I need help with composition

[Junior Mints]

This woman asked me to paint a mural of a beach on the wall at her salon and I agreed to do it (as a side note, how much should I charge?). The wall is 7x20 feet which is kind of akward because it's so long. She want's palm trees, beach, water, and sky and sun.

I'm not quite sure how to lay it out though because it's so long and not to high. If you would care to post some input or ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

[Sularia]

I would be thinking depth rather than a straight line across the wall, like this..

http://img19.photobucket.com/albums/v58/sularia/beach.jpg

Just a quick doodle.

[evolve]

i think you should do exactly what sularia posted. that be hot.

to be serious, i don't know why yoor weird about what to paint, that sounds pretty easy. like a panoramic picture. but for price, make sure all the paint/whatever is covered. i've done lots of paid murals and give them a cost price and a profit price. some people like to estimate the hours they'll put into it and do it that way. like if i was doing that, i'd estimate how much detail i'd do, and guess it'd take 40ish hours. and since i'd want at least $x per hour...

don't undercharge. please.

[Junior Mints]

Originally posted by evolve
i think you should do exactly what sularia posted. that be hot.

to be serious, i don't know why yoor weird about what to paint, that sounds pretty easy. like a panoramic picture. but for price, make sure all the paint/whatever is covered. i've done lots of paid murals and give them a cost price and a profit price. some people like to estimate the hours they'll put into it and do it that way. like if i was doing that, i'd estimate how much detail i'd do, and guess it'd take 40ish hours. and since i'd want at least $x per hour...

don't undercharge. please.

thanks for advice. hows 450 sounds do you think? it wont hav ea lot of detail btw.
I heard like 5 people so far make a huge deal about undercharging. why is this such an importance to artists? :confused:

[evolve]

art is a luxury. it is not something that is a basic necessity, though some of us may think so. you can buy any bicycle for $60, but for a luxury one, you can pay well over $1,000.
for an indoor mural which will last as long as they want it to, they are not only paying for your time (which everybody gets paid for), but your talent as well (not everone can paint)
funny question:living in MI, have you even ever seen a palm tree?
is $450 the price w/ or w/out supplies? cause if that's including cost of supplies, that sucks.

[Junior Mints]

I see. And 450 is the price not including supplies. She's going to buy all the paints/brushes etc. 450 goes to me.

Does that sound reasonable though?

And yeah. ive seen tons of palm trees :o I've been to california, florida, bahams etc.

[<*)_><]

I'd ask a set rate/hour. And seperate payment for used materials.
The more detailed she wants it, the more she'll have to pay. And most important, this way you can't go wrong.

[artistanbul]

A group of my friends and sometimes I do murals. Our steps go like this. Showing the portfolio. There is a good spectrum of detailed and not-that-detailed paintings. And of course price also changes with that. Once he/she is happy with the style, and has explained his/her desire, we get into sketching part. Show the sketch, take the ok, and stick to it.

and it works for us. oh and speak everything firsthand...

[Blackwell]

AND HAVE HER SIGN A CONTRACT AND GET SOME MONEY UP FRONT!!!!!!!

Whew - sorry for the yelling. I'm in the process of suing a guy in small claims court because I DIDN'T follow my above suggestion. I hate seeing people get screwed out of money they worked hard for.

For suggestions of scenes and composition, do a Google image search for "beach panorama." You're bound to find some good inspiration in there.

[evolve]

yeah, i think $450 is good. i don't know how many hours it'll take you, but that not a bad price for something you should be able to finish in a week or less.

the downpayment suggestion is huge, blackwell, i fully agree

one more thing, though....do you really want her buying the brushes that you'll use? it's not like you'd buy her the nailpolish she'd use at her salon. that shit is personal.

[evolve]

oh and speak everything firsthand...

what did this mean, though....?

[artistanbul]

that would mean dont have any surprises for her :) I mean be 100% clear on what youll do on what conditions and what price youll get in which method.

[Junior Mints]

Originally posted by evolve
yeah, i think $450 is good. i don't know how many hours it'll take you, but that not a bad price for something you should be able to finish in a week or less.

the downpayment suggestion is huge, blackwell, i fully agree

one more thing, though....do you really want her buying the brushes that you'll use? it's not like you'd buy her the nailpolish she'd use at her salon. that shit is personal.

I fully agree. She's just going to take me shopping and I get what I want. ;)

[Carnifex]

http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/1003/fisite/wallsun.jpg
my suggestion,approximately...i think you get the idea...an endless beach with palms etc...think dimensionally...like in a prospectus.

[Junior Mints]

I have tons and tons of concepts, but I just quick sketched one up in paint with a mouse (yah.. shut up :o ) I'm at the college and they dont even have photoshop or any image editors.

http://www.thelag.net/cgi-bin/hosting/web_pages/Zaphod/beach.JPG

this isnt one of my favorite layouts, but those are in my car.

[Sularia]

I like that one - can't wait to see the others, too.

Good idea to get some money up front, too.

[Junior Mints]

Im working on it in Painter. I have to go now but this is what I have so far.

http://www.andrewho.com/~zaphod/beach_asdf.jpg

[deviousg]

You started doing the line across the wall thing??

Maybe it would be cool to download the Far Cry demo and check out some screen grabs, it is a very beautiful game set on a tropical island..

[Sularia]

Or you could do a search under images on google or yahoo for beaches and/or tropical islands. :)

I did one on hands the other day when I was sketching.