Commission

This Christmas I have a number of commissions that I have to paint. Varying subjects, as defined by the buyer. I find commissions a little daunting.. Firstly, you are obliged to paint the subject (and in a style) that suits the customer.. In some cases I flat our refuse; for instance I don't do doggy or cat portraits as a general rule. In others, I have a long consultation with the buyer to make sure we both understand what, and how, I am going to paint. I guarantee all my work, so I try to make sure we get agreement on style up front so that I don't end up with yet another painting gathering dust in the second garage.

Currently I am working on a commission that will be given as a gift. It has some very specific provisions, including the subject matter, and inclusions (even a Panda Bear hanging from a palm tree), that are very personal to the final owner.

I have been given a base reference photo to work from.. Here it is below;

The image of course is of the Shwedagon Golden Temple in Myanmar (Burma for us oldies). The requested style was semi realistic, so I had some initial concerns over the complexity of the architecture.

This was going to take a few sessions :)

Session 1:

It took a while to get the base drawing correct...3 attempts actually.. It was all the perspectives that made it fun. But after 3 or 4 hours I had reached this far.