New Commission. Tuba!

Well, if you looked at my last post, that clean, empty desk didn't last long.  Actually, I think it lasted for about two minutes.

On to the next project, a commission. I'm hired to paint a tuba!

Considerable work has gone into the painting already.  First I took about 30 pictures of his tuba.  Then I spent quite a bit of time narrowing down the pictures, cropping and choosing favorites.

We determined the size of the space where they want to hang it and came up with a canvas size.  The painting will be vertical to fit into the space nicely, so I had to go through the pictures and determine the best composition for a vertical canvas.  An entire tuba would be kind of boring and stereotypical, so I zoomed in on an interesting part and will do it at an angle, so the composition will draw you in.

Once we agreed on the composition, I did some sketching.  Here's a little watercolor sketch which gave them an idea of what I'm going to do.  They want Mexican colors, to include lime green or chartreuse, which is his favorite color, so it's going to be bright.  I can do bright!!!  The background will be cool colors of blues and violets, with the warm colors popping out on top.

This one's going to be fun.