The phone rings. I answer.
“I’d like to talk about having you paint something for my home.”
And there it starts. I love that very first conversation. It usually comes from somebody having seen my work somewhere. Online. In a magazine. In a friend’s home. Sometimes they’re not at all sure what they want, they just have this feeling that they would really like to have something made just for them. My job is to sort through all of the clues they give me to come up with a piece that will become a part of their home; a visual resting place; a statement of who they are.
If you come to my studio, I can get a really strong sense of what you’re all about. If you bring or send me photos of your home, I can figure out your style. If you give me samples of fabric or tile or a photo of a scarf you adore, I learn your favorite colors and your feelings about patterns and subjects. Of course it’s even better if I can go to your home! As our first conversation ends, I am excited and eager. This is probably my favorite phase of the whole process. All of this information swirls around in my head until I sit down to make that first pencil sketch of your project.
Sometimes I’ll go find a quiet place where I can let my thoughts settle.
In this sketch I develop the framework for a good composition with balance and flow and points of interest. When I’m happy with this, I move on to a pen and ink sketch. Still loose and somewhat undefined, but something you can make sense of too. (Some of my first pencil sketches are pretty hard for anyone other than me to decipher!) If I’m creating a painting or mural for you, you’ll see this pen and ink sketch. This is your first chance to catch me if I misread your clues. You don’t have to be able to figure out what is wrong with the sketch; just that it doesn’t seem quite right. I’ll go back and work it out and show you a new one. If this is a floorcloth project, I will move on to the colorized phase before showing it to you. Floorcloths are usually more about pattern and the interplay of color. The pen and ink sketch just wouldn’t give you enough information for you to give me good feedback.
A small version of your mural or painting will be painted to-scale on canvas using the paints I am planning to use on the actual finished piece so you can see the colors and feel the texture. Painting small lets me see the “big picture” and really helps to find weak areas in the design. For floorcloth projects, I head to the computer and fire up Photoshop to create a colorized to-scale layout of your design. Photoshop is great for creating patterns and adjusting sizes and colors without having to recreate the entire piece with each alteration.
My goal with each design is for you to respond like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip, “THAT’S IT!!”. That 
way I can move on to actually making the piece knowing that you’re excitedly looking forward to seeing it and making it a beautiful part of your life and home. This week I created and sent off this Mediterranean Tile Floorcloth design, based on the fabric and tile samples the customer sent me. This was her response: “Your design is so beautiful, fits my taste and the room’s spirit. Beautiful intricate design! … I love that red color in the fabric and would enjoy looking at that in the rug… Thank you for your beautiful design.”
©Charles Schultz