Some long overdue updates!

So I've been quite busy working on a handful of drawings, some digital work, and a few paintings. Christmas season is really quite packed for me, and I can't keep up with all the drawings, paintings, and videos and continually post them online. So here's a few of the paintings I've been working on, a drawing, and the Photoshop painting I have been spamming you all with! I will give a more thorough update once everything's settled down.

Updates!

Alright! So Here's the update I've been promising you for days while I feed my photoshop bug and work on chalking up some charcoal outlines for paintings that I will be doing in the next week here (three commissioned horse paintings coming up - I'm beginning to think my rep is going to be 90% horses forever! Not that I'm complaining...) but here's what went down a week ago today!

I headed over to the Edmonton Garrison (a place where I spent a lot of my childhood activities visiting my friends, doing rushed Tim's runs in high school, and driving sleighs and wagons for base family events) bright and early Saturday morning with a big, bright green bin full of supplies and gallery books and set up in the indoor arena of the EGSC. What a great facility, too! Gorgeous animals, great people, and the arena was gorgeous (if a little cold).

There were some very interesting clinics that happened throughout the day, and as I was set up right in front of the riding ring I got to watch it all. I might wish that either there was two of me or I had more downtime, because two great things were happening - useful, interesting clinics, and A LOT of interest in my artwork. I couldn't watch and help people at the same time.

I had a dry/sore throat by the end of the day just from talking! I had people continually interested in the process and what exactly I do, lots of people showing me pictures and asking me how I would do them, and then placing commission orders. I didn't sell originals, but with how many orders I placed that doesn't matter so much! I also had a couple of other artists who are looking to jump into professional waters come up and ask me some questions about the business and how it works. I am always more than happy to give aspiring artists a helping hand, and they were awesome to talk to.

The clinics, as I mentioned, were phenomenal. There was a Parelli clinic that I actually didn't mind (some Parelli-based clinics are not very well done, and Parelli fanatics tend to scare me), a good jumping clinic from the pony club, some gaited horse clinic and a clinic about photographing horses which I really wanted to watch (I take a lot of my own reference photos), but I got a rush of customers. I caught the tail-end of it though, so it wasn't that bad!

All in all, a great show. Super friendly, awesome, nice people that I just fell in love with, everyone was so great! And I got to see my good friend Sherry from over at Fern Valley Appaloosas and have a nice chat with her!

Here are a couple of photos from my table, and I'm back off to working on art!

Once again I am failing to mention the sale...

I am just giving 'er on this Photoshop painting and don't want to stop. So here's an update and if I still have a brain when I go to bed I will talk about the Equine Expo.

Digital painting

It's very late at night/early morning, so I'm just going to post this here and take off on everyone. I will eventually post about how extraordinarily well sales went at the Equine Expo and how much fun I had there, but it will have to wait!

Here's an OC design I'm doing for myself. It will eventually be a mid-day forest scene but this is the WIP of the main character of the painting. I'm doing this freehand in Photoshop, and have had quite a few hours on it already.

Full body:

Details of the face:

Out at an equine expo tomorrow!

Just going to drop this poster off here with some promo info and to show off some of my digital design abilities!

Also I have a business card now. Here it is!

Scanned the Clydesdales - I am in love with coloured paper!

I've seen a lot of coloured pencil and pastel portraits on coloured paper before and always thought they looked nice, but I didn't realize how much they really made the picture pop right out! This was an experiment gone very very right and I'm just hooked now.

Quick update!

Just for fun, and also a bit in anticipation for the art sale I'll be doing, I picked up a pack of different coloured paper to put some coloured pencil portraits on. I was pretty excited about it and have started on an original on an orage sheet. Meet the new team!

Piece will be for sale when it's done.

Here's the WIP! Sorry for the low quality, quick digital camera picture.

EDIT:

Oh, and I scanned the cutting horse!

Two more things!

First of all, I just realized that I never published a completed version of this painting and I must say I'm upset with myself! This is my favorite painting I've done so far.

And the other thing I forgot to mention is that I am opening up tutorial requests. If you want a tutorial made, please leave a request in my comments, e-mail me at customcommissionsms@gmail.com, or send me a pigeon or something. Really I'm open to any form of communication. I will post the tutorials on my website and publish videos on YouTube.

That being said, check out my YouTube channel! I have plenty of cool videos and stuff on there, like this one!


I guess that was three things. Haha gotcha? Hmm.

Everyone have an awesome day!

