New gift ideas for the ones you love can be difficult. You may have been with them for many years and have achieved the financial success that means you can have any physical possession you both want. Finding something truly unique can be really difficult. Yes, you can have something engraved or embroidered, but that only adds a limited element of uniqueness to your gift.
If you really want someone to know that you’ve put a lot of time, effort and thought into pleasing them, there is no better way than to have an item made especially for them. There are a lot of alternatives available, from commissioning a piece of jewellery to a yacht or home. Another alternative would be a portrait. Portraits can capture the spirit of a person and their personality at a given point in their life and create a priceless heirloom for future generations. Again you may already have done this and many of your friends may also have portraits of themselves and relatives and ancestors hanging in their homes. How then can you attain something that captures someone’s appearance and personality yet is completely unique and special? A fantasy portrait artist can make this happen.
Everyone has fantasies of living in other times or under other circumstances where the rules that constrain us do not apply. We might have a favourite celebrity, historical figure or fictional character we would like to meet. Ancestry is a very popular theme for fantasy portraits, bringing together family members from different eras. You can follow the path of someone’s life through significant events, including graduating from college, marrying, fighting in wars or building a home. Their achievements at different points in their life can be depicted. However, you might want to show your loved one with something they particularly love – wolves for example, wild horses or snow leopards. They could have a passion in life, like ornithology, fast cars or gun collecting. The list really is endless and is entirely down to your own imagination and that of the portrait artist you choose.
It’s easy to use a search engine to find a fantasy artist with a portfolio that really inspires you. There are any number of media that can be employed for your fantasy portrait, ranging from graphite, through colored pencils, to watercolors, acrylics and oils. Digital art can make things possible that were not possible with physical art materials and techniques. It is vital that you understand the prerequisites that your artist needs from you and how important it is to build a relationship of trust and respect with them. This relationship could result in your commissioning further works over the course of decades. Recipients are often emotionally touched by the portraits they receive as they really embody their hopes and dreams in a way nothing else really can.
You should take your time thinking of the themes your loved one would most like and how to incorporate them into their fantasy portrait. A pen and paper are indispensable and you may end up with pages of notes and sketches of your own. You then embark on the creative process with your chosen artist, using these notes as a valuable guide. Sittings help but are not essential if you can provide quality photos. Creating your portrait is an iterative process and you will be involved and expected to approve and comment at each stage. Some media simply do not allow major changes late in the production of the piece. Whilst oils for example do permit the entire work to be changed, this will be as expensive and time consuming as creating a new work from scratch. Good communication makes this highly unlikely to happen. You must also build in enough time for the portrait to be finished, packaged and delivered and have arranged for framing. It will help if you already have an idea where your loved one will hang it. It would be pointless to give a huge portrait to someone who has nowhere to hang it and a small portrait could fill a special niche in that den of his perfectly.
I hope this has given you a lot to think about and has perhaps made it possible to find the special gift for the man or woman who has everything.
Johanna Pieterman is a talented fantasy artist of long standing. Visit her fantasy portraits site to see what a fantasy portrait could mean for your loved one.