Gallery Feature: Rainbow Trout

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acrylic, Art, artist, book illustration, fish, Gallery Feature, illustration, Painting, portfolio, Rainbow Trout, realism, wildlife

Growing up, I spent a lot of time down at the man-made dam behind my house — fishing. The creek here has always been filled with beautiful Speckled Trout. While I no longer care much for the act of fishing (or the act of even eating fish, tbh), some of my best memories are of my dad and I sitting down by the creek, fishing for trout.

My last commission was another in the series of wildlife paintings I’m producing for a client’s book. I had fully intended to blog about each one as I went along, but you may have noticed that the last Gallery Feature I did was the Pacific Tree Frog — exactly one year ago this month.

The lack of posting about my work, however, is not indicative of a lack of work, and 2018 will forever hold a special place in my heart as the year I had more commissions than I knew what to do with.

Happily, this year is also already commission-heavy, and the first piece of 2019 was a Rainbow Trout.

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Commission Art: Curbing Creativity or Cultivating It?

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Art, artist, commission art, creativity, inspiration, Painting

Last week I read an article about commission art. The title was simply “Commissions”, but the topic immediately piqued my interest because, of course, I am a commission artist. While I typically don’t care for “How To”, “Improve This”, “What You Should Do”, “Pricing Your Work”, etc. type articles, there are rare occasions when someone actually does have something beneficial to say. So I clicked through.

The very first sentence immediately put me off.

“Many artists dislike doing commissions.”

“Ah, so that’s the direction this is going to go,” I thought. But thankfully, the author wasn’t on a crusade to bash commission art. He listed some positive reasons for accepting commissions, offered a few tips and advice on what to do/what not to do, as well as sharing his own personal criteria for creating this type of art. But there were certain things he said (things that are apparently common thought among many other artists too) which made me want to go on the defensive a little bit.

He explained that the main reason a lot of artists shy away from commissions is because the inspiration for the piece isn’t theirs — it’s the clients. He also posed the question: “Can you maintain your artistic freedom and integrity while doing a commission?”

Happily, his short answer was yes — but with a bunch of caveats. Some points were good, others I didn’t always agree with.

The Tell-Tale Pop!: My Custom Edgar Allan Poe Funko Figure

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#OOAK, custom, customize, DIY, doll repaint, Edgar Allan Poe, Funko, Funko Pop, toy

You might think that as someone who works in the art field, I should want to spend my free time taking a break from doing anything “creative”. But telling a creative person to stop being creative is like telling Dracula to stop drinking blood and meet you at Tim Hortons for an afternoon iced cappuccino.

It’s just im-Poe-sible.

Hmm, “Poe”? Poe? POE. What kind of a pun was that?

That, my frightful friends, was an Edgar Allan Poe pun, because he is the subject of today’s post.

When I’m not creating art for clients, I can still be found holed up in my studio, hunched over the desk, playing with paints, clay, pencils and too much glitter. The irony is that client art is not something I typically think of as being a “creative” process. It is, of course, but when you’re working for someone else, there are all sorts of constraints and rules, and when it comes to commission artists especially, your job is less about being creative, and more about bringing someone else’s vision to life. I love it, but it’s work. It’s not “fun” in the sense that you can play around and just try something for Creativity’s sake.

Regular Seeker of Truth readers will remember the custom Twilight Zone Funko Pop! figures I designed a few years ago.

Now that was fun. Designing these creepy critters was one thing. But customizing an actual Funko Pop! was something else entirely.

A number of years ago, I picked up a Pop! figure that I thought had potential to be transformed into a custom Rod Serling. I still have plans to do that, but when I saw this American Gods “Mr. Wednesday” Funko Pop! a few months back… I knew what was going to be my very first custom Funko Pop! figure.

Instantly, I imagined this figure with a dark suit, sad, melancholy eyebrows, and a lopsided mustache.

I saw Edgar Allan Poe.

Gallery Feature: “Pacific Tree Frog”

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Art, commission, masking fluid, Pacific Tree Frog, Painting, wildlife artist, wildlife painting

There’s no better feeling for an artist than placing another commission piece in the “done” pile. And happily, that’s what I’ve just done.

More wildlife to feature today, this time in the guise of the Pacific Tree Frog.

As with most tree frogs, the Pacific Tree variety is very petite and cute. Measuring in at a whopping 3/4 to 2 inches long, they are one of the smallest amphibians on the North American West Coast.

Apart from its tiny stature, this tree frog has two distinctive features: a dark eye stripe (or as I like to call it, a bandit mask), and sticky rounded toe pads which help the frog grip and climb. Their toes have less webbing between them than some other frogs, which makes their toes look extra long.

Gallery Feature: “Seagull”

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Art, commission, Feathered Fauna, Painting, seagull, wildlife artist, wildlife painting

Who knew that there were so many different kinds of seagulls!

