AP Job possibility

[ChasHeliCop]

I have just started this, but maybe it will give you guys an idea. Went to the beach, took a photo of the house. Then converted the photo to a black and white line drawing. I will be decreasing the darkness of the lines, then painting it with watercolors. The people out here are crazy for a painted aerial picture of their house. Could bring big bucks.

[kgfly]

Interesting. Do you mean actually painting with watercolours or colouring digitally in a watercolour style ?

[Tonystott]

Deja vu :) Way back in the 1960s as a school leaver, I boldly wrote to the top ten motor racing drivers in Australia, offering to provide a soft pencil drawing of their car. 4 of 10 agreed (mind you my price was way too cheap, but schoolkids don't know any better :)).

In order to ensure I had the detail right, I borrowed my dad's SLR and took photos at the next car races.

The drivers were highly impressed by the accurate drawings and asked to see the original photos.

Before long, word had got around, and I was supplying photos to 75% of the race drivers in my State, with a growing client list interstate as well! I also was lucky enough to get more than a few action pictures onto the sports pages of the daily newspapers, and then became a photo correspondent to a couple of auto magazines (this all before I turned 20...)

At 20 I took off for Europe and did motor race photography all over the place. Fast forward to now, and I am into AP.

But those beginnings taught me a lot, and there is no question that people really appreciate hand-crafted artwork. However, I am not so sure that you could command a reasonable per-hour return on artwork unless it is "real" as opposed to a doctored print with watercolour wash, but that's just me. :)

[ChasHeliCop]

Well Kenneth, I was going to do it the "old fashioned" way, with a brush, but now you have got me thinking I will try both. As always, I trust your opinion, it's never been wrong yet.. I will do it both ways and compare the final product, printed on art paper.

[crewchief]

Lately builders have been requesting aerials of unfinished expensive new homes, to be sent to rendering companies for drawings. You're right - somehow a drawing has more weight than a photo.

I paint dog portraits in oils, and I've found the fastest way to get a super-accurate painting is to print the image to full size (e.g. 16x20"), then use transfer paper to get the image onto the canvas. The advantage of this is you can simplify the image and only transfer what you want. You don't need a big printer if you divide the image up and print the parts. For instance a 16x20 can be assembled from 4 8x10's, which any printer can handle. For oils, red Saral transfer paper is the best, but graphite is good for watercolors so you can erase the lines. I use a red fine ballpoint pen on the printout to see what's been done, and to get crisp and accurate transfer lines on the canvas.

Tony - amazing story. The young entrepreneur!

[kgfly]

Well I wasn't really making a recommendation, as they say, "I don't know about art but I know what I like". I'm in no position to suggest one is better than the other, just curious ;) I look forward to learning from your experiments.