Major Project: Commissioning an Artist for Props

Commissioning an Artist for props

So, I have had the luxury of being able to commission my own mum to make the art props needed through out the film. The art props needed were; 

•  x 2 Art sketches on mini canvas boards (For art class scene) 
• x 1 sketchbook semi filled with various designs (Main prop which is shown throughout)
• x 1 final art canvas piece - (This consisted of 3 separate canvases to make 1 final piece)
• semi finished final piece (to show within montage showing the progress of the final piece)
• 1 small canvas piece (Isaiah brings home an art piece to place on the counter, parents ignore) 

So, even though I already know this person and can contact them in an informal way, I still took it very seriously when communicating my ideas. After all, where you know the person or not, you still gave to be able to know exactly what you want and now how to communicate this with them. The communication between me and the artist (my mum) spanned over a few weeks but below I provide some of the ways I put forward my ideas for it to be commissioned. I also took to the internet to find out the best ways to communicate your ideas and I came across a really helpful article on 'Artworkarchive.com' which gives you a little checklist on all the do's and dont's when approaching artists for work. 

The major point from this was;  

https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/do-s-and-don-ts-of-commissioning-an-artwork

From this little sample I took the idea of using reference images, knowing what materials would be needed, knowing what area of the home it will be used for.  

The final art piece

This was one of the most important pieces of prop because this is what both characters work so hard to create. I had to take into consideration the amount of time the characters had in the storyline to create the work, the characters themselves and what their interests would be, the shot types that would show the art work such as paint brush strokes. 

knowing what materials would be needed

So with the above elements in mind, I knew that I wanted paint and paintbrushes to be used because this would give me very vibrant imagery to interject throughout the montage. I know that I wanted the montage to be filled with lots of colours and be able to show them actively creating it. - I provided the artist with this information

reference images

I provided the artist with the images below. I expressed how I wanted it to be vibrant, colourful and abstract. something that would seem youthful and expressive. But it specifically needed to be on 3 canvases to allow both characters to have something to work on through out the montage. I could've chosen 2 canvases but I thought 3 would be much more visually pleasing. 

After covering those bases of what I wanted the background to be, I knew I wanted an image to be painted on top. After spending some time online on Instagram, I recognised that minimalist, outlining of images seems to be trendy amongst young artists of today (examples below) So I wanted to incorporate that look to be a lot more believable and enhance the youthful effect of them painting. I took a well known  picture that I liked and gave instructions to outline it in black.

@ButlerArchive - Instagram

Reference image 3

Michaelangelo- The birth of Adam 

So, whilst compiling these images and expressing what I wanted, I managed to be able to sit back and watch the process take place. Below are some of the steps the artist took to create the art work.

Phase 1

- The background was created with multicolour paints and inks with the use of paintbrushes. After this dried, the paintings were then ready for phase 2.

Phase 2

With the use of the reference image, the outline of The Birth of Adam was added. I really loved the outcome because it gave a really modern twist to a very dated image. I think it suited the story and characters well which will make the overall element become much more believable.

The Mini Canvas

using a similar process to the previously mentioned art piece, this piece followed the same instructions but I wanted it to be much smaller. I wanted the image to be somewhat boisterous and fierce but still believable with a style that will also be coherent with the final art piece. 

First the background colour was added, then with the use of multi colour paints, inks and marker pens, the final image was complete. 

The sketchbook; 

my instructions for the sketchbook was very similar. I wanted it to be rough yet delicate drawings, ones that would suit the character a lot and I think the artist did a great job. here are some images of the art work.

You can see that the style has been consistent throughout and therefore I've learnt how good it can be for your project if you commission the same artist to do multiple works. Thats if the story requires the work to be of similar styles though. In my case i think it worked really well in my favour.