View Full Version : Has anyone had bike drawings commissoned?
Hi all
I am curious as to how much people generally charge for personalised bike drawings/paintings, if anyone on here has had any done.
Cheers
rowdy
PM missyorkiechris (http://forums.sv650.org/member.php?u=7492)
Shes an excellent drawer and does pictures. See link below.
Animal pictures, but no harm in asking.
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=137246&highlight=pet-lovers
Cheers, yeah seen MYC's drawings they are feckin wicked. I've always thought her avatar was a photo but it is a pencil drawing, amazing.
I don't want one done, I do them and just wondered what the going rate is, as my missus keeps pestering me to get and do something about it.
Spiderman
13-11-09, 12:46 PM
well show us an example of your work Rowdy and we can all say how much we'd be willing to pay for something like that and perhaps it gives you some ideas that way?
Ok spidey, but you'll have to excuse the sh*t photo as I've only got an old camera.
I'd be the first to pick holes in my work but the photo is slightly distorted and hasn't picked the colour up perfectly, but I'd welcome any critisism, give me something to work at. Heres one of my bike.
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/drawingsandpaintings002.jpg
Spiderman
13-11-09, 01:12 PM
well i'm no art critic so it looks good to me, far, far FAR better than anything i could do. I'm always jealous of people who have the skill to draw well.
Only thing i would say is the front wheel and forks look a bit "twisted" and the mudguard looks at the wrong angle. But its a tiny thing that just looks odd to my eye, so it could just be me mate.
That is the bit that the camera distorted, funnily enough, so doesn't look as bad to be honest. Infact the first photo I took of the drawing made it look well out of proportion. Not overly happy with the rear wheel though, but you get the jist.
Edit; here is the first photo, to give you some idea how a camera can play tricks.
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/drawingsandpaintings001.jpg
Tis the hardest part though, getting the wheels to look like they are going the same direction as the rest of the bike.
ArtyLady
13-11-09, 01:23 PM
I'm a professional artist and I charge for the time it takes by the hour -bearing in mind the rule of thumb that approximately only 1/3 of your time is spent painting - the rest is admin/marketing/picking up materials etc (but that can vary alot) .... my smallest portraits (10 x 12") start at £200 :D
missyburd
13-11-09, 01:37 PM
Hiya Rowdy. Great drawing :-) Is it with colouring pencils and pencil or ink (looks like the former)?
I have had one crack at drawing a motorbike but I didn't dare colour it in after that, so it looks like a technical drawing more than anything else and I think you kinda need colour for it to be personalized!
Obviously my sketching subjects are completely different from yours (being that they breathe and have fur :-P ) but the way I currently charge is just a set price based on the average time it takes for me to complete a drawing at roughly a tenner an hour. However, I think I may be rethinking this through as my current commission is taking way longer than the average drawing, white fur is so time consuming! Anyway I digress.
Have you actually timed how long it takes you to complete a drawing? And out of interest, do you take measurements throughout, to get everything just right or is it all freehand? I used a compass for the wheels which is probably cheating...
Thanks for that AL but don't think I could dare charge that for my bike sketches.
Would you mind if I sent you a pm with some of my other work though, so you could give me some idea as what I could do with those. They are watercolour landscape, so don't want to bore people on here with them lol.
Miss YC, as I said at the top of the page, I am in awe at your skills with a pencil. I travel to around 20 vetinary practises every day, most of which have artists work displayed and advertised on there walls and can honestly say your drawings are of the highest standard of the pet portraits I have seen, especially your picture of your own dog. Well done.
I have seen the Triumph drawing and can see why you didn't want to add colour. It looks fine without colour.
You are correct, the basic outline is drawn with a draught pen and then coloured in with watercolour pencil, however I chose not to add water and just use them dry for this purpose. I do all the work free hand, and do not take measurements.
I have done in the past though, but mainly did this when I was about 10-12 years old.
missyburd
13-11-09, 01:58 PM
Miss YC, as I said at the top of the page, I am in awe at your skills with a pencil. I travel to around 20 vetinary practises every day, most of which have artists work displayed and advertised on there walls and can honestly say your drawings are of the highest standard of the pet portraits I have seen, especially your picture of your own dog. Well done.
I have seen the Triumph drawing and can see why you didn't want to add colour. It looks fine without colour.
