One of my favorite compliments I have received was from a client who, when looking through my website, said “wow, so you can paint anything ?!” While this is a bit of an overstatement on my skills, I do enjoy the challenge of painting many different subjects – including a new first with my latest project.
About a year ago, my client David travelled to Eastern Europe with his family, where they discovered their family crest painted on a shield. To bring their discovery home with them, they took a number of snapshots – but David had bigger ideas. Fast-forward to this holiday season, and David put his plan into action by reaching out to me to do an 18”x24” oil painting of this crest. The main reason for the painting was to create a special gift for his sister, but David loved the idea of having a painting as well – so he had me to 2 identical 18”x24” paintings! Below are the pictures I had to work from:
Working from David’s snapshots, I set to work. My first step was to do a drawing to show David what I planned on painting – essentially the same as the photos, but editing the text to just their last name and making the rendering of certain details like the hands more accurate (I couldn’t resist!). Below is the drawing:
With David’s approval of the drawing – I was on to the canvases with paint! To make sure the 2 paintings were nearly identical, I worked on both canvases at the same time and switched back and forth. For example, when I had the background colors mixed, I painted on background and then painted the other with the same paint to make sure all of the colors were exact from one canvas to the other.
It was a fun project to paint, as well as a fun one to deliver! David was thrilled with the results and is looking forward to presenting his sister with this special gift!
Enjoy,
Jason