How do you lock in a commitment?

[Heidi Maiers]

Is it just me, or are people inconsiderate towards an artist

[Michele Rushworth]

I have had that happen with a couple of local clients. My out of town clients are mostly handled by one of the portrait agents. Maybe it's time to talk to them about your work. I'm sure they would love the quality of your sculpture.

[Carlos Ygoa]

This has also happened to me. The most recent episode I remember was a project for a mural for a small hotel somewhere north of Madrid After having visited the place, spoken with the owners about what they wanted, made them a watercolour study of what I had in mind (showed them by email), quoted them the price, etc., they fell silent for several weeks until after several emails were sent, they finally replied that they were putting off the project for now. Only to find out about a year later (or so) from someone that had been to the place that they now have in their hotel a mural strikingly similar to the watercolour I had proposed.

And I have other stories, too...

There will always be rude and unscrupulous clients and "almost" clients. We learn as we go and correct our working ways accordingly. And even inspite of that, inspite of all the years we think we have under our belt, there will always be another mistake. We will have to work out the ways we think can protect us the most.

Your work is too "upper echelon" for these little stumbling blocks to bother you too much. Let it bother you for a little while, though, just long enough for you to build the armour you need. And then go and sculpt another piece that will blow us all away again.

[Heidi Maiers]

Thanks Michele. I'd like to have a portrait rep - in fact, over the years I've sent several email inquiries and followed up with snail mail examples to several agencies. To date, unfortunately, I've yet to be granted the courtesy of even a single reply from any of them. I know I am not pushy enough to get noticed and I probably gave up too easily.

Good advice Carlos. I can well relate to those lessons learned about protecting yourself. I can imagine how violated you must have felt after seeing a rip off of your idea. How vile of them.

Sorry for the rant that is about to follow about how I wasted a year with an artist's worst nightmare for a client. A guy from Mexico City contacted me about 2 years ago to make a bust of a famous person. I gave him a quote (at the time my prices were quite low) and he agreed to it. At the time, I also only asked for a small refundable deposit with the rest upon approval of the clay model. I waited for a deposit that never came until 6 months later he contacted me and said he was still interested. I stuck to my same quoted price and he did send a small deposit to get started.

I modeled the bust for 3 months, and when I asked him for approval to mold it, he was thrilled with it, but had a few "minor" changes. The onslaught of changes continued for 5 more months as I cheerfully completed each change request and all the while he kept saying he would send payment "soon" and going on an on about how much he loved it. During this time, he also promised I would do 5 other busts for him, plus he asked me to submit a formal quote to sculpt 9 lifesize bronze busts for one of his business associates. I submitted the bid and he said they had agreed to my price and terms and would begin the project in January 06 when funds for the project were released.

As you can imagine, I was pretty ecstatic about the whole thing, thinking I had enough work to keep busy with for over a year. In anticipation of doing that big project, I actually turned down legitimate work.

Well, to make a long story short, the guy ended up falling off the face of the earth and no other projects ever materialized (although they were never cancelled) and the original bust went unpaid for after spending well over 1000 hours on it.

Finally, after no word in 4 months I wrote to him and told him that I was forced to find another buyer since he had never sent payment after numerous requests. He finally did reply. No explanation, but just a request to please return his deposit - plus he wanted me to send HIM an extra $350 to compensate him for the time he spent working with me on HIS project. What nerve. I think I will only send him back his deposit minus my material expenses which I feel I have the right to be compensated for. I have no idea what his motives were for lying to me and making false promises for a full year.

To make matters worse, it only took me about a week to find another collector who offered a good price for it. I promised the bust to this second buyer, but the problem is that he's been telling me every other week that he promises to send payment next week. This has been going on for 3 months now.

