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Model  portrait for a client
Oil on canvas. 16x20
If you were wondering why I haven't posted anything new as lately, well it's because I was working on this.
Story Time: This is a project I picked up through my local barber earlier this spring. My barber, who happens to be a part-time artist, is someone I often share my newest artwork with. She's always been very supportive of me and is willing to spread the word about my artwork to anyone that is interested.
One of them was a customer she was working on when I came in for a haircut. After she introduced me to him, he soon became my client. This customer was interested in having a portrait done.
My client wanted me to not just do any portrait of him, but one of him as an African prince. He sent me some very useful photos of himself, and an old photo of a Morrocan prince from around the 1900s.
This took WAY longer than I expected it would take. What I though would take 2 months to do took over 4 months to do. I can say with confidence that this is the hardest project I've done all year.
For those who already know me fairly well, you already know I don't paint that often. And I've just recently gotten into the swing of occasional portraits.
But it has been years since I ever touched oil paint. Back when I was middle school, I always loved to paint landscapes with my Bob Ross wet on wet painting kit.
Once I got busier and had less time and space to work with painting, it fell out of practice.
Despite the fact that the oil paint materials have been sitting in a box for years, they were still usable, especially the paints themselves!
And even then, I was still unsure of where to start. Luckily, I was able to complete most of it through the lessons I got from my art teacher.
In the end, I managed to pull it off and had a very satisfied client at the end of the day this past week.
On a serious level, I learned several valuable lessons with this project.
The most important was probably the most painful in the long run. Don't undercharge your own work. I charged my client $250 in advance for the whole project, long before I realized what an enduring project it would be. Up until this point, I never charged that much for something painted. By that time I realized this it was too late.
It helps to be patient. It took almost two months to paint the prince's turban and the rest of his royal gear. And it took another two just for the client's face. But the results were more than excellent by the end.
Thankfully my client was also very patient in waiting for the painting to be finished. In the meantime, I occasionally would sent WIP shots to him so he could know how it was coming along.
Micromanaging the proportion was something I did consistently, even when I thought I was done. Something odd would always stick out that needed to fixed. I never settled with it being just good enough, I pushed my skills to the limit.
And of course, I gained tons of experience that will come in handy the next time I have to do another portrait. I'm just praying the next once won't involve a turban! XD.
I know it's different from what I usually post, but I hope you guys like it!
If you were wondering why I haven't posted anything new as lately, well it's because I was working on this.
Story Time: This is a project I picked up through my local barber earlier this spring. My barber, who happens to be a part-time artist, is someone I often share my newest artwork with. She's always been very supportive of me and is willing to spread the word about my artwork to anyone that is interested.
One of them was a customer she was working on when I came in for a haircut. After she introduced me to him, he soon became my client. This customer was interested in having a portrait done.
My client wanted me to not just do any portrait of him, but one of him as an African prince. He sent me some very useful photos of himself, and an old photo of a Morrocan prince from around the 1900s.
This took WAY longer than I expected it would take. What I though would take 2 months to do took over 4 months to do. I can say with confidence that this is the hardest project I've done all year.
For those who already know me fairly well, you already know I don't paint that often. And I've just recently gotten into the swing of occasional portraits.
But it has been years since I ever touched oil paint. Back when I was middle school, I always loved to paint landscapes with my Bob Ross wet on wet painting kit.
Once I got busier and had less time and space to work with painting, it fell out of practice.
Despite the fact that the oil paint materials have been sitting in a box for years, they were still usable, especially the paints themselves!
And even then, I was still unsure of where to start. Luckily, I was able to complete most of it through the lessons I got from my art teacher.
In the end, I managed to pull it off and had a very satisfied client at the end of the day this past week.
On a serious level, I learned several valuable lessons with this project.
The most important was probably the most painful in the long run. Don't undercharge your own work. I charged my client $250 in advance for the whole project, long before I realized what an enduring project it would be. Up until this point, I never charged that much for something painted. By that time I realized this it was too late.
It helps to be patient. It took almost two months to paint the prince's turban and the rest of his royal gear. And it took another two just for the client's face. But the results were more than excellent by the end.
Thankfully my client was also very patient in waiting for the painting to be finished. In the meantime, I occasionally would sent WIP shots to him so he could know how it was coming along.
Micromanaging the proportion was something I did consistently, even when I thought I was done. Something odd would always stick out that needed to fixed. I never settled with it being just good enough, I pushed my skills to the limit.
And of course, I gained tons of experience that will come in handy the next time I have to do another portrait. I'm just praying the next once won't involve a turban! XD.
I know it's different from what I usually post, but I hope you guys like it!
Image details
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© 2019 - 2021 ReggieJWorkshop
Comments56
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Congrats on the daily deviation feature! the portrait contrasts with the background and the details of encapsulating the person is accurate - even the clothing looks real too! your Works show diversity which is great . This encouraged me to post my realism works in the future even though it’s not something I usually do but I think the techniques are similar from cartoons to realism

Hello,
Your work was featured in Themed Thumbshare Thursdays Vol. 9
Thank you for sharing your wonderful work!
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