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FT Pro, Mem SOG,'08 Cert Excellence PSA, '02 Schroeder Portrait Award Copley Soc, '99 1st Place PSA, '98 Sp Recognition Washington Soc Portrait Artists, '97 1st Prize ASOPA, '97 Best Prtfolio ASOPA
Joined: Jun 2001
Location: Peterborough, NH
Posts: 1,114
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40% is actually low. Many agents take 50%. Consider however, that the artist wouldn't have a commission if the rep. didn't get it for them.
The hard part for me is the stiff "second generation" fee. This is when you have done a successful portrait through a rep. and the client's relative, friend (or whatever) sees it and calls you for a new commission...Even though the rep. does nothing for this new painting, they expect the same %...
I won't sign a contract unless the rep. is willing to cut this "second generation" fee (and so far I have not found one who will). Many artists I know "cheat." They don't tell the rep. about the second portrait and silence the client with a significant discount. I won't work that way as it makes me uncomfortable...
Also, if you work with a rep., you must sign a contract to adhere to your published fees in all cases. This makes sense because a rep. obviously can't sell your work for $10,000 when you only charge $5,000.
A rep. does have a lot of expenses and does deliver the work and they should be paid well for this service. But I still think that the "second and third generation" paintings need to be open to negotiation.
The very best marketing tool I have found is Cynthia's web site, "A Stroke of Genius"!!! It is a (by comparison) low-cost 24/7 art gallery of your work available to anyone in the world with a computer who is shopping for a portrait.
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