The other day I received a request from a client in Canada to create a collage of the Calgary Tower. Architectural elements are always more difficult when working on a smaller scale, although I enjoyed the challenge. After spending a lot of time focussing on animal pieces, it was also nice to change things up a bit with a building.
Last night I completed my first collage in 2015. This piece was commissioned by a teacher from Washington state, who is having her students study my work in class. I think it’s absolutely wonderful that she reached out to me to have a work of art made that she can share with her students, so they can see one of my collages in person! I also had a lot of fun working on this piece – especially with the detailing for the gator’s scales.
And now I’m off frame and prep the collage for shipping…
A couple of weeks ago I completed this commissioned collage of a red fox. I definitely had a lot of fun working on this one. I enjoyed working with the color palette and finding bits and pieces of texture to add alongside solid pieces of color. Foxes are such beautiful and colorful creatures. No wonder I liked putting together this collage.
I’ve been taking a bit of a break from my art-making so I can unwind and experiment with other media. However, I’m still working away on collages here and there. This week I completed my latest commission, a tiger collage. The client had purchased my “Watchful Lion” collage, and was interested in getting a tiger collage to go along with it. She also wanted a sunset in the background of the composition.
So as I worked on this piece, I kept a thumbnail image of the “Watchful Lion” in front of me so I could make sure the new collage would look related to the previous piece. This one was definitely a fun piece to work on. I really enjoyed using all the bright colors.
Here’s a piece I made a couple months ago. It was for a fellow artist and Elon alum. I realized I hadn’t posted this one yet – so here it is!
At the moment I’m taking a break with making new collages, but once I get back to work I’ll make sure I post any new pieces.
Above is the finished “Barn Owl” collage. The client gave this piece to her sister (who is expecting) to go in the baby’s room. The color scheme I worked with matches the colors used to decorate the room.
Above and below are the finished portraits I did of Fluffy the Chinchilla. They were my first ever chinchilla portraits, and I had a lot of fun making them. The client had some great Fluffy photos that I used as references for these.
And now I’m off to work on a red panda collage. Hope everyone has a great week!
Here’s one of the holiday commissions I completed a couple months ago. My client wanted me to make a collage of her friend with his grandson. Since this piece wasn’t the smallest size I work in, it wasn’t as difficult to collage two figures on the 9″x12″ area. However, since 9″x12″ is still somewhat small, it was a bit of a challenge to get the likeness down properly for the grandson. I did have a bit of fun collaging all those colorful badges on the grandfather’s jacket.
I have a few more collages that I completed this year that I’ll post in the next couple of weeks. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great December!
This is a piece that I completed a few days ago. My client wanted me to make an abstract landscape, somewhat similar to “The Artist from a Distance” collage. So now I just need to frame it and deliver it to its new home. I’m also beginning to do a bit of work on my first chinchilla portrait. Chinchillas sure are cute!
Anyway, I’m off to run a few errands. And I can’t believe it’s almost December and before long it will be 2012. Wow, it still blows my mind how fast a year can creep by.
And here’s the completed collage of the smiling dog. Looking back at all the previous commission work I’ve done, it looks like dog portraits have been the most popular subject. When it comes to tackling pet portraits, I’ve found that it helps a lot if the subject is a happy-looking pup.
In other news, you can check out my article that was just published on Bourgeon Online – Art is a Story. I discuss the writing and illustrating process for Duck & Fish as well as the storytelling I do with my other art projects.