"Is this the little girl I painted...?"
 

When I paint very young children, I notice that even with a time span of 6-12 months between resource photos and delivery, the subject has grown quite dramatically.

I know that many of you have time frames several years out. How have you found the responses of parents whose children look so different from the child you painted? Do you feel that they are less accepting because the daily image of their child has changed, or more accepting, since it represents a time already lost?

Chris

Good question
 

Chris,

I don't have the experience to answer your questions, however, your questions have generated a new subject I will address in my initial interviews.

It is an interesting situation. The parents have to understand that the portrait captures only a moment in the child's life and that the child will do a whole lot more growing and changing. A portrait is timeless... True?

When I managed Robert Schoeller, often the portrait wasn't delivered for 18+ months and we never had a problem.

I've found most loved the fact that their child was captured at that particular time before they changed.

Except for one, where she kept trucking the portrait back to lengthen her hair and change the ribbon to the child's current fav color - nightmare I quickly learned from. ;)

So far, so good.
 

I've found that a long wait has been an advantage for me. My clients tend to think that we have captured a moment in time that is forever lost...and thus has become more precious.

Most are excited that a moment in time was captured. Would you believe, though, that I had one client call about 2 years after they had a painting because they now had a white cat, and wanted me to repaint the gray cat their daughter was holding to look like the new cat! I will never stop being amazed at some of the people we paint for. Anyhow, I declined the request and reminded her that the painting was a "moment in time" and that perhaps a new painting with the white cat would be more appropriate. She declined my suggestion. Oh, well.