These sketches were done live at Labrador Park. An disastrous event!
After I have finished the above pencil sketch, I started inking and the guests came into the cell. My view was fully black. I spent almost 1.5 hours to get this done. Can you imagine? Later, instead of peeping through the moving guests, and thank goodness I have the scene captured with my camera, I sketched and colour based on the image display on my 2.5 inch LCD.
As I was engaged for 3 hours to sketch 3 scenarios, I can't put more details in, given the limited timeframe.
The nightmare became worse at this sketch. The linework in black and white was still fine. However, when it came to the colouring part, I can't see the true colour under the dim yellow lighting. (I was sketching outdoor.) This was a totally different from the previous sketch. The previous one was pale in colour, as under the yellowish indoor lighting, I kept telling myself not to apply too much colour, so that it will not look too heavy.
This one, the lighting was very bad. The shadow casted on the drawing when I coloured, can't see the true colour, can't find the markers I need due to dim lighting. All these frustrated me.
I had highlighted to the client (the event organiser) the day before the event, that I would need a good and adequate lighting for a good illustration to be done. If they can't provide me a daylight lamp, at least adequate lighting, with a table and chair.
Lighting was not provided when I was on site!!!
I highlighted this to the client when I am going to do the below sketch. Before this, they told me to go in the restaurant and look for a place to sit and start sketching the scenario. However, when I went in, there's no place for me to sit at all. I told her the problem. Her client came to talk to her and she was distracted. And I was ignored. Fine. I had to make do with what I can do now, given current situattion. I used the camera to snap and draw from there. Still under the dim lighting.
When all these 3 sketches were done, the client's partner told me that she expected more fromthese sketches. I told her the problems I faced and the ignored part. I was left with no choice, but needed to complete them within the timeframe.
Looked at the quality of these sketches when captured under dim lighting. Even after some touched up with Photoshop, the quality was still very bad.
My conclusion, and I was very sure about it after this event- In the future, if the client can't provide me with good lighting environment to sketch, I won't take up that job. It affected my mood, and most importantly, my artwork quality. I couldn't tolerate this! And I was not happy after this event. Yes, not happy at all, with the artworks produced and the way I was treated.
