Another painting for someone on Simbi.

I'm really liking the way Simbi is allowing me to do paintings for other people. It's allowing me to take on the challenge of doing something I might not think of. Great for getting out of my element and trying to solve problems that I might not encounter while painting or drawing for myself.

I found a post from this guy and his wife who had a pet ferret that recently passed away. He was looking for someone to draw a caricature of the ferret for her. I replied, said I might be able to help, and gave him some examples of the animal drawings I have done in the past.

He ended really liking my painting of the German Shepard I did for @everlove's collaborative art journey. A little more work than a simple caricature, but certainly doable for him.

So after getting some reference photo's of his ferret and a little discussion about what he was looking for, I did up a quick sketch. The original photo he provided was of the ferret in that similar pose but he was leaning against one of those trick-or-treat pumpkins made of plastic instead of a real one. His face was also not very clear so he sent me a picture of a close-up so I could get better detail.

I sent the sketch to him to make sure it was what he wanted and everything seemed okay. Originally he wanted the pumpkin to be carved. After I finished the sketch and sent it to him, I told him I didn't think it would look as good because it would always have that Halloween feel to it. If it was just an uncarved pumpkin, it would make a better, all around picture. He agreed and said his wife like fall pictures a lot so it was completely cool to have a regular pumpkin.

The next evening I started filling in the color.

I ended up doing a little research for some better brushes to help me get the fur looking a little better. It turns out, the way I created the fur on the German Shepard was pretty darn close to what I needed to do, I just needed a better brush to get a more realistic fur effect. I found a number of free brushes that work for fur, hair, and grass. If I would have tried to make that grass with a regular brush I would have been at it for a week. But, with these new brushes, it was very easy and I'm glad I figured out how to do it.

The Finished Painting

I did some extra detail on the pumpkin, the whiskers, shadows, and moved him down on the canvas a bit. Then I moved the file over to Adobe Lightroom and tweaked the levels a little and added the vignette around the edges to bring the focal point in a little.

I think it turned out pretty good for my third animal painting. Doing this got me thinking, though. There must be a place where I can get commissioned for drawing even if I am just an amateur. A quick google search and I found a nice site.

ArtistsnClients.com

This site allows you to put your services there, and people looking for drawings can commission you to draw for them.

I made two "slots" as they call them. One for animal portraits and the other for vector logo design. I have no hits yet after a few days, but you never know unless you put them up there. I have both prices set really low compared to other drawings of the same quality so I should get a hit, I would think, after a little while.

On top of that, I put a post on PeerHub too. So anyone that wants anything drawn up from steemit can certainly pay me in steem.

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