Look, it’s me!! Mom and Dad’s golden girl!! :P
Donna with her portrait by Amy Spittle Art
I just want to quickly share this happy portrait of Donna with you, and to record for future reference some details about the artist and processes involved bringing it to life.
I have commissioned work on my Donna before. And the final work I received was disappointing. So I knew I needed to choose with more criteria than just “I love the artist’s work” if I ever want to commission something again.
I was already following various watercolor artists, including Amy Spittle, at the time because I personally love that style of work. But what I really needed was not just an artist with a style I liked but also an artist that will treat Donna’s portrait with the level of attention that will mean I will be happy with what I receive in the mail at the end of the day.
So when Amy left an enthusiastic comment on one of Donna’s photos (below) on Instagram, I knew I had to get Amy to draw a portrait of her.
Amy delivered her vision in yellow and gold and it was just like Donna. She let me know that I can request changes until I was happy. But I really had minimum comments. I did have a niggling feeling about how yellow it was, but I sat on it and decided the yellow grew on me so we kept to it. And when I finally got it in the mail, it looked even better than what I reviewed.
It was perfect and I LOVE it. The gold foil accent makes it very chic and it makes me happy to enjoy Donna’s bright golden smile in the flat everyday.
The actual work is not full watercolor, but “a digital print of a watercolor and digital colour painting, with a sprinkling of gold foil”. This means Amy ‘draws first, paint second, then scan and paint again, then re-ink and gold foil the print’.
This is what Amy says about the processes that went into Donna’s portrait on her Facebook page:
Donna has received the Midas touch…
I’ve wanted to muck about with gold leaf for ages and I think it affords a really nifty finish to these digital portraits. That makes it FIVE processes these artworks go through now to make it to you if you elect to have gold leaf added.
They are hand drawn in ink pen, dip pen or similar.
They are painted so that small details contain softness and are well blended.
The big colour is added via custom made brushes and pixels. It’s the technology part that gives us huge scope for building a portrait – we aren’t stuck with the first composition or first coat colour.
Then we print… I use a local printers who are now used to my weird requests, odd drawings and brightly coloured dogs.
And now, I gold leaf. It’s delicate, tricky, blows away with a sigh and tears with a twitch. I adore it! These little spots of luxe catch the light and lift these portraits off of the page and into the third dimension. – Amy Spittle Art
You can see more of her work on Instagram @amyspittleart and Facebook. ;)
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Kismet
Yes, she has caught the spirit. I’d wonder about the yellow.
weliveinaflat
Yes, I was hoping for light washes of colour so that it would come out more pastel blue :P But I guess only yellow would work with the gold foil. Hope to get something like this of Donna next time! :P https://www.instagram.com/p/BF_bZHTQ0D2/
Kismet
That looks good as long as the dog is light colo(u)red. If I had it done, I wouldn’t want to be green.