Hobbits for a Wedding

I managed to forget to post about it. This summer, I was commissioned to paint a portrait of a couple for their wedding, featuring them as hobbits. I wasn’t too sure what I was getting myself into at first, however it turned out to be a really fun and creative painting to work on! I wanted to wait to post about it in case the couple would somehow find it as it was a surprise wedding gift.

There is also a time lapse video of the whole painting. It’s a little hard to see as I moved into my new home studio area and my camera setup has changed. I will have to figure out a better angle for the future. The image is 16″x20″. A little bit of a challenge painting a landscape and fitting a portrait into it, plus a fantasy one at that with varying proportions: hobbits being very short and needing to appear small in scale to their home, the surrounding landscape, and looking proportionate while perspective progresses forward.

Oh, and very appropriately: I marathoned all of the Lord of the Rings series this Christmas season, extended director’s cut. Accomplishment unlocked?

I’ve got to admit, I lost track of all the different projects I have on the go. It’s one of my problems… picking up endless new projects. There’s not quite enough time in the day or energy in my body to sustain everything I want to be making. Let’s see… I have about 3 different knitting projects, 1 crochet, 3 paintings, and at the same time, I am trying to do things like turn my artwork into greeting cards. Yes, this is my new idea. It’s not really a new idea, as in I always wanted to do it for as long as I remember and I just didn’t know the logistics around it.

Well, I have my own online storefront, I print the cards, and I do all the shipping – so no third-party is taking advantage of my art, as some of you like to put it. One of my greatest pet peeves is the cards you get at the pharmacy from one of the greeting card monoliths… They’re expensive , they’re pretty tacky, the jokes are usually offensive or lame, and they are usually not even nice quality. This really is my sales pitch, because I’m just plainly not happy with the options. Of course, if I go to a gift boutique, there tends to be art cards that are nice; ultimately, this is where I’d like to see mine: small, local shops selling them. If anyone has any advice on this besides going in the shops, asking cold and green, I would love to hear your suggestions.

I’ve printed many cards already, and I am very happy with the quality overall – they do look like my preview images. The insides are blank because it’s too complicated to make cards with different messages, so there are faint lines to guide your writing instead.