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I got a commission the other day and thought I’d run down how I work with clients and show a little bit of the process as I got along.

The first email from my potential client, Alex, stated that she’d discovered my blog, liked my work and wondered if I did commissions and what the price range might be.  First I’ll let you in on a big dark secret most artist don’t like to share about what they charge.  If an artist has any business sense at all he charges as much as the client is willing to pay.  Yes, that’s right.  I expect a large company like Marvel or Wizards of the Coast to have a much larger budget for a project than a fan wanting a piece of artwork.  Many times when an artist gets really good (not that I’m there yet) you’re paying for the knowledge and ability that artist has learned over his lifetime, not the number of hours it takes him to actually paint or draw a picture.  But I digress, that’s a whole other post.

I emailed her we discussed what she wanted (Hela, Goddess of Death from the Thor comic)  and agreed on a price.  She sent me half of the payment through paypal to begin the work.  As most artists will attest getting paid full or partially up front is always a good idea because I’m sorry to say that there are people out there who won’t hesitate to stiff a hardworking artist or take months and months to pay up, sometimes never.  You only have to get burned once before you get some cash up front.  I then started a few thumbnails to figure out some kind of composition I liked.  All of this happened within 24 hrs.  I love clients who know what they want and are as eager for me to draw something for them as I am to draw it.

Throughout the week I worked on other projects I already have ongoing but took some breaks to work on the commission.  Work for established companies always comes first.  I love doing commissions for people but if I get lucky enough to land a few illustration for Magic: The Gathering you will have to wait on your commission.  Most people are very understanding of this and I always make sure people understand how long I’ll take to finish their picture.  With this one I know a holiday weekend was coming up and I’d be able to finish the whole thing in one to two weeks.

I finished the pencils last Friday and am about 75% finished inking the picture.  I’ll throw some color on it tomorrow.  I emailed Alex to let her sneak a peek at the pencils and ask her if it was OK if I shared the piece as I worked on her here on my blog.  She agreed so you have her to thank for this post.  In part two I’ll talk more about my technical process and what goes though my mind when I approach a new drawing or painting.

I wanted to let everyone know that I’ll have a table in artist’s alley at the upcoming Heroes Comic Book Convention in Charlotte, NC on June 19-21.  Come by to chat, commission an original piece of artwork or sketch, or pick up a print of two.  If you’d like to get in early on the action I’m currently taking commissions.  I hope to see you in Charlotte!

I’m working on a painting of the X-men, er, woman, Jean Grey, aka the Phoenix.  I usually start with a few thumbnails, pick the one I like best and draw it.   Sometimes I start with some reference, sometime I wait until I’m done drawing it and get some reference to show up the parts I think are a little.  With this one I drew first and referenced later.  there still are a few spots I need to tweak like getting her symbol correct, the hands, and a few other odds and ends.

I stumbled upon a post over at Penciljack.com by Caanan, a wonderfully talented artist.  He was messing around, with some fabulous results, in Adobe Illustrator.  I’ve heard and read some things over the years about being able to ink comics and do some wonderful vector illustration with the program and while I use it daily, I don’t use it to draw with.  I’ve tried but just couldn’t get the program to respond like I wanted.  In his post, Caanan directed me to comic artist Brian Denham’s site, www.illocraft.com, who is an expert on the subject.

After some time reading up on the subject I now have just an little bit of understanding on how to draw and ink in illustrator.  Here’s my 1st effort after about an hour reading the site and playing in Illustrator.

Simple, I know but it’s a start and I can really see how inking this way can be very addictive.  I was also surprised to find our much (potential) control and freedom I had.  While I’m in no danger of throwing out my nibs and microns it’s nice to be able to try and keep up with the always ongoing digital revolution.

I’m testing out my new wordpress RSS feed.  So, my mistakes = extra posts.  Bear with me.