If I'm not mistaken

Do you wanna hear a funny story? Well it certainly amused me greatly ..........
I'll share it with you and see what you think........

The other week a woman I know as a distant acquaintance from many years ago contacted me regarding wanting a painting done as a surprise for her husbands forthcoming birthday. She wanted a dog painting to match the previous one I had done for her some years ago. I couldn't remember doing it at all even though she was adamant I had and had told various friends of hers who admired it, that I was a good artist and how much she liked my work and was going to commission me again. It surprised me that I couldn't remember painting it, but since she was adamant I had, I put it down to a lapse in my (normally very good) memory. I said I'd be happy to paint another painting for her whilst wracking my brains about the original one I couldn't picture at all. She said she'd take some photos of the dog and we agreed to arrange my visit to her this week. As she gave me directions to her house, I knew I had certainly been there before, so presumed it must have been in connection with the painting I had done for her, which is why I could remember the house so well (although it's a very distinctive and beautiful house so it wasn't hard to remember). When I got there, she welcomed me in, and we sat chatting over coffee, discussing art, dogs, travel, cooking and various other general topics and it was only when she asked me if I had previously painted under the name "J Cross" that I realised why I couldn't remember the painting. I HADN'T DONE IT! Aah, that would explain things!! But she had asked me to paint the picture because she thought I had!! Whoops!!!! She thought the mistaken identity hilarious. And I must admit I do too! And the ironic thing is she still wants me to paint the picture as two heads of the same dog, and if she likes it enough will commission me to paint another head of previous dog of hers that has since died. So, I'm hopefully getting two commissions out of it, and all because she thought I was someone else! Yay! Good for me! Er, yes, but bad for the person who did the original painting. Not good for them at all!!! I was pleased though that the woman thought me more professional than the original artist, and I think I'll paint a better picture too. Hopefully she'll think so as well.

.........and I've remembered why I went to her house originally, and it's nothing to do with art at all!

So, I'm back on dog portraits again. I think I might seriously re-consider whether I'm in the wrong job. Perhaps I should do dog portraits for a living instead!

Background interference

After completing the dog portrait in time for the Christmas deadline, (even with a stinking cold!) I'm all poised to get on with the next erotic landscape when I receive a call requesting that the two women who are involved with the painting - the "requester" and the "giftee", (ie the woman who contacted me in the first place to order the painting and the woman for whom the present was intended) want to come and talk to me about the painting. Ok. Sounds sinister and I wonder what the problem is. It turns out, when they come to see me, that they love the portrait of the dog herself, and think I've caught her essence beautifully, and love her big soulful eyes and adore the painting EXCEPT for a slight alteration to the pinkness of the dogs ears BUT most importantly to the background. MMMm..... That was gratifying, that the only problem was in the background colour, and fortunately since the painting was done in acrylics it was possible to go over the colour with a different one (if it had been watercolour I'd have really struggled to do it and would probably have had to do the whole painting again from scratch!). So, what colour do you want? And it turned out, after they described colours to me, and I mixed up various shades to see that I understood the description of "more creamy greeny beige with a hint of yellow, but not too much, and not a lot of red or blue" that the colour they wanted was very similar to the colours of the dog. Mmm.... not a good idea and I explained why. That the colours I had originally chosen for the background colour complimented the dog, and made her stand out more, and made the picture more dramatic because of this. Yes, they understood this, but they wanted the dog blended in more to the background. Ok, I understand. But my problem was that I could see what the adjusted picture would look like, and needed them to understand it too before I started to change it and found that they actually preferred the original version! So, I painted them a couple of little thumbnails (small, indistinct sketches to show basic colours and basic tone as a guideline for how the paintings would differ). They stood and watched me as I did it and were still adamant at their decision. Ok. I'll do it then and contact them when I'd done the alteration. I made notes as to their request and had a full understanding of exactly what they wanted....

.....And that was the strange thing. Because I was perfectly happy with the original painting. I had chosen the colours with care, and matched it all perfectly. It balanced as a concept, as a painting, tonally and colour wise and I had painted it on my creative gut-reaction based on years of experience, every workshop, and art course I'd attended, every art tutor I had listened to, every book I had read, every piece of art I had seen and NOW I had to overwrite all of that with someone elses concept, and you know what? It was difficult. I had to ignore my own creativity and go with someone elses input. Plus I had to make the image look like it was originally painted like this, and keep it fresh so not over-paint it and make it look "tired" or strained or false. Mmm.... difficult. So, time to do it, and I got on with it. Painted over the background with the new colours, forever changed to the new colours, and I stood and looked and looked and looked at the new colours and wasn't at all sure that I was happy with them......... but I reframed the painting, rang the two women and awaited their arrival.....

