Actually... the artist thought the piece was a lot of fun to work on.
When I approach an artist to do a commission piece, I try to play up the silly and playful nature of the idea. We are, after all, only talking about tickling. To give you an example, here is the actual description for a commission piece that is currently being worked on:
What I had in mind is a very silly, very cute parody of our Cavewoman cutie being tickled (yes... tickled). One way to handle it would be some sort of giant prehistoric tickle plant (oh yeah... one of those) having grabbed her with its vine-like tendrils, and using its feathery leaves to tickle her all over. The other option would be for her to be getting lick tickled by a group of playful animals (sabertooth tiger cubs, baby sauropods, etc.). I'm actually going to leave the particulars of what is tickling her up to you... which would you like to do (or maybe you had another idea in mind)? The things I'm really looking for in the piece are: 1) The character is being tickled all over - feet, underarms, ribs, tummy, thighs, etc. - all the usual tickle spots. 2) The character is laughing hysterically - head tipped back, wide open mouth laughing expression, eyes squeezed shut, maybe a tear running down her face. To give you an idea of the expression, I've enclosed a jpeg graphic file for reference (see attached).
This piece is obviously a very goofy/silly idea, so please approach it with tongue firmly planted in cheek and have fun with it. I leave the layout orientation up to you, but the larger the main figure the better.
And that's it... I've found that if I don't make a being thing about it, the artist usually doesn't either. In fact, the subject for these commissions is so different from the stuff they're normally asked to do, most artists see it as a challenge, or a fun chance of pace. It's worked for me so far! 😀
Hahathna
