I agree with most of what Peggy said but there is another way. I worked for probably 15 years of my 30 plus years as a portrait artist with no contracts and no down payment and I still occasionally work with out one. Fortunately I have never had the bad experience that Peggy had. I even did portraits on speculation. I would take my paints and French easel to a gallery and would ask people who came in if they would sit down for a half hour or so and let me paint them, I would ask them to come back on another day, have another sitting and if they liked it they could buy it. I sold about 2 out of 3 of them.
Having a contract avoids the pitfalls that Peggy mentions, but not having one is not all bad. There are many stories of portraits that clients don't care for hidden under beds, etc. Those clients will probably tell others about their bad experience. With no contract they have nothing to lose, they know that they will not be stuck with something that they are not happy with and may be more likely to take a chance with a new artist.
Another plus is that you can be more independent to paint it like you want to without being dictated to by a client who has put up a large deposit. They have no investment other than their time. I never have enough sample portraits anyway, and if the client were to back out of the deal as happened to Peggy, I would use the portrait as a sample, as I did with the 1/3 unsold in the gallery example.
Many if not most artist don't choose to work this way but it is an alternative to think about.
Steve
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