[dc]I[/dc] wrote recently about my first cartoon commission, The Terror of Mechaplatypus, and now I am adding another commission piece to portfolio.
This commission came from a client, Meghan, in Portland¹, who wanted a portrait of her cat, Milhouse, as a math professor. It would be a wedding gift for her fiancé, who “is a serious math guy.” Meghan wanted math jokes on a chalkboard behind the cat, and the piece painted in watercolor.
Challenge accepted.
Meghan provided photos of her cat, Milhouse, and let me go wildwhen it came to the look of the piece and the jokes.
Commission Pencils
Not being a math person myself, I researched visual math gags for a bit. I knew I wanted to work in a reference to the math problem in the opening scene of the film Rushmore, at the very least.
Here are the pencils.
Pencil me in.
The good thing about math being around for at least, uh, a couple hundred years, is there are plenty of jokes. My research did not disappoint, and I came up with a couple of jokes on my own.
Commission Inks
Next came the inks, with my trusty Micron pens (and whatever else I had handy²).
Ink it to me.
You probably can’t tell by the photo, but the cartoon is 5”x7” in size. A bit bigger than my 2.5” x 3.5” sketch cards—always good to force myself to try something different.
Commission Watercolor Paints
Then, the fun part: painting. I had to match Milhouse’s coloring and markings, but everything else was pretty much up for grabs. I couldn’t paint the chalkboard like a ‘blackboard,’ because my inks wouldn’t show.
In this case, it was easy being green–a green chalkbaord.
Finished!
After a few post-drying touch-ups, I prepped the painting for its trip to Portland.
Cartoon Commission Feedback
Meghan emailed me not long after the painting arrived in Portland and said, after seeing the finished painting, she couldn’t wait until the wedding and gave her fiancé the painting that day.
Meghan sent along a couple of photos showing Milhouse’s approval. Aw jeez.
Everything is coming up Milhouse.
Including this darling snapshot.
“That’s me-eeee!”
Interested in a cartoon commission of your own? Contact me and we will work out the details. Prices vary depending on size, subject, use of color, and such.
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¹ I need a better term than client. It works, but I dunno. Commissioner? Commission Buddy?
² The best pen is the one you have with you.
