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Working with the client
Hello all,
I just completed my first two commissions, it was a good experience. My question is about the reference photos and the client. I painted a woman's two grandchildren. When she came to pick up the portraits at their completion, we ended up comparing the portraits to the reference photos I used. There was a question about the mouth on one of the grandchildren. Perhaps it was my mistake to pull out the reference photo and show her that yes, that's the way the mouth looks. These were portraits of her grandchildren, so possibly she wasn't that familiar with all their expressions. The grandchildren live out of town.
Certainly I would rather not have had to pull out the reference photos. On doing so, she noticed a couple of other teeny tiny things that she wanted fixed. They were minor things, I fixed them immediately and she was thrilled with the portraits. So it all ended well, in this case.
I took photos of the kids before I painted them and she wasn't picky about which pose I chose. She trusted me to use whichever pose, size, etc, I wanted. That was great. (Especially for my first commission experience.)
So, my question is, how do you avoid pulling out the reference photo when the client is approving the final portrait? The painting isn't a photographic copy of a reference photo, we all know that, but all the client knows is that she wants the painting to look like the kids - and all she had to go on was the reference photo. Any suggestions? How do you handle this? I just never dreamed I would have to pull out a reference photo at the end and have my work judged by that! . . . . . .I don't paint that realistically (I don't think) but naturally it's important to get the likeness in a portrait.
thank you,
Joan
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