......And you know what? They absolutely adored it!!!! Thought it was "fabulous"and that I'd done a wonderful job! Wow!!! So, they went away happy with the new version, and I'm happy they're happy but I'm still not sure about the colours..... What do you think? Which do you prefer?

Clear heads

Due to a busy week and other things getting in the way I've not been able to do much work on the second dog commission this week and the Christmas deadline's looming..... And none of this helped by the fact that I've had a stinking cold this week and felt like shit!! But, part of the joy of being self employed is that jobs have to be done for deadlines no matter how you feel! So..... today I thought I ought to at least try and get some of the painting done even if it was something easy like a bit of the background, (cos in theory I shouldn't be able to cock that up, even if I did feel way under par). So, a cup of tea in one hand, and a paintbrush in the other, I stood and looked at the painting and realised virtually straight away that I'd been going wrong in the first place by thinking that I should use gouache paint! I'd chosen it as I needed to paint virtually every hair on a hairy dog, I needed to use a medium that could paint light on dark (unlike watercolours) so had opted for gouache to do the job, but didn't like the effect I had achieved so far (I couldn't have been THAT ill then, if I could tell that straight away!), so my only option then was to use acylics as a fast drying watercolour medium that would show the gouache under-painting clearly but give a better overall result. I quickly did a glazing wash over with the acrylics and instantly felt a whole load better about the painting, to the point that within a few hours it was completely finished! Wow! I certainly hadn't expected to finish it today. And that surprised me too. Because I started painting feeling bunged up, and full of cold and not thinking straight, and ended up still bunged up and full of cold, but with a totally clear head, aware of my creativity working properly and finishing the picture and even being very proud of the end result. So, another Wow!!! Perhaps my well-being just needs to be creative to get me feeling better!!



So... here it is - the finished painting. I'm not sure what sort of dog it is - a bit of everything I think. But I'm really pleased with the painting, and hopefully the recipient will like it too ...... I think I've captured the dog nicely especially the large soulful eyes....

Autumn colours

The other week Indigo mentioned that she was interested in having a tee shirt with my "rainbow girl" image on it, so after a bit of investigating for the best result, I had one printed for her. And I'm delighted that she's very pleased with it and wanting to show it off, so much so, that she's had a photograph taken to show her wearing it. And here it is for everyone to see. I had wanted the image on a black tee shirt but due to some problems at the print shop, that I didn't fully understand, they could only do it on white. A pity, but its bright and effective either way.

I love the autumnal colours at the moment - especially in the bright golden sunshine we've had recently. The trees really look their glorious best in their shades of warm and vibrant yellows, intense golds, bright oranges, scandalous scarlets, deep dark reds the colour of old blood and the delights of rusty burnt siennas. Its so inspiring to see the colours, and lifts the spirits when they have the backdrop of a rich blue sky behind them. I'm in the mood for painting them all!

A woman came to see me earlier today regarding a commission she wants doing of a dog for a Christmas present. Christmas already - and its only October! Its a simple drawing she wants, and I'm more than happy to do it for her, as I'll tackle virtually any subject, even if it is as vanilla as this is. She isn't aware that I'm an erotic artist, and I had no need to tell her. And as far as I'm concerned, it's not an important issue. I'm an artist. I paint pictures. If someone wants something painting, I'll do it. Whatever it is. If they want something erotic I'll enjoy doing it more. But either way, I'm just glad they come to me.

Tonight I'll be doing some erotic drawing. I need to get back into creating art again, and the best way to do it is to do some life drawing, except the way I do it, its erotic drawing! Then I can get on with my erotic landscapes properly because I'll be in the right mind set for erotic art. It's like a warm up for the jobs in hand. So.......... what poses shall I do? Mmmm....... I haven't decided yet, but I do know they won't be vanilla. Perhaps a prop or two will help. Shall I go for sexy lingerie, sexy footwear, a blindfold, handcuffs or a riding crop................. and maybe, I'll incorporate the autumnal shades I saw earlier - a hint of colour to lift the picture, yes, I think that will work nicely!