Pacaderms and Appreciation

505 imports in lake Charles, la is one of my best clients. They sell imported hand made furniture from India and Indonesia. Rebekah Dressler and Sharlene Boyle are the mother and daughter team that runs 505. They’ve made the experience working with their company a very enjoyable one. Their 5 anniversary was coming up and I thought it would be a great chance to drop off an appreciation gift I had been working on. It has been art project going over a couple of months with a little bit of work here and there when I had the time. I started with a pencil sketch on watercolor paper. I then inked it and erased the pencil lines. My color started with markers then pencil colors. I used water color for the diamond board behind the elephant. The background started as clouds and then watercolored it. It didn’t look right because the elephant wasn’t popping like I wanted. I roughly painted over the background with white acrylic – no good. So hesitated to go any further but it had to look awesome! I went with darker acrylic colors and ended up with great results (thankfully). I then brought it to the fine people at frameworks to get it framed. With a matte color of antique green and a dark brown frame we came up with a great piece of art. At their anniversary party I was super excited to give it to them and they loved it. It’s for this reason I think artist love what they do – for the reaction and praise of the client. I love the people at 505 imports and enjoy working with them and wish them the best success in life! -Erik