find the drawing is great in fact for simplifying the whole image before I paint. In fact helps show how much detail you can leave out. Best wishes.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thanks for sharing this helpful pointer..
I am still having great difficulty understanding what constitutes a good photo to paint and what photos render a poor choice for painting.
What brand sienna was the ground color ?
I can not make a breathable picture. The colours are looking like a solid block of wall. Plz help
this is helpful as commissions are potentially problematic.
Geez, do not worry about your hands! People are so critical.
Do you draw the picture on the canvas?
When you do commission work do you prime your Canvas/Panel with Oil Primer in stead of Acrylic Gesso? I was just curious as I would like to try the Oil Primer.
Hi Mike, I put a coat of Gamblin oil prime (thinned just a bit) over acrylic primed canvas. I find gesso too absorbent for my taste.
🙏🙏🙏From... Hindustan (india)
I swear, someday I'll find whoever keeps insulting this sweet man's hands and I'll have my revenge!!!
I was asked to paint two dogs y a work colleague I didn't want to do it of the 26 photos she brought in none were helpful a dog sticking its nose in the camera lense and red eye from the flash with others of half a dog running out of frame in the end I just never did the painting she never spoke to me again
Ian is there a standard size for a commision? Or its up tothe artist?
Up to the client really. If they want it big or small. Then up to you to get the right proportions in that size range that they want.
That's a great size and the clouds are fantastic. I'm sure they'll love the painting, especially since you as the artist see the purples and other rich colours and translate that to the painting. One question: do you charge more for commissions than works you do for yourself?
No the commission price is the same. I suppose if it was particularly complex or something or needed expensive reference photos or something then I guess I'd have to factor it in,. But in this case I did it from that photo he gave me and had all I needed.
Your hands are like claws? Maybe the commenters aren’t paying attention to the quality of the painting? I never noticed your hands!
Yes, that much be it. Not paying attention to the painting!
I would like to see you break out and paint from observation and not just photographs. I think you could go further as I feel you have talent. I've got that something else with art, but I need a bit more of what you have. I just paint and don't plan it out, and often it flops but sometimes it hits the note. I've done paintings from a graph, and they look professional, but they lack that something. I believe the spirit of God paints through some people. And this was Van Gogh, he had this extra dimension. You do lovely work, but I feel that you need to throw out, the photos etc and just paint. Try it, maybe if you want.
Mary, I paint from life a lot. Two weeks ago I showed in the weekly video the 4 plein air paintings I did on a visit to a friend's ranch and this week coming up I'll be showing the dozen paintings I did on another landscape painting trip. I'd say large studio paintings I normally do from photos. Some of the lessons I do for TH-cam I paint from photos because it is easier to make a video that way.
Mary, I think you must be an unconscious comedian because I actually laughed out loud 😂.
Lol