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Do you do any preliminary drawings before you start painting, or do you just start and see what happens and how long on average would you spend on an image?
I absolutely do a lot of sketches before starting painting. I do traditional pencil sketches, lot of them, especially if I have time. I can feel better the drawing and according to many sketches I do better is the result.
I provide my client with pencil sketches to be evaluated and approved. After that I do a speed painting sketch to show how the colors will be and again client evaluates and approves. Only after that I start my final painting process.
By doing this I can avoid updates and other tweak’s problems. I follow strictly my client’s instructions and references.
In your portfolio we have seen lot of images of Pinups, can you please share why Pinups made the major part of your portfolio?
Nice question! Well…... I love pinups; I love the idea “behind” one good pinup, like a gag. I always liked Norman Rockwell’s job and style. He was able to show different emotions in one illustration in such simple and awesome way that it is my inspiration. At the same path I always admired Gil Elvgren’s job, the way he painted the women in a simply but glamour way, provocative, sexy for that ages (not vulgar) and also simply. When I think about one new illustration I think about creating a new pinup mixing those masters “styles and ideas”.
As I told before, I feel good creating a situation using pinups, just that. As if I am developing a character…. I do all research and sketches and I love each phase of the image… It is like that.
I love drawing anatomy, and I can play with my pinups. Many times I use a manga or comic style in one pinup with a realistic painting and some people think the image is wrong or some perspective is not so nice, but they do not realize that image, I mean that girl is not a real girl, it is one stylized character.
I do not use photos to do my pinups, I mean I use photos references of course but I draw my pinup, I do not paint over photo, I go to my drawing table and I do pencil sketches, many of them first, looking at my references, the photos I got in Internet or magazines of course. Rockwell used to do that, Elvgren used to have models posing to him, so I have my references for sure.
I show my sketches and steps from my work when I produce my pinups so the audience can see more than only the final image. This is why pinups are the majority in my portfolio.
Can you share how to calculate the quote for the commissioned work, which things need to be remember so just don’t give the shock to the client.
I am a lucky artist because this part is with my partner Alexandre Stockler, hehehehehe. But basically this is what happens:
We established a basic rate for my time, a minimum price which less than that is not worthy. When a client gives all the instructions, descriptions and references we measure how many hours I will spend working on that job and we get the “raw price”.
We also calculate the costs with our structure, my partner time on dealing with client, making research, writing e-mails, wrapping up and posting prints, when I am doing a commissioned pinup, for instance. We also add some “extras” and we got the “final price”.
But one thing that is really important is asking for the client what his or her budget is because depending on how much client has sometimes we do not even get the job.
Let’s suppose that you would like me to do a realistic pinup for your “girlfriend” and you wish a lot of elements, a very complex scenario and so on… something that would demand me more than 10 hours of work at least, and I mean only me working, and you have $100.00 as budget, it means that I will work for $10.00 hour and that is not nice.
I prefer to do my own pinups and sell them in my online store and I can post them in forums like CGArena and have much more exposure that attracts better clients.
Understand, we have a principle that is not refusing work, but there are some works that if we accept we will get problems more than anything else. When I say “we” I mean me and my partner. And we face situations like that which our client budget is below our minimum rate my partner tries to negotiate another type of job with our client, like a different image, less elements in the scene, an easier style of painting and so on.
Nowadays, everybody feels the pressure of the tight economy and money for the job is difficult; we need to adapt our rates to our client’s reality but there is a limit which I can not work below it. We say that to our clients, they know our quality, we work in time, we offer solutions instead of problems, we have a reputation, so if with all that issues the client still ask for less or tries to take advantage from us…. Forget! We refuse the job. The relationship between freelancer and client should be friendly, for sure, and also respectful. If client does not respect the artist work, the job will be a great headache in many aspects.
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