Sleep Commission
Sleep Commission
The Brief
I attend a lot of different shows with my art work, and some of them are a little left field. I found myself with a stand at the annual Bolton Strongman event a few years ago as a friend of mine competed in strongman contests and actually ran the Bolton event. He said I should attend the event with my stand. I wasn’t expecting a lot of interest as it was a strongman event. How wrong I was! There were lots of families who saw my work and I was commissioned for various drawings. One gentleman approached who wanted me to draw his daughters. He sent me a single photograph through of his daughters sleeping. This was to be a birthday present for his wife. I thought the photo was beautiful and knew this was going to be a stunning drawing when it was completed.
The Result
The result was a double portrait which somehow I managed to complete much quicker than expected. Normally one head of the size you see takes me them same amount of time as it did to complete both heads on this drawing. I loved working on this. The hair was a painstaking process to get the reflection and lustre just right. The skin tone is something which takes a lot of time as less is more where children are concerned, and you have to build up the skin tones very delicately to achieve depth and shadow. I was messaged a few weeks later by the gentleman’s wife who was absolutely thrilled at the photographic quality of the drawing.