A couple of new commissions and a show announcement

Three things today! First of all, I just want to toss out a couple of new commissions that I've been working on. The first is another colored pencil dog. It's a little lacking in detail as it WAS from a cell phone picture, but it turned out quite nicely! The second is a photo of a new cutting horse commission that I have yet to scan. There was another couple of commissions in the time since I last posted, but one is a surprise and the other the owner has requested that I not post it. 

So here we are! 

Here's a closeup of the horse and rider in the last one. I really love how it turned out! 

And I have a show announcement for you guys!

I will be participating in the EGSC Equine Show and Tack Sale at the Edmonton Garrison on Saturday, November 17th as an equine artist. I will have part of my showjumper series on display and will have a bunch of new equine art done up in these next two weeks in preparation for that. I will also announce my holiday fees and whatnot on that day AND I will open up a few new booking slots for rush clients. 

If you want to come and check out my work, it will be in North Edmonton all day on Saturday, and I will be there to answer any questions about fine arts, book orders, and sell originals! 

Another thing is that this account is currently attached to my personal e-mail, and I don't want to start a new blog because of everything else I've done on here, so I will be adding my company e-mail address to this account. If you see someone else posting, no worries - it's actually still me! 

I just want to leave you with a reminder that if you ARE considering some portraits from CCMS as holiday gifts this year, you need to book a ways in advance because slots are filling up and might even be full when I open new ones at the art show, which very well might fill up right away. 

A couple of new commissions!

Just popping in really quick. I've had my first coloured-pencil-from-photo commission in a long time, and another one has just lined up for the end of October. And then the lovely folks down at Excell Warmbloods have had me do a graphite portrait of their stallion Eastern Ruler, who is a gorgeous bay Warmblood (I am a sucker for big, red-bay horses!).

Here they are!

It's not often I put up original paintings for sale!

99% of the paintings I do are usually commissioned or very small, but recently I got some inspiration and picked up a canvas and did a painting to go along with my showjumping series!

This piece is 20x24 inches oil paint on stretched canvas and is for sale for $450, e-mail customcommissionsms@gmail.com for inquiries.

I will take a better picture tomorrow when I have natural light to work with, the light in my studio space  gives it a yellow wash and makes it hard to take a good in-focus picture. But here it is for now! It can't actually GO anywhere until next week as I just finished it today and thus will be wet for another week but if you'd like to buy it feel free to e-mail before then.

Scanned artwork!

I have the other one coming soon, but here's the scanned version of yesterday's artwork of CN international winner Olivier Philippaerts. The portrait is on pretty small paper but it turned out pretty decently! Moving onto portrait #2 today.

And a scanned version of the showjumper head I did before.

And more graphite!

I drew a show jumper yesterday. A few weeks ago, I took an adventure to Spruce Meadows in Calgary to watch the Spruce Meadows CN International $1 million show jumping competition. I have recently acquired a decent camera and took the opportunity to take a bunch of photos as I am in LOVE with show jumping (and have ridden show jumpers in the past) and it was my first time attending an international competition in show jumping.

Well the trip inspired me to start a show jumping series, and I have actually sent out some e-mails to some Grand Prix riders and I'm discussing potentially doing some portraits for a couple of them.

For now, I started on the series with the winner of the competition, Olivier Philippaerts, using a photo of him that I took myself.

Here's #1! I need to scan it yet as the lighting and the angle are bad in the photo, but it gives a good idea and I've thrown this photo on my website for now.

Another to add to the series.

I am having waaaay too much fun with this project. I mean the other pieces were fun and all, but for some reason (potentially the color scheme...) this is by far the funnest and my favorite. Which is cool, because every one I go further on on this series gets more entertaining in the best possible way.

So here's an update. My poor customer has been getting absolutely hammered with e-mail updates all day on this piece!

Current oil painting project

So as some of you know, I've been quite busy with a number of oil paintings recently. Two are corporate series and are going through copyright transfer right now, but if the businesses are okay with it, I will be posting the entire series at the end of it. Another is a personal series.

I just want to throw a few pieces in a series up here to give a view of what I've been working on in one of these areas.

It's official!

Tonight, it's going up on the website and social media. But the readers get it here first!

CCMS is now offering speed drawing/painting videos of customer's artwork.

For $10.00 I will film the artwork being made, go through a digital editing process, and then put a video together featuring the finished product and the making of, along with original music and a few artist's notes on the work.

The video will be featured on my YouTube channel, and the link will be provided with the artwork to make for easy sharing on the internet.

The customer will also receive a DVD with the video.

Here's an example (sans artist's comments)





Also, I am taking requests for tutorials to put on the website, so if anyone has any suggestions or anything they want to see, please let me know!

Some FAQ that will be going up shortly.

