George Dylan had asked If-Hi if he could have a 'realistic portrait' done of him, but heavily influenced by abstraction. I found it jarring that they came to me with a mood-board with 30 different painting styles and expected me to be capable of recreating their vision. I thought that a commission was based off the fact that a client liked the 'style' of the artist.
As this was my first Commission I didn't know what to expect, as there were no lectures or talks to prepare me. I thought it was a simple enough journey to expect. Instead it took me almost 4 months to get to a final product that George Dylan was happy with.
There was no Contract drawn up which was the main learning curve as it would have given both parties deadlines, financial agreements and an actual plan. As a result it ended up with my first experience being rather messy, but I do not regret it one bit.
We communicated through WhatsApp and it was all 'laissez faire'.
I drew up around 14 initial sketches and painted 4 x A5 paintings before they finally decided on the final one. It took me a good three consistent days to paint each portrait, so it was frustrating that I didn't get paid any extra for the extra work (as we 'agreed' that I would initially paint two portraits of George).
During the painting process of the painting, I conducted a stop motion video that was then added to George Dylan's final music video.
After George's single and album was released, a representative of If-Hi came round to the university to take 'Artist Promo' pictures of me in my studio, in order to give me some credit which I appreciated.
