A friend of mine commissioned a painting from me. There were few requirements. It had to fit the frames that she already had and those were of challenging proportions, really wide and quite low. I needed to have a certain color palette that fits with the interior of the room. Also the subject matter was set to have lovers lying next to each other.
I think the proportions were the toughest bit. I took the color palette a bit too seriously and went almost monochromatic. The subject was nice and I did go at first to the more sexual approach but settled (had feedback) with the more cuddly approach.
I hadn't painted in many years, at least not in traditional acrylics. I kept looking for the undo button and digital eraser. I got the colors almost right in the first pass and they had a fresh transculent glow...but then I fucked up. I saw that several proportions were of with the figures and I just couldn't mix the same colors on the palette that had come up with the thin layering of colors. So painting off the mistakes was producing colors that differed from what I originally wanted. I didn't remember that traditional painting was so hard...with lack of practice obviously.
If it had been just my own painting I had gone the other way but now I had to stay true to the original sketch and the required palette.
I definitely want to paint again so this didn't put me off it but it came close :D! And here's some sketches and "in progress" pics which I forgot to take from the first phases. I'm not completely satisfied but gald that I got it done..
