For those who don’t know, I am an U.S.-born artist/painter living in Tijuana, Mexico working on my dream of being an artist of note.
Tijuana and its people have greatly helped me survive the difficult life of an artist. I have friends who officially consider me family, and I have the feeling Mexico will be my home in the future.
I don’t have many possessions, but one of the most important things I owned bit the dust several days ago. My LG G3 smartphone.
I worked from this phone. I took reference photos, used it as my visual source while painting (4 1/2 X 2 1/2 screen), edited and filed, social media-ed, and took care of invoicing and bookkeeping.
As it stands, I have used my phone primarily in the home, and it’s death has greatly hindered my work. However, I think a much better investment in my work would be to build a decent desktop computer to enhance my capability both in the studio and on the Internet. One benefit that comes to mind would be to use Skype as a tool for teaching, critiquing, and live models.
Time is short and I need to get back to my work. I would prefer to earn the money to build this computer, rather than take donations, but I wouldn’t turn down a donation.
I am aiming for $3000 in commissions as a minimum, for computer and studio equipment. If it wound up being more, then I welcome the additional business!
There are several things I could do.
As a standard, I paint a minimum of one square foot on wood panel ($100)…or 15"X15" ($156), 24"X15" ($250), and 36"X15" ($375) on wrapped canvas. For this drive, my rate will be $100 US/sq ft, half of normal.
I could also do simple sketch portraits for the equivalent of $20 US. These can be transmitted as a jpg and are a low-cost alternative to a painting.
I have posted my work before here and elsewhere in the making/crafting threads, and you can check out my Instagram at the handle kellyhicksscreenkiss. I would love to upload more, but I think the phone I’m borrowing was used to hammer nails, and won’t take a decent picture.
Well, that’s pretty much everything, I think. Post any questions below.
