A NEW COMMISSION, PAINTING OF A BOAT

Hello! Today I'll share with you a commission painting of a boat. I'll also share some photographs taken last summer that I haven't shared before so that you can see what inspires me to keep making boat paintings (and that would be Dalmatia- my native region). If you want to see more of my commission work, you can have a look at this family portrait I did in 2018. When I was first approached for a commission, I remember I was surprised but I didn't really hesitate to accept it. I'm glad I didn't. It's a wonderful feeling being able to bring someone joy with your art. I only had a few commissions so far, but they were all win-win situations where everyone is happy so I'll probably say yes in the future as well. All the commissions I had were from local people and I imagine that will be the case with future ones as well. In comparison with my first commission, this painting was easier to do because I was given a quality reference photograph and I didn't really have to make that many adaptations. The guy that ordered this painting is a hobby photographer and he wanted me to turn one of his boat photographs into a painting. I paint traditional fishing boats pretty often so that wasn't a problem. In fact, my home is filled with boat paintings.  Scroll down to see the reference and the work in process photographs. 

A T-SHIRT FROM REDBUBBLE WITH A PRINT OF ANOTHER OF MY BOAT PAINTINGS

So, the first thing I did was to make some measurements on the photograph (basically just putting some shapes there) to give myself the feeling of proportions and dimensions. I ended up changing the perspective slightly, making it seem like we're looking at the boat from above rather then from the side. I also decided to drop some things out of the composition because the painting was supposed to be done on a small frame canvas. So, I focused on the boat and the sea and cut out the bottom part of the photograph. I made a few alternations as I went along. I didn't sketch the boat in advance as I usually do because I wanted to paint the water first. My husband, who likes practical jokes, photographed my initial painting and sent that initial layer of paint (with just the sea) to the guy asking him to pick it up and saying the painting was completed. 

As you can see, I made a few adjustments along the way. I struggled more with the sea then with the boat itself. Curiously enough, painting boats comes almost naturally to me. This surprises me because in the past I struggled with the technical and practical side of art- probably because I have never worked on it in a systematic way. Isn't that often the case? We may think that we're good at something but the truth is that we have never tried to do it. When I took an art course, I found out that I can get better in all the things I wasn't good at. For example, mixing colours came naturally to me but I struggled with proportions, dimensions and perspective. I'm still not perfect at it, but I'm working on it. It isn't easy but it isn't impossible either. 

 Sometimes it is hard to tell for sure what is a mistake and what is your own style. Developing one's style is tricky. I feel like a lot of people don't want to practice those basic art skills because they are afraid of loosing their style. I can understand this because doing art practice, sketches and measurements isn't the most fun thing in the world. Often you feel like you're just going through the motions.  However, often it is the case that practice makes perfect. The more confident you are in your art skills, the easier it is to own your art style. It's hard to find a balance for sure. You don't want to overdo things by just practicing all the time, but you also need to find time to work on things you aren't good at. You want to keep an eye on things you can and should improve, but you don't want to kill your desire to do art or destroy your self-confidence. You know, I think everyone who does art struggles with this. It just comes with the territory. 

Back to the subject of this painting. It took me about two days to finish it. Bellow you can see more work in progress photographs. First I painted the first layer of the sea with different shades of blue, then I painted the boat on top of that blue. I changed up the boat shape and adjusted the perspective slightly. After that I worked on the sea some more and then I added the reflection of the boat in the water. Finally I added all the finishing touches on the boat, in the reflection and in the sea. I was happy with the end result, I think it is close enough to the reference photograph, but it also reflects my own personal style. One more thing- the name of this boat is Čombo. My husband tells me that in their jargon it describes someone or something that is small and rounded, often a term used for a short fat person. The boat is kind of small and rounded so that makes sense. You could say that it is a fat boat. I found online that in the dialect of Dubrovnik city čombo means a doll or a weirdo. I haven't heard of this word before and I'm not familiar does it have additional jargon or dialect meanings. I would have to do some research, but anyhow its name is one of the reasons why this little rounded boat was photographed and ended up as a painting in the first place. 

As always, thank you for reading and visiting. I'm linking this up with Nancy's Fancy Friday Link up. Have a nice day!