Painting horses and people

[Melinda Roeleveld]

Thanks Steve and Chris for your quick replies.

This will be more of a landscape with the horses set into it. It started out where the client wanted her horse painted. She got him to "pose" in his show stand, etc., but then asked if she could be in the painting as well. Hmmmm. Then she asked if her daughter could be in the background with her horse! That's when we decided together that she had to decide between portraits or a figurative scene (with as much acuracy possible of the likenesses of every figure in the painting). Yes, it was difficult, and I will have to do a second photo shoot. They did not wear the appropriate clothing and were more concerned that the horses were all spruced up than themselves (little do they know, I don't have to paint the dirt on the horse's back). But I think we now know what we want and I look forward to doing this job. At another time I may do the daughter's portrait with only the head of her horse, similar to what you did, Chris. For now, I will work on several compositions (the mother and her horse in the forground and her daughter leading her horse across the field in the middle ground, the pasture and hill way in the background).

Thanks for the tip about anatomy of horses (although that's all I used to draw as a child, so feel pretty familiar with the horse), and as far as pricing goes, I still don't feel I can charge portrait prices. My problem is, I have never really attempted to sell a landscape (but I do love painting them). This may open up new doors!

[Richard Budig]

They say you can say anything if you say it right.

I handle the problem of the growing number of people and things in a portrait in my beginning talks with the client. I have lighthearted little list of things I cover when we first start talking about price.

Price usually comes up early on, which gives me the opportunity to say, in a reasonably lighthearted way, that, of course, it depends on all the little things, like is your pet or mother-in-law going to be in there somewhere -- is grampy's barn or your favorite lizard going to be in there somewhere. I go to say that all these things can change the price. And, I add, that price will change with the amount of "you" we show -- from head and shoulders up to full length.

Even with "friends," who, in my experience, seem more likely to "lean" on you, I get into this aspect fairly early on.

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Melinda,

This sounds like it will be a fun commission, congratulations!

If this were my commission I'd start with taking a good look at Western paintings containing horses that I admire for their composition. You're right: you are going to have to tackle landscape painting, perspective and composition as well as horse anatomy problems. You are probably also aware that horse owners are very picky about horse anatomy, especially leg structure, so tred carefully there.

I paint lots of animals and I don't hesitate to charge for them, though I charge less than I do for humans. If they are background props I might rethink this attitude - but I would still be really careful about anatomy. Your familiarity with horses will help you out here.

One of my favorite paintings with a horse, by the way, is Caravaggio's "The Conversion of St. Paul" but I doubt that it's what you had in mind for this commission.

Keep us posted as to how this goes.

[Jeanine Jackson]

It sounds like you have a landscape commission with figures. I have found it helpful in such instances to use my landscape pricing with a fixed additional amount for each figure (including horses). The total still works out to be less than a portrait of similar size.

The images below show a case in point. The client liked the bottom image which I had sold as an equestrian landscape. She asked me to customize the scene to include the paint pony and team colors of the recipient from her excellent photo references. Pricing was pretty simple as I kept it close to the first with a small additional charge to work in her preferences.

The happy ending included a subsequent portrait commission!