This is what I learned when a friend commissioned me to paint her one last fall. (Mentioned in the August post Gallery Feature: “Northern Leopard Frog”)

Someone says “seagull” and you think you know what they look like. But trust me, you don’t. Even seagulls of the same variety can look very, very different.

When I began this commission back in September, I did what any good artist would do — started stalking the local seagulls, of course. Driving slowly through parking lots, walking down by the beach, etc. And then just sitting and observing the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between birds. And you know something? I actually came away from this project with a new appreciation for these lovely creatures.

Gallery Feature: Feathered Fauna “Red-Breasted Nuthatch”

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acrylic, Art, artist, Feathered Fauna, Painting, red-breasted nuthatch, Wendy Brydge, wildlife painting

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know I’m a Northern girl. So when it comes to birds, I do see a good variety of breeds, but nothing too exotic.

The last Gallery Feature in my Feathered Fauna bird series was the Baltimore Oriole. They’re a beautiful, flashy bird, but alas, there are none in Northern Ontario.

So for my next painting, I decided to look a bit closer to home.

Enter the pint-size, pretentious pontiff of the Northern forest: The red-breasted nuthatch.

Gallery Feature: “Northern Leopard Frog”

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Art, commission, Feathered Fauna, northern leopard frog, Painting, wildlife artist, wildlife painting

I’ve been a commission artist now for 12 years. Right out of high school, I jumped head-long into the art world, and haven’t looked back since.

When you make a career out of creating art that people ask for (as opposed to an artist who paints pieces and then offers them for sale — “if you see something you like, please buy it”), you try to be proficient in everything. You also have to learn how to anticipate, observe, and gather information.

Made-to-order paintings are both exciting and nerve-wracking. As the artist, I enjoy the surprise of each new commission (what will I be asked to paint this time?), but I also worry that the client won’t share in my vision for the finished piece. Even when clients say they don’t know what they want, that’s usually not the case. You may not even be aware that you already have an image in your head, but trust me, it’s there, and part of my job is to coax it out of you.

Fun in the Fifth Dimension: My Twilight Zone Funko Pop! Figure Designs

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classic television, design, Eye of the Beholder, Funko, Funko Pop, Rod Serling, sketches, The Howling Man, Time Enough at Last, Twilight Zone, vinyl figures

If you haven’t heard of Funko Pop! figures, then perhaps you’ve been living under a rock. The popular Funko brand has a variety of toy lines, but without question, the 3.75″ Funko Pop! vinyl figures are the company’s bread and butter.

They’ve been around since 2010, but in the last year or so, Funko Pop! vinyls have exploded in popularity, becoming to 2016 what Beanie Babies were to 1997.

Their stylized huge-head-on-a-tiny-body design isn’t for everyone. Even I wasn’t crazy about the look at first. But their mass appeal comes from one simple fact: No matter what you like in the world of popular culture, there’s probably a Funko figure for you to buy.

My small collection of Funkos… soon to be enlarged with Negan and the Hot Topic exclusive Belle with Birds!

Gallery Feature: Feathered Fauna “Baltimore Oriole”

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apple blossoms, Art, artist, Baltimore Oriole, birds, Glen Loates, Painting

From the time I was old enough to understand what a paint brush was for, I loved the work of Glen Loates. This famous Canadian wildlife painter has a talent for creating animals that are so lifelike you can almost touch them, and yet, his work still manages to retain that “painted” feel.

My favourite pieces were always the ones devoid of backgrounds. There’s something so striking about a beautifully rendered bird, moose or beaver depicted with just enough flora to ground the painting — without burying it in a shallow, two-dimensional grave.

Glen Loates

As a kid pouring over my Glen Loates books, I thought, “I wish I could paint like that.”

The Making of a Monster: My Bride of Frankenstein Painting

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Art, artist, Bride of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester, Halloween, Mary Shelley, Painting

Last year marked the 80th anniversary of Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein sequel, “The Bride of Frankenstein”.

The film stars Elsa Lanchester as Mary Shelley in the opening sequence, and as the Monster’s mate — the Bride — at the end.

As the Bride, Lanchester is seen onscreen for a mere 4 minutes of a 75 minute film, but with such a memorable, show-stopping look, she was forever immortalized as the Queen of Monsters in those few 240 seconds.

As an artist, I’ve spent years painting still-life, portraits, and wildlife. One thing I had never painted was anything pop culture related. How crazy is that? I’m constantly mooning over the monster art of artists like Basil Gogos and Jason Edmiston, yet I’d never done any of that myself. So last October, I set out to create a Bride of Frankenstein-inspired piece to commemorate the film’s 80th anniversary. I featured the finished painting in my Halloween night blog post, “A Toast to Gods and Monsters“.

In that post, I said that I would do a follow-up that chronicled the progression of the painting. So here’s your one and only warning: A whole slew of geeky, potentially boring art-speak follows. If you’re not keen on listening to me wax poetic about the who, what, when, where, why and hows of painting, then feel free to skip over the art jargon and scroll ahead to look at the pretty pictures. I won’t judge you. Much.