 Hello there. I'm Sandy Allnok. Welcome to my YouTube channel. I am really glad you're here today. I'm an artist and I work in all sorts of mediums and I work in all sorts of sizes on all kinds of projects. And the projects I want to talk about today are commission projects. I have not really taken on commissions publicly before. Some people have emailed me with their project they wanted and I have negotiated some commissions but I haven't really put it out there to everybody that I do that because a lot of them I do turn down. If you think about it an artist does their best work when they are passionate about it themselves. And I've had some people that have asked for things that I just knew I couldn't do justice to or that I wasn't at all passionate about and I wasn't going to do a great job of it. So I am going to try to marry some of my interests and some of the things I want to do during my sabbatical in December with some things that you might want. And if you're one of those people that jives with what I'm trying to do then let's get started on doing some commission work together. Before I start talking about commissions there might be some of you who want a piece of artwork but you don't want to go through all that of ordering a commission and waiting and all that. You are in luck because use the coupon code thanks and you will get 20% off everything in my fine art shop. Everything I just need to clear it out. Anything that's left in the shop is going to be removed from the shop. I'm going to put it in my physical sale at the art show in December and it's going to go away. So if you want anything now is your chance to get it for 20% off. Okay now let's talk commissions. All throughout 2023 I have been thinking about what I want to do with my sabbatical time because I always take some time in December at the end of the year to just recuperate from the whole year. It's a time when there's not that many people watching YouTube anyway so I can cut back on my content just a bit and start to work on things that I want to learn things I want to grow in or a project that I just don't have time for otherwise and then I also don't have to film it. All the technology and filming gets in the way of my creativity and I don't do my best work when the camera is on so this gives me the opportunity to really dive into something I want to do. Pastels have been all my heart to do because my mom years ago she had given me a bunch of her pastels. I thought she'd given me her whole collection. It was a lot of pastels and I had to use them somewhat but then she gave me the rest of them in September when I went to visit. It was a huge case and oh my gosh I got so excited and that led me to thinking for sure I would be working with pastels during December and then I also have been thinking a lot about wanting to get back to my love of drawing animals. Wildlife illustration was what I wanted to do when I was growing up. I wanted to be an illustrator and this kind of seemed like a good match. Pastels and animals and for about a month or so I've been practicing drawing animals in pastel and working a little bit on what my style is going to be. I'm a little looser I find than some of the people that I see out there using pastels for animals. They'll draw every single piece of fur every little bit of hair. I do some of them but I really want the impression of the animal. I want something a little looser a little freer and maybe with a little more drama in the lighting. That's kind of my game. So combining all of these things is where my pastel pet portraits are heading. If you don't have a pet and you still want a commission you could request perhaps one of your vacation photos turned into a pastel painting or you could just choose an animal that you love. Maybe you're really into otters and you would love to have an otter rendered in pastel. I would love to do that. Anything that's going to help me grow in my pastel skills and make you happy with what's on your walls as artwork. Let me show you a few of the sample pieces that I've created. I wanted to do this in video so I could hold them up and you can get an idea of the sizes. Let me show you a few of the sample pieces that I created so you can get an idea of the kind of work that I'll be doing as well as what the size is and I did this in video so that you can kind of see with what I'm holding how large the pieces are. I want to start by showing you the second to the smallest size the 8 by 10 and yes this is wildlife not a pet but I did this one on a paper that I won't be using for your portrait so I wasn't able to get much detail in it but I showed you that just for the size. This one is on the good paper on the Clairefontaine pastel mat and it is a 9 by 12 too complex in the detail. I learned a lot from this one it's going to go to my friend anyway because it's her pup but I would blur out the background way more and just do a lot more to it to simplify it and leave the focus on the animal but here's one that I did that I loved and this is what I recommend for an 8 by 10 or a 9 by 12 is a head shot or head and neck with the animal nice and big get their eyes in there because the eyes are the window to the soul and you're going to be very satisfied with having something that looks very much like your pet with a nice close-up. I can work horizontally or vertically sometimes that will be dictated by the photo that we choose and sometimes that might be dictated by hey I just think this one needs more air let's do it horizontal so we can give more room around it rather than filling the entire thing with a giant head so we'll talk through some of that and you'll get a sketch before I start working as well. The photo reference for this little cute pup was with a white background there was nothing there and I invented a background that makes it just look like there's something in the distance perhaps a garden with a little bokeh going on just to create some interest but not take away from the animal itself and you can see the original reference photos for each one of these over on the web page that's where they'll be posted so you can see them for comparison. This guy I did he was so happy look at that happy tongue I mixed my green myself I just wanted to see if I could do that could I use a yellow a green and a blue to make my own green so I can kind of customize whatever kinds of colors you're looking for now if you have multiple pets there's a 20% surcharge for each extra pet so one is included and then 20% for each extra no charge for the bonus dog hair scene there sorry about that but a 9 by 12 is tight for three animals but 9 by 12 accommodates two fairly well now how big is a 16 by 20 I had to ask myself that question because I didn't know if I wanted to offer the option for 16 by 20s but boy I had fun getting into the detail on such a large piece and I know 16 by 20 is not that big for some people but for me it was a goodly size and it took a lot of time so be prepared for the cost of that but let me show you the piece that I created I loved it so much that I framed it it's Mount Rainier in the fall and it is huge you can see just how big it is just because I'm showing you this piece frame does not mean you're getting a framed piece when you get it in the mail because I am personally terrified of shipping glass I have nightmares thinking that there could be glass shattering and ripping the artwork itself so I'm going