#commission process

Alright! Foor grammar and lots of typos ahead!

You know, sometimes you get a commission that just fits. I've painted Maghda in the past, and this client was so lovely to return again to get something to celebrate her campaign being finished. I don't remember if they are on tumblr to tag them so I put their blsky username.

This is the piece I made of her last year, another banger in my humble opinion:

Because she is such an interesting character, and the client wanted something to celebrate, I went a bit hard on the sketches. I made quite a few- its not often that I get a lots of ideas, all of them perfectly functional and worthy of showing them to the client.

While dancing with the proverbial muse is nice and fun, as an artist, it really isn't very viable for a career path. As I take art more seriously as a job, I've come to learn how to inspire myself with each piece theme. Gather the client's references, explore some myself, see what matches, what feels right.

Then- trying to convey to the client the idea both with my very messy thumbnails and notes is a nice exercise to check what the hell I'm trying to do with the piece. "This element looks nice" is good, but "this element looks nice and its relevant" is always better.

This was the first idea, my notes are about the pose and elements- all making perfect sense. And then- pinterest did its thing and I got bit by the muse.

Yes, Berserk did it first, and Evangelion. But the visual fitted. And I did promised the client skeletons. So despite being a bit weirder than my original very-classical idea, I had to suggest it. And the client was great and chose it.

Next came some quick design for the crown, and putting together the solid references. Once again, using Clip Studio Paint is a blessing- when you work as an artist, and you need to make 3 or more pieces a month to cover your bills, the time you save by having posable assets is money.

I used a skeleton from the asset store, and a skull I purchased from Billelis back before he did NFT bullshit. I have a pack of them and they costed me like 10 bucks so I might aswell use them. I also used my ever trustworthy "Anatomy for the Artist" by Sarah Simblet- where I discovered both in horror and fascination that scapulas are like.. see-through.. if the light hits them right... The human body is horrifying.

Anyway- I think I yapped enough. These pieces were a fascinating challenge for how *easy* it felt- from idea to painting.

This is the magic of picking the right artist for your commissions, folks. You fit the artist's favourite themes and I can guarantee we go the extra mile to make it great.

Actually, these are 2 of 5 sketches I sent. And the client picked 2 pieces to be made. So I'll be posting the other one -another banger if I say so myself- later.

If you read all this mess, I love you.