You are correct, the basic outline is drawn with a draught pen and then coloured in with watercolour pencil, however I chose not to add water and just use them dry for this purpose. I do all the work free hand, and do not take measurements.
I have done in the past though, but mainly did this when I was about 10-12 years old.
Cor blimey, you've made me blush, I really need to take compliments better :oops: Thankyou :-)
About the Triumph drawing, I've just thought, bike modifications are pretty personalized so I suppose I could get away with not adding colour but tbh I don't get the same satisfaction from drawing technical material as I do with animals, just me personally. But then everyone has their own style that they're comfortable with, I like furry things so you don't have to worry about competition in that department :-D
The combination of mediums works well, I know other people who have used pencil and watercolour paints which also go really well together. Damp paper soaks up the pencil and creates a good effect, have you ever tried it? Obviously you need blunt pencils for fear of tearing the paper but it does work well. Not that I'm saying you need to! Your style is great, I'm not confident enough with colours, I love pencil and shades though, and I can rub out whenever I feel the need so not as much pressure!
Not the bike, but had an amature "Cartoon" type one done for £20.
Custom one offs were £60 at last check about 7 years ago...
The combination of mediums works well, I know other people who have used pencil and watercolour paints which also go really well together. Damp paper soaks up the pencil and creates a good effect, have you ever tried it? Obviously you need blunt pencils for fear of tearing the paper but it does work well. Not that I'm saying you need to! Your style is great, I'm not confident enough with colours, I love pencil and shades though, and I can rub out whenever I feel the need so not as much pressure!
I haven't tried pencil on watercolour no, I just sketch lightly in pencil and use masking fluid, and paint over the pencil which tends to dissappear under the paint. I wasn't going to but since we're talking watercolour (again excuse the carp camera)
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/drawingsandpaintings003.jpg
damned flash right in the middle of the picture, and I know you don't like landscape painting but here is an example of my watercolour work.
missyburd
13-11-09, 02:20 PM
Who says we don't like landscape painting? I like most art so you're certainly not offending me :-)
On a side note, have you got a text setting on your camera? Should come out more detailed then. And I wouldn't use flash as it reflects off the paper anyway.
I don't know, I'm a technofobe. I just point the camera and press the button to be honest.
ArtyLady
13-11-09, 02:32 PM
Thanks for that AL but don't think I could dare charge that for my bike sketches.
Would you mind if I sent you a pm with some of my other work though, so you could give me some idea as what I could do with those. They are watercolour landscape, so don't want to bore people on here with them lol.
Depends if you're doing it professionally or not - I have to charge that in order to make a living :)
You're welcome to send them but I don't know much about water colour or landscapes as I paint horses, dogs and cats too ;) Also if you're painting to sell rather than being commissioned you will generally charge less. I've recently started painting abstracts too (just for something completely different) and have just sold my first one so onwards and upwards with them - theyre great fun ;)
Do you sell them in gallerys, art fairs or do you advertise and work from requests?
I did go into the local art gallery with the watercolour above and a couple of others, but was turned away because of too many local artists on there books. The lady in the gallery suggested I sell them at a local art fair for about £50 each.
The bike pictures probably take four to five hours, but i am easily distracted (with two children and three dogs) and the watercolour paintings probably a couple of days, although that is due to trying to work out composition, sleeping on it and thinking about it, and then adding finishing touches the following day, or if I have lost inspiration a couple of days later!
sv-robo
13-11-09, 04:02 PM
Excellent drawing mate but.......if i was to get a pic done of my bike(putting cards on table)& comparing drawings ,missyc would be my choice of artist:smt045,but your good i'll give you that.
Excellent drawing mate but.......if i was to get a pic done of my bike(putting cards on table)& comparing drawings ,missyc would be my choice of artist:smt045,but your good i'll give you that.
Thanks for the back-handed compliment robo ;).
Miss YC is bloody good though, so I can't say I'd blame you.
Might have a crack at some different media, as I feel the bike drawings do lean slightly towards the cartoon type, that are not really to my taste.
missyburd
13-11-09, 04:37 PM
Excellent drawing mate but.......if i was to get a pic done of my bike(putting cards on table)& comparing drawings ,missyc would be my choice of artist:smt045,but your good i'll give you that.
