Strange Request

Commission paintings are a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes from getting to take someones idea and make it come to life. The above idea went a little like this:

"I would like a portrait of my brother's family."
"Well, I am not a portrait painter but I can put you in touch with some."
"No, I want a portrait of his family as their personalities represented in animals."
"Oh, okay. Wait, what?"

Her brother is the rooster of the family. Her thin, fluid moving sister in law became the lizard and her nephew with his startled expression became a goldfish. I loved this commission. Her family takes turns hanging it in their across state houses.

Then come the curse paintings. The ones that sound like such fun and then as you sit down you realize you have taken on a hard assignment. Recently I agreed to paint a ninja being surrounded by angry ostriches. I know, you laughed right? So did I. But I have to confess my ninja painting experience is limited. Okay, it was non-existent.

It did finally come together and I rocked the ninja. The ostriches, well that is old hat for me but posed with a ninja.....not a request you get everyday.

I am glad I took on the challenge. The client LOVED it. And now I know I can do most oddities that come my way. What's that? A platypus on a moped? No problem!