Climbing in Hueco Tanks: Behind-the-Scenes of a Watercolor Commission
I rarely take commissions.
1912 Ford Model T Torpedo, Car Portrait 2021
When I started my art journey, I thought that commissions might be a way to turn my artwork into income. And I did try a few: house portraits of new or childhood homes for friends, car portraits for fundraising events, or the occasional landscape to commemorate a trip. But honestly? They are not my favorite thing to do. I end up spending more time thinking about whether the person is going to like the painting instead of actually enjoying the process. I want people to like them, so I pour a lot of time into them, from initial sketch to final painting. Occasionally, an idea is good enough, or I like the person enough (🙂) to say yes.
My most recent commission had the theme of rock climbing. My husband, Vasya (@vasya87 on Instagram) , coaches a competitive climbing team and for the kids’ spring break one of the parents organized a group trip to go bouldering in Hueco Tanks, Texas. Another parent asked if I could paint something to commemorate the trip as a gift for the parent that did the organizing and I decided that I would come out of my commission break to do it.
Usually, I paint from a single reference photo. I might shift the lighting or edit details, but I stay pretty close to the original image. For this project, I thought the best way to capture the feeling of the trip was to create a composite painting using elements from several photos. Vasya sent me some of his favorites, and I chose three to base the painting on—each highlighting a different part of the experience. A short drive from El, Paso, Texas, Hueco Tanks is supposed to have some of the best bouldering in the United States. It is a beautiful desert landscape with tons of rock. I wanted to capture the desert landscape, the color of the rock, and of course what it means to rock climb there. I chose these three photos to work from.
The Elements I wanted to Capture
Climbers with Crash Pads
Bouldering is the type of climbing that is done without a rope. Boulders can be big or small and the style can vary. A crash pad is a large padded mat that is put underneath the climb to keep climbers safe if they fall. Usually a group of climbers will have lots of pads to make sure that landings are as safe as possible. But, let’s be honest, if you are not a climber, they can look bizarre and Vasya and I have gotten all kinds of bizarre questions about what we are carrying from “is that to sleep on” to “is that a massage table.”
Looking for more behind-the-scenes content? Follow me on Instagram for a peek at my daily life: art, travel, cycling, food, all the things. Want a more personalized experience delivered directly to your inbox once a month? Join my newsletter list.
The Desert Landscape
I love a desert landscape. I love that there can be so much color and so much wildlife if you slow down and take a moment to really look. I wanted to include both the expansive landscape and smaller details such as the yucca plants that dot the landscape.
The Climbing Itself
A climbing commission would be lacking if there was not an iconic climbing scene and the photo of one of the kids silhouetted while climbing was too good not to use.
With these three photos and my main elements decided, it was time to put together a sketch combining all of these elements into one cohesive composition.
Building the Composition
To create my draft outline, I first printed out the reference photos at the same scale. To combine the different photos into a single composition, I opted to use my light table. This allowed me to position each of the reference photos where I wanted them and made it easy to trace the basic shapes I wanted in the final painting. Working in pencil, I worked on the positioning of the elements and how I wanted them layered on top of each other. During this stage there is a lot of tweaking and erasing. Once I am happy with the sketch, I will use my light table again to trace the outline onto a clean piece of paper using a fine liner pen. This gives me a dark and defined line. Having a clean and clear outline is important when it comes to transferring the final image onto my watercolor paper, again using my light table. At this stage, I will often scan my finalized outline so that I can keep a version for posterity. Having a digital copy also makes it easier to scale the outline to the size of the final painting, whether the final piece will be big or small.
Messy sketching.
Final outline.
Creating a Test Painting
Small 4 × 6 test painting.
For this particular project, I decided to complete a test painting on a smaller scale. I took my scan of the final outline and scaled it down to about 4x6 to create the test painting. Creating a smaller version lets me test out the composition and play with colors. It also gives me space to make mistakes, knowing that those mistakes will provide useful information moving into the final painting. Things I learned from my test painting included that:
The climbing rocks needed to be darker and more vibrant.
I wanted more texture—especially in the rock and plants.
I needed stronger contrast overall.
I made some notes in my sketchbook and moved on to the final piece.
Final Painting
Final transfer of outline to watercolor paper.
Once again I used my light table to transfer my outline onto my watercolor paper. Where composition and details matter, I find that the light table gives me more control for capturing those smaller details. The key is to have an outline that is dark enough that you can see it through the watercolor paper. For the final version, I opted for an 8 x 10 piece of paper, which would be a standard size and easy to frame. With all of the pre-work of creating an outline and creating a test painting completed, the final painting went quickly. I packed up both the test painting and the final version and sent them on their way to their new home. I’m not sure if I will ever learn to love working on commissions, but it means a lot that people would choose me to commemorate important moments in their lives.