Our styles are completely different though so it'd be daft comparing our work! I don't paint as a rule, I enjoy messing about with it but I enjoy working with pencil too much to even contemplate painting properly. And the .org already has a lady animal painter :D
Unless you're saying you prefer a technical drawing to one with colour svrobo, in which case you can compare, it'd be interesting to know what type of drawing people tend to go for I guess.
ArtyLady
13-11-09, 04:39 PM
Do you sell them in gallerys, art fairs or do you advertise and work from requests?
I did go into the local art gallery with the watercolour above and a couple of others, but was turned away because of too many local artists on there books. The lady in the gallery suggested I sell them at a local art fair for about £50 each.
The bike pictures probably take four to five hours, but i am easily distracted (with two children and three dogs) and the watercolour paintings probably a couple of days, although that is due to trying to work out composition, sleeping on it and thinking about it, and then adding finishing touches the following day, or if I have lost inspiration a couple of days later!
Most of my commissions are word of mouth, some through my website, most of my sales are through online galleries and some through my local gallery.
Alot of it is about establishing yourself - and of course about whether you are in demand. There is a lot of competition too - it's not an easy game to be in -bit like wanting to be a big star when you're a musician ;)
Unless you're saying you prefer a technical drawing to one with colour svrobo, in which case you can compare, it'd be interesting to know what type of drawing people tend to go for I guess.
+1 I would be interested to know.
I can do technical, I haven't done so for a long time though.
Bluefish
13-11-09, 07:23 PM
What's your website address artylady?
Bluefish
13-11-09, 07:29 PM
Hi rowdy, the landscape is pretty good, defo got a talent, allthough with the flash on it has washed out all the colours. I mean have you seen some of the things people try and flog in art galleries these days a two year old could do better, then again there are some amazing pictures out there, problem is they cost a fortune, and it's not the artist charging it's the galleries putting there markup on it.
ArtyLady
13-11-09, 09:15 PM
What's your website address artylady?
You have PM :)
As I said earlier constructive critisism is welcome so, back to the drawing board.
Tried to get a bit more detail and realism in this one but am apprehensive as to whether or not i should try shading with pencil (graphite, not colour) as I have seen some good prints on ebay shaded in pencil and they look pretty good.
Anywho, second sv attempt;
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/drawings001.jpg
Again, sorry for the carp quality photo (no the camera doesn't have text setting Miss YC).
missyburd
14-11-09, 12:46 PM
You've got the same problem I had Rowdy, should you add colour or not! Cracking drawing though. I think I prefer these types of drawing but I think it depends how you l ike to look at your bike.
ArtyLady
14-11-09, 12:49 PM
I think you have to be either extremely spot on technically (2nd drawing is good Rowdy - I would continue to add form with shading and as much detail as poss - I prefer it to the first) or go the other way toward impressionism with lots of colour. :cool:
I personally prefer my last drawing, alot more painstaking though but more worthwhile as it looks more realistic (imo) but yes, it is difficult to decide what to do next with it. I might cheat and trace a less detailed copy of it and have a go at shading, see how I get on.
ArtyLady
14-11-09, 12:53 PM
I would keep on with that one - try to straighten lines, get the tyres round where they should be, adding more and more detail and shading to it - personally :)
Wheels are supposed to be slightly eccentric, as I was working from my avatar picture, which is slightly higher up looking at the bike rather than square on, appreciate your comments though, just don't want to wreck what I have done with it thus far.
ArtyLady
14-11-09, 01:05 PM
Wheels are supposed to be slightly eccentric, as I was working from my avatar picture, which is slightly higher up looking at the bike rather than square on, appreciate your comments though, just don't want to wreck what I have done with it thus far.
I know what you mean but there are a couple of flat spots in the curve of the tyre that could just be tweaked which would make such a big difference - apart from that it's very good - keep up the good work! :cool:
I know what you mean but there are a couple of flat spots in the curve of the tyre that could just be tweaked which would make such a big difference - apart from that it's very good - keep up the good work! :cool:
Yeah, I hate perfect curves :(, well unnatural ones anyway.
ridelikeaturtle
14-11-09, 01:57 PM
I don't paint as a rule, I enjoy messing about with it
+1
Outstanding drawings. You guys are so far and above my talent level.
My girlfriend has been doing oil paintings for a while now, she's very very good and has her own style, someday I think she could sell her work.
I bought her a Wacom Intuos2 graphics tablet quite a while ago, and she never really used it. I thought it'd allow her to quickly get her sketches and drawings directly onto the PC, instead of having to scan and convert etc. But she's not as agile at using a computer as I am (I'm a programmer), and I suspect she'll always prefer the "real thing".