Anyway, life lessons learned are many. First, always make that deposit non-refundable to keep clients from taking your time and then defaulting on an agreement. Second, limit the amount of rework that you will agree to within reason and charge extra for any that goes above and beyond reason (may be hard to determine where to draw the line). Third, never schedule time for a project until you have confirmed with the source that you indeed to have the commission.
I'm sure there are more lessons to be learned from that experience, but one thing I'm glad of is that I have a reliable job and am not dependent on my art to get my bills paid. I am tempted to stop accepting commissions all together and only sculpt things that I want to make and just enjoy my hobby.

At any rate, it all goes back to the idea of having a portrait rep - that would go a long way towards weeding out the nutballs.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers

Anyway, life lessons learned are many. First, always make that deposit non-refundable to keep clients from taking your time and then defaulting on an agreement. Second, limit the amount of rework that you will agree to within reason and charge extra for any that goes above and beyond reason (may be hard to determine where to draw the line). Third, never schedule time for a project until you have confirmed with the source that you indeed to have the commission.

I'm sure there are more lessons to be learned from that experience, but one thing I'm glad of is that I have a reliable job and am not dependent on my art to get my bills paid. I am tempted to stop accepting commissions all together and only sculpt things that I want to make and just enjoy my hobby.

At any rate, it all goes back to the idea of having a portrait rep - that would go a long way towards weeding out the nutballs.

Haha...i like that "weeding out the nutballs" part. That suddenly reminds me of my own recent nutball - a school vice principal who got me into the trouble of writing a proposal (a bigg headache for me) and then can't even mouth "we're not going ahead with it" (i had to dig out those words from their mouth).

Then again, after reading Carlo's story i won't be surprised they're taking my proposal as a template to sourcing for a "cheaper" artist!
Well, anyway what i was about to say was i finally came up with the idea to prevent clients from dragging my time - and that is to charge the additional time if they drag my work because of their whims and fancies, after they have signed the contract.

I reckon that will scare many clients away, but i also think it will sieve out the genuine customers from the "nutballs". Hope this tip helps.

[Carlos Ygoa]

Heidi,

Your story has left me without words.

Like I said in my previous post, there are more stories like that which I will not get into at this point. Maybe we should just all form a club...you can think of the name.

I envy those with regular, reliable jobs. It always makes life more "secure"...but then again, there is also the undescribable feeling of fulfillment that those of us who live purely from our art enjoy. And also the undescribable feeling of precariousness, uncertainty, frustration, and numerous cutting back that those of us who live purely from our art can relate to.

I wish you luck on your portrait rep hunt!

[Michele Rushworth]

Heidi wrote:

To make matters worse, it only took me about a week to find another collector
who offered a good price for it. I promised the bust to this second buyer, but
the problem is that he's been telling me every other week that he promises to
send payment next week. This has been going on for 3 months now.

You can solve this problem by sending him a letter that says, "if payment is not received by X date, the bust will be sold to another collector", and then do it.

It's not uncommon in the painted portrait field to ask for a non-refundable 50% deposit upon contract signing. No work (not even a study or model) is made before that time.

As far as working with an agency, you might want to attend the Portrait Society annual events and bring a beautifully put together portfolio. The agencies always have representatives there and you can discuss your work with them in person.

[Heidi Maiers]

Marcus,
Sorry to hear about your own nutball client. I

[Richard Bingham]

Business is business. Deposits should always be "up front", reflect reasonable compensation for the involvement in time and materials up to a specified point of completion, and be invariably non-refundable. It's your call whether you choose to release sketches, studies or other preparatory work at that point. That either eliminates or lessens the "pain" of having your work "pirated".

Around the cattle auction, the saying is "Money talks, and bull**** walks." An honest, serious client will never be offended by the request for a retainer to begin work on a project. Those who defer you can cheerfully file away with all the other idle inquiries, without wasting productive time. No money, no work. Try getting a house built without putting down cash to start a contractor. It's really that simple.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

"Money talks, and bull**** walks."

Yeee haaa! Well said. I like that!
I wish i could put this up on my shop walls if i ever run a portrait art shop one day! LOL