Sunday, May 30, 2010

Commissions & Frustrations!!!

Ollie
8x10 inches
Coloured pencil on drafting film


Vanessa and Allyson
5x7 inches
Graphite pencil on drafting film

These are my latest two commissions, but sadly it has been a frustrating weekend, and one of those frustrations stems from the fact that I now have to redo this portrait of Vanessa and Allyson - I sprayed it with fixative this morning (as I always do with any artwork), only to find that little black speckles appeared all over the portrait, which couldn't be removed. There must have been some pencil dust left from doing the darker hair and this has blown around when the fixative was sprayed. My first word of caution, is to always check that there is no dust left on your drafting film portraits when spraying fixative!!

My second source of frustration (and it would seem I'm not alone with this one) comes from the twelve hours I spent yesterday trying to install the full version of Adobe Creative Suite 4, after previously installing the trial version a week earlier. It seems this is a very common problem, and after uninstalling the trial version, downloading adobe clean up software, doing 5 system restores, downloading a licence repair tool, and now having a corrupt installation disc, I now have to ring Adobe for a new installation disc and still don't know if it will install. My advice to anyone who is thinking of installing this software is DON'T INSTALL THE TRIAL VERSION!!! Wait until you receive the key for the full version and install that, and this will save you a lot of headache down the track!!!

7 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Oh my, Karen! I think I'd be in tears, truly. But your artistic skill is beyond compare so there is that...Both portraits are gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Both the portraits are superb Karen...love the blue tones in Ollie, but what a bummer about the other one, I have had something sililar happen to me in the past and gosh it is a lesson well learnt!
Cabt say anything about Adobe as I dot use it cos I dont understand it lol.....Gimp is about my level.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the heads up on Adobe.

Oh dear what a shame Karen you having to redo the portrait and it looks so wonderful.
Not so long ago a picked up what I thought was a can of Fixative spray only to wonder why my drawing was all sticky and a mess.... I had picked picked up my can of Adhesive spray by mistake. It was a good job it was not a commission.
I hope it doesn't take too long to redraw the portrait.
I bet you said a few choice words. LOL.

Unknown said...

Thank you all Sherry, Vic and Dors for your lovely comments. There were a few tears Sherry and a few choice words Dors LOL - what can you do!! I have a few other commissions to do, but will feel much better when I have redone this one and it is behind me. I always get nervous applying fixative!!!

Barbara A. Freeman said...

Hi Karen and I too understand your frustration on the bit of black flecks on your portrait. I've had similar things happen and I do dust them always before spraying. I don't know what the solution is! Two beautiful works though and good luck on the redo. Love all the colors in the black on Ollie. Thanks for the tip on the Adobe just in case.

Unknown said...

Ollie is fantastic, the colorus are beautiful Karen. Thats a pain about the portraits, Id be screaming at the wall if I had to do one again!
Shame about Adobe, Ive heard about these problems before although not with adobe, conflicts witht he trial version and full version. Perhaps they can bring out a patch to download to fix the problems...well hope you get it sorted)

Unknown said...

Thank you Barbara and Sam for your encouraging comments. I redid the portrait today, but am really nervous to spray the fixative now - fingers crossed it will go well :)