I, on the other hand, don't have the patience, nevermind the skill, to put in the time it takes to paint properly.
But I gotta say the graphics tablet and a little bit of practice and if I had talent then I think it'd be the way forward. I couldn't do this from memory, put with a pic as a reference I can do OK.
5641
Of course things aren't perfect - it's a painting, not a photo or technical drawing. The imperfection is what makes it interesting, to me.
If you're an artist, I'd highly recommend getting some sort of graphics tablet for your PC, for christmas or whatever, just for doodling and goofing around. They're a lot of fun and a much better way of passing the time (when you're not on the bike!) than watching TV.
So how does that work then? do you start with a blank canvas so to speak, or do you paint over an existing photo?
ridelikeaturtle
14-11-09, 02:23 PM
So how does that work then? do you start with a blank canvas so to speak, or do you paint over an existing photo?
You can do either. Obviously its a lot handier to "trace" a photo that's been pinned to your canvas. What I've found is once I've got the basic shape done, I just flip back and forth (using Alt-Tab) between my canvas (the art/drawing software) and the photo (opened in Picasa Photo Viewer etc).
ridelikeaturtle
14-11-09, 02:49 PM
So how does that work then? do you start with a blank canvas so to speak, or do you paint over an existing photo?
I work off of a photo I've taken, and I find that a great photo is easier to paint, while a crap photo is impossible to paint.
Here's my Honda Fireblade 954.
5643
Unfortunately I can't seem to get a great photo of my SV - so if anyone has any good tips for that, I'd love to hear them. Maybe the pointy SV's would be easier to capture. I think the curvy SV's sidestand is just too low for it to look good at an angle, the back end just seems to fall off into the background and it looks like crap. I clearly need to take more photos!
ArtyLady
14-11-09, 03:40 PM
+1
Outstanding drawings. You guys are so far and above my talent level.
My girlfriend has been doing oil paintings for a while now, she's very very good and has her own style, someday I think she could sell her work.
I bought her a Wacom Intuos2 graphics tablet quite a while ago, and she never really used it. I thought it'd allow her to quickly get her sketches and drawings directly onto the PC, instead of having to scan and convert etc. But she's not as agile at using a computer as I am (I'm a programmer), and I suspect she'll always prefer the "real thing".
I, on the other hand, don't have the patience, nevermind the skill, to put in the time it takes to paint properly.
But I gotta say the graphics tablet and a little bit of practice and if I had talent then I think it'd be the way forward. I couldn't do this from memory, put with a pic as a reference I can do OK.
5641
Of course things aren't perfect - it's a painting, not a photo or technical drawing. The imperfection is what makes it interesting, to me.
If you're an artist, I'd highly recommend getting some sort of graphics tablet for your PC, for christmas or whatever, just for doodling and goofing around. They're a lot of fun and a much better way of passing the time (when you're not on the bike!) than watching TV.
I really like that! I like the impressionistic effect myself - the way you can see it is definately not a photograph.
I bought a graphics tablet - gave up and went back to the real thing pretty quickly ;) - Ive always found people prefer originals to prints so if you can produce that same picture in oil/acrylic/gouache - I reckon you'd do alright :cool:
I would keep on with that one - try to straighten lines, get the tyres round where they should be, adding more and more detail and shading to it - personally :)
Decided to trace the drawing that I did earlier (hope you don't consider this cheating), I was not happy with the length of the bike, too much distance between bars and tank/front wheel and rad/header pipe, then set about shading it. I am happy with the outcome (although I still can't get a decent picture of it with the camera) so, thanks Artylady for pushing me in the right direction :). Also thanks Miss YC for giving me a yardstick for which to aim at, I hope you don't mind that I have taken on your prefered method of shading with pencil.
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/svdrawing002.jpg
missyburd
17-11-09, 04:44 PM
I like that, I like that a lot :-D Well done!
Thankyou very much Miss YC, bit peed off with the camera though, blurs out much of the detail.
missyburd
17-11-09, 08:14 PM
Well with most digital cameras the button you use to take the picture has two functions, if you press it halfway it focuses the picture then you go fullway for it to take the snapshot. If that's the case with yours perhaps you're not giving it time to focus? Or perhaps try take the picture from further away?
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