How does the Commission process work?

Commissioning an artwork can seem a little overwhelming, but it's really a very simple process.

Initially, you'll want to have an idea of the size of the painting you might like, and how much you'd like to spend.

To determine the scale of the piece, a good tip is to blutac paper to your wall, in the sizes of painting you might like. Live with each size for a little while to see if it's right.

What size of painting?

Panoramic pieces often look very good over long furniture, such as sofas, sideboards and beds.

On more open spaces, large dramatic pieces have greater impact in a room, with collections of smaller canvases working well over small furniture such as chairs and side tables, displayed in triptychs or quartets.

Once you have an idea of size, and budget, browse through the Portfolio and Back Categories,

to get some inspiration as to the styles you like best.

Then get in touch via email to let me know your general requirements and I can put a quote together for you.

Pricing

To give you an idea of commission pricing, I calculate prices for commissions based on percentage increase / decrease in scale.

For instance, a painting 100x50cm (costing £1300 originally) would be £1300, plus 10% commission fee, totalling £1430. So if the length was increased from 100cm to 110cm, the piece would be 10% more expensive on length, totalling £1573.

Once the price and size of the artwork have been agreed, a 50% deposit is then taken to secure your booking.

Free Mainland UK postage applies to all commissions, up to the scale of 90x90 cm square. Paintings over this size may require a specialist courier, which can be quoted for upon request.

This is due to courier weight / scale restrictions and the additional cost of postage will be in addition to the commission fee in these instances.

Designing your Commission

We can then move on to the process of shortlisting paintings to use as inspiration, digitally altering scale, form and composition, as well as the colours on the images, which can then be imposed onto a face-on view of your display wall, to ensure you're happy with the piece insitu*.

Due to monitor settings varying, it is a good idea to compile physical colour references for me to use as a guide to work from. Paint sample colour cards and fabric samples are ideal for this, and should be posted to the Studio address. This will ensure very close accuracy of colours and depth of shades. Any samples you wish to keep can be returned in the parcel when the commission is delivered.

Once the texture has been applied to the painting, a monotone photograph of this will be sent to confirm you're happy with the composition and placement of the texture. Mock-up designs are a good general starting point, but cannot be reproduced precisely due to the fluid nature of the medium, so the textured surface will always be unique and have its own flow, to a certain extent. The image may also appear flatter than the mock-up, as at this point the piece has not been primed or metallic media applied, which greatly increases the 3D appearance of the paintings*.

(It is essential that any texture changes you may like are applied before the priming has been added, as texture will not adhere after this.)

Once the texture's composition is confirmed I will then move onto priming and applying colour.

Commissions take 4 weeks to complete on average, from the point at which the final design is confirmed, but I'm happy to repaint until you're happy with the result.

Once the piece is complete, I will email photographs of the painting to you to confirm, upon which the remainder of the commission fee is due, or alterations can be made to the colour.

The piece will then be securely wrapped and couriered, by signed-for courier.

Deliveries are only sent out Monday to Wednesday, as there is risk of damage to the artwork if the piece is left in courier depots over the weekend.

*The below images show the various stages in the commission process.

Here you can see the client's wall, with the scale option imposed onto the wall, as a triptych or a panoramic.

After several versions have been tested, this picture shows the making of the final composite image of several paintings put together to create the desired composition.

The client has chosen a triptych design, and so the final composition is changed to incorporate three panels, with the central line defined more.

The final design is decided upon, and next comes the texture application and sculpting process, shown below

Once the texture is confirmed and primed, the application of colour can be done. Unlike the flatter image above, the metallic colour adds great depth to the texture. The final triptych can be seen below, compared to the composite sketch. Colour samples and fabric swatches were used to perfectly match the colour palette of the client to the paints used.

Below you can see the client's own photograph of the artwork itsitu.

"I have attached a photo of the canvases up on the wall and they look amazing!! Thank you so much, they are everything we hoped they would be and they finish the room off a treat!!" Charlotte, Guildford.