I get asked a lot of repetitive questions when I am first discussing terms of commissions, and so over the years I've compiled a list of FAQs and have decided to put a page up on my website to that people can read through and feel a bit more at ease.

Here's a sampling of the most popular ones!

Q: Are your prices negotiable?
A: Yes, I am quite flexible with my pricing and package programs, within reason of course!

Q: Will you trade personal art for advertising in my business?
A: No, sorry. I do not do free commissions.

Q: I want a logo or design done that will be used in promotions and sales. What about copyrights?
A: I am willing to sell the copyrights to all pieces. If copyright is not purchased, there are certain royalty standards set by Canadian copyright laws that I do uphold.

Q: Why do you require a 50% deposit?
A: The deposit does two things: it gives me security so I don't spend hours on a commission that someone changes their mind on, and it also helps to pay for the initial materials (I buy most commission materials new)

Q: What does "plus material cost" mean and what does it buy?
A: All paintings are priced with a flat rate "plus material cost." A material cost is the price of the art supplies that go into the painting. It buys the canvas, the paint for your portrait, paint brushes, and ink  or charcoal for the original outline.

Q: What do you do with your concept sketches for the main commission? Can I have mine?
A: I am usually okay with handing off any preliminary sketches along with the artwork. Just be warned that if the main work is complicated, I may have traced over it with ink to help me stay on course, or I might have altered or changed it. Also they aren't coated or on thick paper, so they will easily damage. If they don't go to the customer they just sit in my sketch book.

Q: Is art your only job?
A: In a sense. I am also a professional musician and a writer, so I'm very deep into the arts. I have also trained and showed horses and have been getting back into that as a job.

Q: Why is the wait time for oil paint so much higher than acrylic if their completion dates are the same?
A: Oil paint takes anywhere from 4-8 days to dry to the touch. If I let the painting leave my home before it dries to that point, the colors and oil will rub off and the painting will be damaged.

Q: How long does oil paint take to fully dry?
A: It takes 4-8 days to dry to the touch, and a week or two for the shine to go away. Then after that it takes eight months to a year before the paint is completely settled and hardened. After you take your painting home you should be careful to not lean anything against it or to put pressure on the painted area. It will be more susceptible to scrapes and gauges during this time. People don't have an issue as it is hanging on their wall anyways!

Q: Will direct sunlight damage my art?
A: I spray art down with some fixatives and protective coats to prevent fading and warping. Most sunlit places in homes are not under direct sunlight for more than a couple of hours a day as the shadows move about. Also, glass and other things filter out the sun's intensity. It's very rare that, inside, artwork will be affected by sunlight.

Q: Can you make multiples of the same drawing or painting?
A: I can get very close.

Q: Do you teach art lessons?
A: Yes, I will do one-on-one lessons either in person or through e-mail.



There will be more up on the website!

New week, new art, new promotional, new offer!

A lot of new things happening this week. I'm kicking off a full-out promotion of character design (probably coming tomorrow), I'm offering a new video feature that I will explain in a minute, and I've got a couple new pieces to show you all! Exciting times.

So first things first, this new video thing is a cheap little DVD where I basically take the time to set up a camera and film myself drawing commissions. I then transfer the videos onto my computer and speed them up until the time is compressed into an 8-10 minute video, and then add a finished photo at the beginning and end of it. Back it up with music, burn it onto a DVD, and the customer has their very own "making of" video. In theory it sounds a little anti-climactic, but I've yet to find a person who doesn't enjoy a good speed drawing video. Well, you can judge for yourselves! Here's the first video:



I have a new one of a show jumper coming up in a couple of days. It takes a while for the videos to convert and load, so it probably will be a 2-day wait period after the completion of the commission to get the videos done.

All depending on how well my computer performs!

The other thing that I mentioned was character design. I've been pushing into some different areas of my knowledge and learning more about concepts and designs by working with a handful of authors and script writers in order to recreate characters, concepts, and other things in relation to characters. It's been a useful tool for myself and the authors to help them visualize and help me expand my horizons. Watch for that promotion coming soon.

Last but not least, here's what I've been working on since I last posted:

The first is an original of my friend's showjumper horse, and the second is the one you saw in the video! 

That's all for now.

Twitter, due to popular demand!

So I've received a very interestingly high requests to create a Twitter account for CCMS, because it's a bit easier than a blog for customers to stay up to date and will, guaranteed, consist of more frequent updates.

So if any of you are interested in keeping up with CCMS on a more regular basis than this blog, feel free to head on over to the Twitter page and follow me!

The page is in the baby stages right now, so it will take some time to gather an audience, but don't be discouraged! I will continue to update it regardless.

@MSCommissions or click here!

