Hey Drew,
Thanks so much for such kind words. Certainly, feel free to stalk away, or show stuff to your friends. I very much appreciate you doing so.
And why would your questions be ignorant? I'm happy to answer anything you want to ask. Well, anything pertaining to the paintings, maybe not so much where you can get a good recipe for kasha varnishkes (I'm still looking).
Typically, I'm working on a lot of pieces at once. I can spend a few days working on one specifically, but always for an hour or so each day, I'll try to get stuff done on other paintings. And even then, after a few days, I just need a break from the main thing I'm focusing on, so I'll make the appropriate switch. And that might be something that's completely different too, like from an action panoramic to a simple portrait. I just like to have a lot of things in the works, whether its commissioned stuff or for the inventory.
When it comes to how long each piece takes, it all depends on the subject matter and the size. For instance, a 16" x 20" portrait is one of my favorite sizes and subjects to work on. I find that that particular size lends itself so nicely to head and shoulder shots, and I can get into as much detail as I want to. And because they're not usually "game situation specific", they're also somewhat quick to do. I'd say that each one of those takes anywhere between 25-35 hours each. Like the Joss portrait would be closer to the 35 hour mark because of the minutia in his face and the stuff in his sweater. But the Grover Cleveland above it is closer to 25 hours, as most of the little stuff is limited to his face.
The larger paintings usually will take at least double that. They require a lot more research into what's exactly going on in the picture plain. That means that there's a lot more legwork just going into those initial stages, whether it applies to finding out the color of a particular ballpark billboard, or finding out whether it was cold and rainy on the depicted day. The Lou Gehrig panoramic I did last year, for instance, took well over 200 hours. That thing was basically 4 feet by seven feet, had multiple figures, crowds, ballpark features, microphones, pinstripes and tons of other things to make it a slow-going.
Each day, the amount of time I put into actual painting varies. Some of those days, I'm spending 8 hours doing nothing but; others, maybe only 1 or 2 hours. But overall, I'm still working about 8-10 hours each day at the very least. A lot of that time goes to research, reading, prepping, sketching, and even just thinking. To be honest, there really isn't much time in any given day when I can take my brain off of work. It's both a nice thing and a bad thing, as it's something that I'm super passionate about, but sometimes, even I need break. There's that old saying that, "if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life." I think for me, it's half like that, and half like I'm a dog pulling a sled inn the snow all day. It really is hard work. Most nights, I feel like I've been wrestling with a bear.
All in all, it may sound corny, but I still really feel super lucky and incredibly thankful that I'm able to do something for a living that I love, and that others seem to enjoy it.
Hope this answers some of your questions.
Thanks again,
Graig
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