The funniest commission requests ever

[Kimberly Dow]

I was reading Mary's post about the baby parts and it started me thinking about some of the more unusual requests I have had (and done). I thought this might make an interesting thread.

The one that comes to mind first is the big HUGE long-haired biker dude that made an appointment and came to my house one evening. He had said he needed a portrait of his brother. He proceeded to show me the tattoo on his upper arm of a man, it was his dead son. The portrait he wanted me to do was a pencil sketch of his brother, who had just passed away.

It was to be taken to a tattoo artist to put on his other arm. It was a sad situation, although I did not get into the reason for the deaths, but what was kind of funny is that I did the job - I was afraid not to. You should have seen his Harley.

There was one other from a male body-builder. He said his attorney girlfriend had a collection of famous nude prints in her office. He wanted a pastel sketch of himself nude for a birthday gift to add to her collection. He went on and on about how built he was and the competitions he had won.

I went out and bought new pastels and boned up on life sketching. The day before he was to arrive (I was working in my home at the time) I arranged for my mother-in-law to come over - my husband was afraid the guy could be a freak and I would be home alone and all. My mother-in-law is an artist herself, she was about 77-years-old at the time. She wanted to sit in on it, but I told her no since it might make him uncomfortable.

When he arrived, all started fine, except that he wanted to flex - which was hard to draw - but my wonderful mother-in-law couldnt stop herself - she had to peek in. She pretended there was a phone call, knocked & opened up the door.

When this guy got a peek at this 77-year-old tiny little woman peeking at him over her glasses he bolted. He got dressed very quickly and I never heard from him again. I made her pay me for the new pastels. Her only comment was to laugh and say she thought he must take steroids.

So anyone have any interesting/funny commissions they were asked to do?