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Scheduling can often be a headache no matter what you do.
I have three portrait clients I'm working with now who are planning major paintings. All three of them signed contracts and have given me deposits but there was a period of about three weeks where I was waiting on each of them to get back to me about something and had nothing to paint. (The other clients in my queue are set for much farther out in the year and aren't ready to get started yet.)
In one case the photos were done and approved but the size hadn't been decided on. In the second case, the photo shoot was delayed due to problems with their schedule. In the third case, we had yet to sit down to even discuss the concept for the portrait, let alone schedule the photo shoot. Making matters worse, the first two wanted their portraits done by specific deadlines this spring!
Each day that went by made the deadlines that much harder for me to achieve. Fortunately I was able to move one of the deadlines out a few months (whew!) and one of the three clients came through with what I needed to get started. I'm now painting seven days a week to get that portrait done.
In my "down time" while waiting I did some marketing, painted some small studies of the portrait for which I had the reference photos shot, and ordered a pile of new brushes and paints (since I knew once these paintings got rolling I wouldn't have much time for anything else).
Speaking of which, time to get back to the easel!
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