to ship it to you pack it up very carefully that's why there's an extra shipping charge and I want it to arrive well so you can go get it framed on your own with whatever works with your decor now if you're somebody who wants to do a commission piece but you don't want to do something big you don't have either the wall space or the budget for a large piece but you would like something I have a sketch option I'm not going to accept a ton of these just because I don't want to take away time from doing larger works but I also want to offer the opportunity for those who want something but maybe not as crazy as that and that's going to be a five by seven sketch I did find that I could get some very nice portraits done at this size they're not going to be done on the fancy paper and that means they're not going to have as much detail but they are really sweet little portraits and you can see I can still get a very sweet likeness of your baby and you could also maybe order one for someone else for Christmas of their pet these are priced in that kind of a range this one is a sweet little kitty that I just thought was adorable and very simple background and just a big focus on that yawn those are personality shots that I love to draw I also did this one in gouache because yes these five by sevens you could get alternatively in gouache paint and since that is something else that I'm practicing and learning I thought I'd include it I have two other portraits in gouache these are both eight by tens but I want to talk about the complexity of the photo if you insist on having something like that yellow blanket it was a real pain it took me longer to do the yellow blanket than it did the dog so there might be a little extra negotiated charge if there's something crazy like that you're better off in any of these kinds of portraits just finding something that has the focus on the animal itself and that one is much simpler it still has a sofa behind it but not the complexity of that yellow blanket but the gouache is only offered in the five by seven at this time there's also pen and ink as an option for the five by seven so it's pastel gouache or pen and ink in the sketch size and one of the reasons I even included this five by seven size in other mediums is to give myself a break from pastel because I get really bored when I'm just doing one thing a lot and I thought these would be nice projects to sit on the sofa in the evenings and work on a small sketch so if you're interested in one of those these are all from inktober that I did last month and all of these are going to be in my sale my in-person sale in december and then if they don't sell there then they'll get added to my shop as well as all the samples that you've seen in this particular video they're all going to be in the shop in december so make sure you come back for any of those new pieces that are going to be added because I want to refresh everything for the holidays now how is this commission process going to work so first you're going to go to the commission's web page and there's a link to in the doobly-doo don't go there yet link in the doobly-doo that page is full of all kinds of information much of what I've talked about here but there's pictures of some sample works that I've done and I'll add more to it as I get more pieces done as well at the bottom of the page there are two things for you to fill out the first thing is the form and the form tells me the basics who you are how to contact you what are you looking for what size what medium all that sort of thing then there's a message box at the bottom and I want you to write out a little bit about what you want if there's anything special and don't worry we're going to have plenty of conversation by email so you don't have to fit everything in that box because it has a character count limit on it and then you submit that form then separately there's a button that says upload photos and that's going to send your photos to my dropbox and that way I don't have any distortion from things going over the transom in email it's just going to go straight to dropbox now your photos need to be named so that I can pair them up with you so put your last name in the photo name and you're going to send multiple photos I hope for whatever it is you're requesting so name and number them in some way that we can discuss them so you know all knock one or all knock two all knock three or if you're sending in pet photos and you're going to have multiple pets name it with your your own last name and then the pets name and then number them so that I know which pet is which so when we discuss them I can actually have some conversation with you about the same photos you're talking about so once all that comes in within a couple of days hopefully depending on how busy I am or how many requests come in we'll have a conversation via email and we'll talk about what I think I can do what I think I can't do what I might adapt or if there's a different photo that you sent that I like better than the one that you think would make a good portrait we can talk about why that would be and once we come to an agreement and if there's any special requests you know if there were any additions you know complexities that added a percentage or something to the piece then we'll figure out the final price on it and then I will send you a Venmo or PayPal request for half down and then I'm going to put you in the queue as we go into December and once your turn is up and I start on your work I will email you to let you know it started so you can start praying if you want and then I can also send you some update photos I can send you some process pictures if you're interested in that or I can post them to social media if you'd prefer that and then when it's all done I'll send you a picture to approve and once you're okey-dokey with it then you can actually send me the rest of the money so that I can then pack it up and ship it and send it to you now if it is a Christmas gift you're going to need to let me know because I might reorder the list how things get done based on who's most urgent I want to be sure to get it done for Christmas but if it's a I can get it anytime thing then you might get pushed a little bit later just so that I can hit the Christmas ones first now commission applications are open through Thanksgiving so I want to try to get everything settled before Thanksgiving so I kind of have an idea what December is going to look like if you come upon this video past Thanksgiving and you want to find out what is the current status are applications still being accepted or is there a new applications window next spring or something whenever you find this video then just click on the same link down below that will be my commission's page all the time and I'll always have a note at the top telling you when the next commission window might open if you'd like to see some of my pastel work in action I'll continue producing videos for my patrons so you can go over there and see that I appreciate the support so much and now it's time for you to go to the links in the doobly-doo there's one for the sale on my fine art pieces and one for the commission's page that is about it if you would like to leave a thumbs up on this video I would be eternally grateful and send it to your friends who are looking for something to shop for for their holiday gifts I will see you guys again very soon take care bye