Something for Others

Getting into, or back into, art is daunting. One trick is to do work for others. I'll be completely out of steam to create something, totally dry on ideas, no motivation whatsoever, then someone will ask me to make something for them. It might be forced, but it is SOMETHING. So when I was asked to do a painting of the singer from the band Ghost, I gave it a shot.

Pencil study for a Ghost (band) painting

The hard part about creating art for other people is that they usually want something recognizable. It is difficult enough to paint a person or an animal, but it is exponentially worse to paint a CERTAIN person or animal.  Unfortunately, not many people will ask you to paint A cat. They want you to paint THEIR cat. They won't ask you to paint A person, they want THEIR person. And they know what that subject looks like more than you do. They are used to their tics, their mannerisms and the particlar way their features look in various light.

So you can draw an awesome cat, or a very good human. You may even think that you've done them justice. But they may not even recognize it as their subject. It helps to ask for several pictures from several angles of the subject instead of one, Even better, try to see/meet the subject yourself. In my case, I circumvented the problem by painting the subject in his mask. However in the end, I can see why a lot of artists prefer abstraction. 

"Fine, you want me to draw your cat? HERE'S your cat!"