Here is a fun job I took on a few weeks ago, a bit unusual for me in that it was a portrait of a real person, and certainly the first time I had taken on such a commission in my digital style.
It all started when I received an order for a 'Little Queenie' print from Emma a new customer who was buying the print for her mum Liz, who had seen the image and fallen in love with it as she saw herself in the picture of the confident young biker with attitude :-)
I duly signed and sent the required print, as ever hoping it would be well received.
So I was delighted to be contacted again soon after with a request - could I do a similar image but of Emma's dad who was approaching a significant birthday, the resulting print would be a gift from Emma and her mum.
I agreed, and a few photos of Martyn, the subject, were sneaked over to me via email and I started to rough out what I might do. I had two problems - one I am not very up on Harley's, so had to figure out which bike it was in one of the photos, and two I had come down with a chest infection which left me coughing and spluttering and not much feeling like working. But there is nothing like a deadline, and there is no more pressing deadline than a birthday, so I pressed on.
The monochrome rough I created didn't go as far as I would have liked tonally, thanks to my bug, but thankfully it was approved - I got the head a bit too big in it though! :-D It was nice that they had faith in me to fill out the image in the final piece, and indeed I got up more of a head of steam once I was working on it proper. I couldn't replicate the pose of Little Queenie as in that image her face is in profile and I didn't have that sort of reference of Martyn, but I did like this angle of the Harley Davidson and it shares the image area rather than taking over.
I offered up a couple of background colour variations and let Emma and Liz decide which one to get run off as a print - they chose the green, and I agreed and had the print made, signed it and sent it off in Little Queenie's tyre tracks.
It was great to hear a few days later that the gift had been more than well received and everyone was delighted with it. Then earlier this week I received this video from Emma and her mum and it brought a lump to my throat (beware, expletives not deleted!!)
And as someone who has built a couple of bikes in the kitchen here, can I just say I approve of the bike in the living room! Thanks for the commission Emma and Liz, and Happy Birthday Martyn - long may you ride!! :-)
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