a commissioned painting : Barbie : acrylic on canvas

About a month ago, an Etsy shopper's daughter found my Barbie watercolor paintings in my Etsy store and wanted to know if I would do a larger commissioned painting of Barbie. It was a very exciting offer since normally, I do not work that large in my paintings. I have done several large paintings in the past, in fact one hangs in our living room, but never have I done a large commissioned painting. I accepted her offer and begun working on the initial stages.

My client's inspiration was something similar to Andy Warhol's Barbie painting that is hanging in the real-life Malibu Barbie Dream House in California. So, while copying the Warhol painting is not allowed, I can certainly do my rendition with her requests. She wanted something bright and vibrant, similar to the Pop Art style. She was very specific on colors and some details to the painting. I like a client that knows exactly what she wants, it make the initial steps much easier. I knew because of the size & vibrancy in color she was interested in that I should create the painting in acrylic on canvas. I researched a few canvas sizes and we decided upon the 30x30."

It all starts with a sketch. I pulled several images for reference

to begin work on my initial drawing.

I used a projector to transfer my sketch to the canvas. Just after I started I remembered that I wanted to take photos of transformation, so before I really got into the painting I stopped to take a few photos.

At this point, this would wrap up the first day of painting.

The next day I worked on a second coat of the background and some details in

the hair and face. I wanted the background to be very opaque so in order to achieve that I had to do three coats of the fuchsia paint.

The last day was all about the details and one final coat to the background. I let the painting cure for a week before I packed it up. Let me tell you, I was very nervous to ship such a big painting. I wrapped it in plenty of corrugated cardboard, protecting the corners and the canvas overall. I said a little prayer and taped it up. After six days of waiting, the painting finally arrived to my client. I was happy that it arrived in one piece. Then when I heard from my client's daughter how happy her mom was with the finished product, I was so relieved. She loved it!