About a Boy

Russianboy2_1
Hey, Tim Jones, here.

I just wanted to share with you all a neat experience I had lately in my work. The recently finished painting at left will always hold a special place for me, for a few reasons.

For one thing, it is the first portrait commission that I received through MY WEBSITE. It’s pretty cool that we live in a time when artists can find customers anywhere in the world. The entire thing was done through e-mail. The client sent me a photo as an attachment, and I sent a preliminary sketch (as well as the final painting for their approval) in the same way. The fees were handled through PayPal. The client even commented in one e-mail how odd it was that we had this transaction without ever speaking to one another. And they were right!

Another thing that made this a good experience was the fact that the customer was a very kind Catholic family, and the boy in the painting is their recently adopted son. I’m thrilled that my work allowed me to be involved with this family in such a personal way. I know the painting is very meaningful for them. Our families have actually been praying for one another since pretty early in the process, and that is a perk for which I am really grateful.

Finally, the whole thing went so smoothly. I am always a bit nervous to begin a commission because things can go off the rails. I recently had to pass on a nice commission because the customer’s needs and my artistic goals just didn’t fit well in the end. I didn’t want to take on a project that I wouldn’t be proud to put my name on. Alot of things can happen; what if the customer doesn’t like the sketch? What if they like the sketch, but don’t like the final painting? What if they want changes that you feel make the artwork worse, rather than better?

I have been blessed, in that I have not yet had a commission go south on me like that, but it does happen. It would be especially uncomfortable if the project fell apart when it was half finished and half paid for! I’ve heard horror stories.

So, as I said, I was a bit nervous while I waited to see what kind of portrait it was that the client had in mind. I usually work from life, or at least from my own photos. Working from someone else’s photography is a crapshoot. The goal is to end up with a painting of a person, not something that looks like a painting of a photo of a person.

I was delighted to see that the photo was not a cheesy commercial portrait or a badly composed snapshot, but was worthy of framing on its own. Portraits of young children always run the risk of being overly sentimental, but this photo had depth and subtlety. I was intrigued by the boy’s gaze, and found the soft lighting a worthy challenge. I also found his Russian features very striking. Overall, I could not have asked for better source material from a client.

The painting does lose something in reproduction, but it did turn out well, and I am glad to have a copy of a high resolution digital scan of it tucked away in my files.

Jobs come and go, but this is one that I will always remember fondly, and for which I will always be grateful.

I just reorganized my website, and have added a few new paintings. Y’all drop by, ya hear?

47 thoughts on “About a Boy”

  1. Tim, you are truly gifted! What an exquisite portrait — you captured the essence of this child.
    And I can personally attest to the beauty and mastery of Tim’s works. I’m the proud owner of a giclee of Body and Blood. (Via another non-vocal PayPal transaction!)
    ‘thann

  3. Yes, Barbara.
    The “Body and Blood” print that Ruthann mentions is one small effort.
    In fact, I plan on doing several more ambitious traditional pieces in the next few months.
    I feel that I have been led, through praying the Rosary, to paint the Immaculate Heart as my first such piece. In that way, I hope to consecrate all my work to Jesus through his Blessed Mother.
    Nothing personal, but I find most of the Immaculate Heart images available now to be sort of insipid… prettified and overly idealized.
    Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

  5. I am the proud daddy of the beautiful boy in the portrait! I knew the first time I logged onto Tim’s site that his work was something special and I can tell you that we were stunned when we unwrapped our package from Arkansas. The artists who work in the frame shop (who see hundreds of these) here in Richmond were also very impressed by the rich detail, but most of all by the way Tim captured the soul of my son, who was abandoned on someone’s front door in a slum outside Moscow at the age of 6 months. We continue to pray for my son’s birth mom, who we know nothing about, but are eternally grateful that she chose to give life to our son.
    Russia remains a spiritually dark place, where in 2004, there were 1.6 million abortions and only 1.4 million live births. Please pray for the soul of the Russian people.
    Tim – you have created a precious gift that our family will treasure for a lifetime. I pray God will give you many more opportunities to bring honor and glory to Him through your work.
    We also thank Jimmy for exposing us to your work through this website.
    In gratitude,
    Jim

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