Family Gaming with Atari | Traditional Art Commission

Traditional art commissions are always memorable, growing experiences. With the bit of extra attention that my Inktober 2016 | Atari Propaganda artwork has been bringing, I have had several people reach out about art commissions. This one in particular is one that I would like to write about because it was such a positive experience for both me and the client.

Subject Matter

First, the Atari theme has been such an amazing experience for me this year. Taking time to think about these consoles that I have quite a bit of nastolgia for, putting them to abstract and realistic situations, with only female subjects is incredibly gratifying. It has provided me with an opportunity to stretch myself with the ink medium, composition, drawing people, research (80’s and early 90′ clothing specifically) and applying that research. But I have to admit, this year for Inktober was much harder than last, and with commissions on top of that, I really got a feel for how hard I can push myself at this point in time.

…the process of drawing, mounting, framing, and shipping the final work was a great experience.

Being Willing to Start Over

I actually lost money on this commission. This is definitely something that happens from time to time. In this case, I didn’t do enough in the planning and thumbnail stage of the piece. So, when I approached the first version, I felt my technique was good, and the overall composition was good as well, I didn’t get the likenesses of the subjects to a point that I was comfortable with. Because this is ink we’re talking about, that means starting from scratch. So I started over, essentially doubling my time on the piece.

Making sure you have enough time to work (2 weeks minimum) on a piece like this, along with studying your subjects thoroughly, will help ensure that this doesn’t happen again. Regardless, even with the do-over, the process of drawing, mounting, framing, and shipping the final work was a great experience.

…this project will feel like a head stone for it all.

Schedule Affects Everything

This is my main takeaway from this experience. Because I am still working at Thor Media, finding time to actually sit down for a solid block of time is difficult. With this one, I ended up telling Thor Media I wasn’t going to come in for a couple of days, and then I turned off my phone. In the future I would like to avoid this, and, like what I mentioned before, two weeks should be a minimum for a project like this. I am certainly going to stick with this requirement.

A Landmark

With all the Atari stuff that I have involved myself with lately, like Inktober and releasing/selling Flappy McFur, this project will feel like a head stone for it all. I have other projects coming up, but this one was so positive and memorable, I will always consider it a hallmark for this period of my career. The client was happy about the final result as well. Here is what he said in the STatariART group on Facebook:

Friends,
For Christmas, my wife commissioned William Thorup to do a custom drawing of my family: he did a brilliant job and captured my daughter and me playing 2600! Absolutely lovely piece, perfect in detail, and totally captures the 80s feel. Mr. Thorup definitely gets it.
Atari Never Die!
-The Last Atarian