I learned the difference between painting a picture for someone, and providing them with a powerful tool, and that those should be priced differently.
......and that I should always have MY DAD spell check.
The director or Camp Tadmor contacted me about creating a map for them. Years ago I had whipped together a chalk map during a visit, but since then it had become outdated. They wanted something that they could print for guests, post around camp, sell in their coffee shop... etc. This would be my largest watercolor to date! 22x29! It had to be accurate, it had to offer directional help, everything had to be in the right spot!
The first thing I did was experiment drawing groups of trees, since that would be the majority of the map! I came up with a style and color scheme that I liked, got it approved and then started mixing large amounts of the colors so I wouldn't have to waste any time remixing and color matching later.
They gave me their 4 currents maps to work from (including my own.) As you can see, none of them coincide!
I thought I could get a clear picture of the camp layout from Google Earth, but...
Everything was hidden by trees! At least I had the lake, forum, lodge, rec field and meadow ridge as guiding points!
Luckily I had a trip to Oregon planned, so I was able to visit and take in the feel of the camp. I snapped pictures of all of the buildings and took a ton of notes like, "I am standing at the craft shop, I can see the camp office at 2:00, the forum is at about 3:30 and the lodge is below me at about 7:00."
Once home, I got to work but felt so limited on solid information that I put what I could comprehend or guess on paper, knowing it would be torn up and re worked. This is my first attempt:
These are two revisions I received: They didn't seem to agree with each other at all! So we did a lot of phone talking.
Finally I thought I had it down:
Nope!
We finally got everything in its place and I inked a simple version, then later, drew in every tree.
Then watercolor!
This shows how you have really worked through the complicated issues that can come with what might seem like a simple commission. Research and detailing need to be appreciated into the price. All your hard work has paid off... the final map looks great and you have learnt so much about process along the way.
ReplyDeleteWell done for sticking with it and delivering a great map for the client. I hope they were pleased.
oh my gosh! I haven't checked your blog in forever, this is insane!! you are as good as ever.
ReplyDelete