When I tell people that I’m an artist and show examples of my work I often get amazing feedback. The ones I get most frequently are; “oh that is amazing”, “what are you doing here(my day job)?”,”it must be fantastic to be able to do that”, “could you paint me?”
It is lovely to hear this, anyone with a bit of creativity in them will enjoy a bit of recognition for their hard work. Except most people that say this don’t understand how much time goes into the works and usually don’t want to have to pay. If they absolutely have to pay they would like it to be under a £50 and want it the size of a mural.
They often look at you with a sparkle and expectations in their eye, as if you are this person with magical powers, who can make works of art appear by the snap of your fingers, effortlessly.
I even had someone who saw me working on a colorful drawing, ask me if I was doing coloring in and I had to explain that I was the one drawing the lines too. The person in question looked at me with some disbelief and said” how do you get the lines so straight and perfect, how do you know what to draw?” “Slowly” was my response.
Many a time people just don’t comprehend the process of creating art, and to be fair sometimes I don’t even myself.
I’m not sure exactly how every other artist work to arrive at the finished work. I know some start out with a vivid idea and then jump straight into portraying that, and does so successfully, one part of the paper or canvas at the time. Others like myself will do sketches and create a smaller scale design and work from that.
Finding a design that successfully depict your idea is only, on occasion easy, more often than not what you put down on the paper don’t look anything like the idea in your head. Often there is experimenting involved trying out different ways to get the feeling just right and the mood perfect. While working on the design sometimes even the idea itself will change. When you finally have the finished design ready anything between hours, days or weeks can have gone by.
And even after having gone through this process it isn’t always that clear cut. You might know where in your painting you want the birds after having compared different locations and decided upon the superior location and where you would like the light to come from. That will however not help you paint the texture of the birds feathers or getting the color just right. Often there is a lot of obstacles to work around and puzzle out throughout the the creative process.
When you do receive a commission from someone who appreciates the time it takes to create art it is deeply appreciated. So to those who do, I’d like to say thank you!
– jeanie