Knowing when to say "No"

[Michael Georges]

This is a post about working from bad reference.

You know the situation, you are approached by a client who wants you to do a painting - they have this photograph. You look at it and it is a little 4" x 6" pic taken under bad lighting - it is washed out, the colors are bad, the composition looks like a "photo composition".

You think to yourself, "It is going to be hard to make a good painting out of this." At least, hopefully that is what you think. There is more to good portraiture than just copying what you see in a photo. A timeless portrait has elements of light which model the subject(s) attractively with good highlights and good shadow areas, an appealing "portrait composition" rather than a "photo composition", and possibly a narritive value too. A portrait has to "live" on the wall for years and give the viewer something new to see every time they look at it.

I have made it a practice to inform clients that I am happy to look at their photograph, but they they need to understand that what makes a good photograph does not necessarily make a good painting. If we are to work from photos, the quality of the reference ultimately effects the quality of the painting and I want to give them the best painting I can. In the case of a bad pic, I reserve the right to say "No" and I have done so a half dozen times in the past year.

Working from bad reference is just not worth it - for you, for your portfolio, and it is an injustice to your client who is trusting in your artistic instincts on when to say "No".

[Michele Rushworth]

I wholeheartedly agree, Michael. When I first got back into this business after a hiatus of many years I accepted a commission that I still regret.

The photo the client loved was fifteen years old and couldn't possibly have suffered from worse lighting problems, among many other issues. It was to be a painting for a friend and since it was my first commission in this city and I was just starting to get my name out there, I accepted it. Very bad move!

It was a monstrous struggle to paint, and the result is not at all satisfactory to me. The client, however, liked it very much. It will never make it into my portfolio, though.

Our mutual friends now see this painting whenever they visit the home where this piece hangs. These mutual friends are some of my prospects for future commissions and I imagine that this unsuccessful painting now colors their perceptions about my work.

I wish I had never painted it!

[Julianne Lowman]

It's ironic that when I began painting portraits, I was so excited about the prospects of painting the perfect portrait of a subject bathed in gorgeous north light with exquisite composition and well defined-yet smooth values. What I got was an old Walmart (you know the get 10,000 pics for 1.99 deal) photo. The subject in the photo was 3 years old, now 8, and the mother HAD to have that moment captured in time forever in a painting. Being a novice, I accepted the challenge. I changed a great deal of the original photo, removing the hokey backgrounds and props, to make it my own and offer some element of artistic composition. I was pleased, the mother was also. My next attempt was not so pleasant and I vowed NEVER AGAIN, unless it was the case of a posthumous portrait, end even then, I'll be extremely choosy as to the subject matter used.

Why is it that when people find out I'm a portrait artist, they say, "Oh!" and begin rummaging in their purse or wallet, pull out an old tattered wallet-sized snapshot and say, "Can you do this?"

UGH!

"No" is a difficult concept when you're a starving artist, but some "yes" responses may come back to haunt you! I don't know a single artist that hasn't learned this the hard way!