Having some fun with Photoshop!

I've always used GIMP to paint digitally because I've never really wanted to pursue it as a professional deal. Well, I just recently acquired Photoshop to do some photo editing (I always used my University's versions, but now that I'm not in school I need my own) for art stuff. And before I really decided to give it a run on a portrait, I decided to try my hand at digitally painting with it.

And MAN was it fun!

I ended up doing a very very little picture of a horse head:

And I'm pretty happy with it! I will have to pursue more painting projects in PS when I get the time. 

It's been a while! Here's something to bring you up to date.

Alright, alright. I haven't posted... anything... in months. There's a few new promos going on and some big stuff happening, so get ready for a big information dump!

I've started working in close with a bunch of authors to do a handful of character designs and concept sketches in order to expand my horizons and offer a larger variety of work. Though most of my drawings have gone to fantasy authors, I've also had a couple of modern fiction/action writers throw some character bios my way in hopes of getting a concrete portrait they can work off of.

As you may have noticed, had you visited my website recently, we've changed locations. This means that I've had to spend hours re-coding a new website due to a recent hoster switch, but that is all up and running and ready to go!

Click here for the link!

I've started a bunch of package deals due to higher volumes of multiple orders, mostly in paintings. I have one person just grabbing a bunch for her personal wants, but also have two corporate customers working with me to decorate two different studios (a wellness studio and a music studio in Edmonton). So if you would like some information on package deals (available for purchases of 3 or more portraits), feel free to shoot me an e-mail at my shiny new e-mail set aside specifically for this business, customcommissionsms@gmail.com.

And last but not least, my tattoo designs are coming back in full swing. I've designed a whopping 6 this month after months of no interest in tattoo designs, so it's a big jump up and I'm looking forward to hearing more designs!

That's about all for new news, now let's get to some artwork!

The first couple of pieces are tattoos that I've designed for people, just a couple. They're not the ones from this month, but they're pretty cool and I haven't shared them with you yet.

This is a compass that points south for a woman from Brazil, a picture she sent me after she got it tattooed on herself.

And this one is one I did of an hourglass made out of vines in the shape of the infinity symbol. Super cool idea! 

I'm pretty happy with both designs and their owners seemed really happy with them as well! 

Now I've been working on a lot larger volume of oil paintings than normal. Both corporate customers are asking for large amounts of oil paint over the next few months, and this other woman is the same. They're time-consuming and a lot of hard work, but the results are something I'm really enjoying! Here's a quick look at one customer's pieces 

Again, both really cool concepts and really rewarding pieces. The two corporates and I are still working together on designs, but when their works get underway I will be sure to post some excerpts of them!

Alright, and one last thing. In the middle of all this ink and character design and painting, I really really really miss graphite and horses. A lot! They're what I grew up working with, and all in all graphite is my signature and FAVORITE medium. That's why I was super excited to have a friend of mine and long-time customer of CCMS (known on Blogger as FernValley from Fern Valley Appaloosas) ask about a couple of graphites of the animals on her farm. In my spare time I've been throwing them together for her, and here's a photo (unfortunately not scanned YET) of the first one!

From this photo: 

Also, new promo

New website

My last website hosting site is giving everyone the boot, so I'm currently throwing up an emergency site that will work for now. It looks awful at the moment because I'm still learning how to use the editor (very awkward HTML coding blocks...) but it should be up, operational, and much more... appealing than it is now.

Thanks for your patience!

New URL is http://customcommissionsms.weebly.com/

It's that time of year again where I've finished my year at University and my art career picks up! Except this time, I'm completely done and graduated (from music school, of all things) and I'm diving into being a fulltime artist! That means more commissions, more personal works, and more types of art! Are you seeing where this is going?

I'm now introducing a few new things to my portfolio and that means, for the customer, more to choose from. First of all, cartoon and tattoo designs are now available in colored marker. I will be posting updates on that within the very new future. The next exciting thing is concept work (character sketches/poses) and digital transparencies for line art. Why? Because over the past 5 months I've gotten over 40 e-mails asking about this kind of art. I'm not exaggerating! So I learned how to do it. Once again, examples coming soon.

So at this point, you all may be twisting your hands in frustration and going "Mel, what DO you have examples of?" Excellent question!

Wedding art!

That's right, I'm starting up on wedding art. A portrait of that special day. Here is the debut image! It's a bit of an... interesting-quality scan, but it works for its purpose! Same price as all other portraits, plus I'm still working out some of the logistics like where my reference is coming from. In this case, it's a professional photographer's photo that I used, but I'm considering offering to come out and take my own reference photos because I don't know what people would prefer. Opinions are welcome!