Art Auction Final!

Remember the poster for the Prichard Art Gallery's 25th Annual Art Auction?  No?  Well, I was commissioned to create the poster for said event.  The concepts were posted not too long ago and you'll find them below if you're interested.  At any rate, I had hoped they would choose a particular concept (though I would have been happy finalizing any of the concepts) and so they did.  It was, however, the least finished of the set.

Initially, I had intended on leaving the piece relatively loose and painterly to try and capture the fun, free spirit of the gallery.  Aside: Not too long ago, I worked pretty much exclusively in water color.  At the time, I wanted water color to be capable of bold, rich, opaque colors and I was always dissatisfied with the result (gouache was too flaky and inconsistent and oil took too long to dry).  Of course, now that I paint digitally, I'm looking to recapture the feel of watercolor.  Oh, the irony.

Well, capturing the fun, free spirit of the gallery proved more complicated than I figured.  It turns out I'm neither fun nor free-spirited.  Here's what the conversation in my head sounded like:

My Intention: "Hey, I was thinking we could do this one...you know, kind of loose."
My Militant OCD: "No."
My Intention: "But, it might be nice...kind of different."
MMOCD:  "No."
My Intention:  "But-"
MMOCD: "No."
My Intention: "Oh...ok."

Truth be told, one of the reasons I'm not a little more loose is that I love drawing detail.  I love drawing wood grain, the shine on a metal surface, individual hairs, dirt, etc.  For me, those details make an illustration.  And, when that's the case, what you get in the end looks something like this.

Cheers.