Commissioning Artworks

“Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword a little.”
Victor’s resume in “Moving Pictures” by Terry Pratchett

I can’t draw.

I really can’t. I can do sketches. I can visualize stuff. But I cannot draw something that is aesthetically pleasing. When I did try it … and I tried it a couple of times … uh … let’s just say when I tried to draw a couple of amazons, well, another person asked me whether they were male or female. Yep, I suck that bad.

But luckily, you can easily delegate the hard part online. 🙂

There are some incredible artists out there who show their work, e.g., on deviantART, and who are willing to do commission work for very reasonable prices.

Given that I wanted to have a specific T-Shirt I saw in my mind, I did commission such an artwork. I usually wear T-Shirts in solid color (usually black, saves thinking in the morning) Although I did try out a couple of printed ones before. But there are a few issues I feel strongly about, e.g., the marketplace of ideas and freedom of inquiry, and — given that I have to replace a couple of my T-Shirts anyway — I decided to get it done … by someone else. Just to have that T-Shirt for myself to wear.

This is the result of the commissioned artwork (on a T-Shirt at Zazzle.com, back, not yet printed):

zazzle_vj_1b.jpg
Commissioned artwork and a nice quotation about freedom of inquiry. Not a 100% satisfied with the font formatting, have to rethink it.

And yup, that’s Vivian James as an adult scientist. And yeah, I love it. 🙂

I got the image as .png with a transparent background, ideal to combine it with the quotation in the image, or to put part of the image it on buttons or stickers. It’s not even that expensive. The drawing did cost me $27 (non-commercial use) and I got feedback rounds that really helped to nail the image. And the artist (Ku Kuru Yo) did an impressive job in realizing what I had in mind.

I guess I’m doing this more often in the future if I can. But for now I can’t wait until the printed T-Shirt is here … and the button, and the sticker.

Yeah. 🙂

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