There are several prominent sketch card artists on the Blowout Cards forums, and sometimes they post offers for sales on sketch cards or larger commissioned artwork. Tim Proctor ran a sketch card sale a couple of months ago and I jumped on a chance to get one of his sketches. He does some really nice Star Wars stuff, so I asked him to do a Princess Leia illustration for the small 'player collection' I have of the character. He gave me a time frame for when the sketches from the sale would be worked on and right around that time he sent me a picture of the completed sketch for approval, along with the qualifier that it is hard to get a good likeness of a character when their face is being drawn on an area the size of a dime. The photo was kind of small and so it was hard to see the details of it, so I replied that it looked good. He sent the sketch promptly and it was packaged well.
Most of the piece is perfect, but Leia's right eye is a bit wonky and unfortunately when I look at this card the droopy eye is all I can see. In retrospect I should have asked for a better picture and inquired about having him rework that part of the card. I've noticed that on some monitors the details on the rest of the card, like Leia's white dress, get washed out and fail to show up. I am happy with pretty much everything on this piece, but because of that one detail I think this sketch is bound for a desk drawer rather than being a display piece. And I guess that is what makes art so hard. If one thing is just a little bit off it can knock the viewer right out of the illusion, especially when working in a more realistic style. Here is the photo from the films that was used as reference for the piece:
I have conflicting feelings about even posting this card on my blog, as Tim was easy to work with, he met the deadline that was agreed upon, and his work is generally superb. He is also a really good guy, judging by the things he posts on his Facebook account. I guess my real complaint about the transaction was the small preview photo and my failure to ask for a fix on the face. It is hard to read tone and meaning through e-mails, but I wonder if he felt a little uncomfortable with the sketch, too, because he added in that phrase about it being hard to get likenesses just right on a small work area. I feel bad complaining about it because I bought the sketch as part of a sale he was running and got a really good rate. I couldn't really expect his best work (or extensive reworking of the piece) when he was working for peanuts anyway, but I am still a little disappointed at how this one turned out. Here are some of his Star Wars and Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs), taken from his art website:
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| Return of the Jedi sketch cards by Tim Proctor |
Although this transaction didn't exactly pan out the way I hoped it would, I would probably jump on the opportunity to get another of his sketches. And I did indeed jump on the opportunity a little while later, getting this My Little Pony commission done recently, which was a much better experience all aroud. I am still a fan of his art. The man is a talented artist and generally does outstanding work. The circumstances in this case just didn't work out.
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| Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs) by Tim Proctor |
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