Tag Archives: art direction

Commissioned Art

After many years of computer and electronics-based art I got tired of having my creativity mediated by machines that demand updates, bug fixes, and a maddening and endless search for technical know-how. So I have started painting again, after a long hiatus–partly because someone I owe a lot of money to had a big empty wall in his waiting room and a tiny little painting to put on it. 

This post advertises the service.

Big empty wall
Big Wall, Tiny Painting

My first client agreed to consider a trade with the stipulation that he didn’t have to take my proposed large-scale painting if he didn’t like it. That seemed reasonable. Looking at his taste and with the direction of “abstract with texture, and pow colors,” I started with some photoshop mock-ups (below–clicking the image will advance the slideshow):

Through this process I established:

  1. That he didn’t like circles (though he came around eventually), or too much red.
  2.  That he wanted something bright.
  3.  That he kept coming back to a section of my second proposal (2 of 4) which, despairing of finding the right photoshop brush to do good paint splatter, I had pasted a Jackson Pollock painting into the mockup and threw some filters on it to make it match the floor.

So I decided on Jackson Pollock. It’s what I wanted to do anyway and the final result can be seen at the top of this page or the end of the slide show. The still image doesn’t do it justice. 

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Art Direction

I use a broader definition of art direction than the guilds in Hollywood.

I could call it Production Design, but honestly, we’ll call it that when it’s appropriate. Art direction is what they called it back when movies were “pictures” and the credits only lasted three minutes.

I use the term to describe everything you see in the frame of the finished film that isn’t a human being. For example, if I decide we need to shoot your film in the conference room because I like the potted plants, that’s art direction.

 

 

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