Ah... I love a good challenge!

To start off, I want to state the fact that I am not like many painters in the fact that I welcome special requests, they help me to think on my toes and let me be more creative than what I can do with just the designs in my book. I don't charge an arm and a leg for special requests either because I love a good challenge.

So this week is the week of the local county fair at which I am painting. Today a pair walk up to my booth, a father and a son, and the father with out even looking at my book asks, "Do you do custom work?" I told him yes, but the price is at my discresion (sp?) based on the size and difficulty of the painting. He says, "ok, my son wants this-- only not as big." and he turns out his forearm to reveal a tattoo of a skull in front of a cross made of blades. It is all black linework with shading... no color. I looked at it a moment, and said, "Well, we'll see what I can do, It's gonna cost in the ballpark of $5, though, is that ok?" He says, "sure, have at it!"

Well, here is what I came up with! I was so darned proud of it I just had to show everyone!

that's amazing! how'd the pair like it?

They loved it! I charged the $5, as it really wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be, and the guy tipped me an extra $3! He said that I should have charged him $10 because that was a genuine work of art and he wanted me to let him know when I opened up my own tattoo parlor... lol. I told him that wouldn't be happening any time..... ever. lol

Nice work sweetie!! I do hope you're bringing your paints to camp... so we can paint everyone in sight all week LOL

You bet I am! I won't be able to bring my whole kit, mom needs some to stay at home for a gig she has to go and do solo, but I'll definately have some with me! I'm also thinking about buying some new paints there.

Wow amazing shading!!!

Great work on the fly! You def. should have charged $10 and he would have tipped $5!

Very cool!

Wonderful job!

Wow - cool!! How did you do the shading - still with a brush?

Great job, but that's a $10 design if I ever saw one.

That is awsome, You should be proud!!

Great job! The shading is awesome!!! I love special requests, but do charge extra if they'll take long to do.
I got a special request for a bullet hole is a forehead(yes... I always get the sickening ones....). It was fun. It started off looking like a gem(which his buddies pointed out:-), but once I added dripping blood, splatter & gun powder burn/residue, it looked pretty sweet. Too bad I forgot to take a pic!
I'm going to try & redo it on a willing model this week.

wow great job!

Psalmbook wrote:I got a special request for a bullet hole is a forehead(yes... I always get the sickening ones....). It was fun. It started off looking like a gem(which his buddies pointed out:-), but once I added dripping blood, splatter & gun powder burn/residue, it looked pretty sweet. Too bad I forgot to take a pic!

You got one of those too? Haha, I was asked to paint that at a haunted house last halloween, it look awesome - of course that was probably because I've seen all the pics in my med classes and the fact that I watch CSI like it's going out of style, lol.

On the pricing, I don't have a single design that is priced over 6$, and the reason is people in my area are in such dire straights that they really just can't afford anything more expensive... so basically it's make some money on low rates or make no money on normal rates.

And the way I do the blending is I sanitize my hands before I paint and when I make a line, I blend it out with my finger really quick while the paint is still wet. It takes practice, but it's the same technique behind blending lines out in a pencil drawing for all you artists of other mediums, lol.

LOL! I blend like that on myself, but I'm always afraid to do it on someone else(especially on faces) in our germ phobic society... What ever happened to the 10 sec. rule?

Great job, Punky!

Psalmbook wrote:LOL! I blend like that on myself, but I'm always afraid to do it on someone else(especially on faces) in our germ phobic society... What ever happened to the 10 sec. rule?

Mythbusters disproved that...

Lyn

yeah, that's why I use hand sanitizer first... puts everyone at ease.

Woweee Punky, imagine if you lived or did gig's in a more affluent area, you could really be raking in the $ with art like that. Great work.

Mandi from Tazzie wrote:Woweee Punky, imagine if you lived or did gig's in a more affluent area, you could really be raking in the $ with art like that. Great work.

Haha, don't remind me! Don't get me wrong... I love my little town...it's just.... I can't adequately make a living off the little bit of money I can get out of it. Our town is so broke the next step is laying off police and fire workers, and since the majority of the work in the town is related to being employed by the city.... people are really hurting. It's just a slap in the face that Chicago, a HUGE city with the population of my whole STATE is less than 90 minutes away.

Great job!