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Tom, I haven't heard from the client since I spoke to her last weekend, but I've been working on the portrait based on some excellent suggestions I got from Alex, Michele, and more recently Allan Rahbek after posting the painting and the reference photo in the Works in Progress section. I have to tell you that in this case the client was right - there WAS "something wrong about the mouth." I'm still wrestling with it but I think I'm getting closer. I didn't have the objectivity to see where I went awry with her face and was concentrating on the husband's, which I saw as much more challenging. It took some fresh eyes to point out what wasn't working.
My fees are generally much lower than the rest of yours, and I don't charge enough for it nor do I like doing a color study first. For me the painting loses its freshness and its fun when I'm doing it twice. But I do show clients the blocking-in stage so they can see the composition and the general look of the painting and can decide whether it's what they had in mind when they selected the reference material. I don't proceed until I've gotten an okay at that stage. That didn't help me here, but a color study wouldn't have either; where the painting got into trouble was in the delineation and placement of the woman's features which is more of an end-stage aspect.
Do you find that your clients are willing to pose in the studio so that you can paint from life? The few times I've worked from life I haven't been happy with the expressions I got; also, since I paint people mostly in outdoor settings it would be hard to recreate the lighting in the studio. I will sometimes have the subject down to my studio and do some touchups with him or her in front of me, both to use as a model and to have them validate whether the changes I'm making are making a significant difference in their opinion. But that's as far as I normally go.
I am definitely going to start getting a deposit; I think the client would be more committed to working with me that way. As it is, now that the current client is not happy with the painting I'm wondering whether even the most accurate of portrayals, should I be able to make the right changes, would make her comfortable with it. In the past I've been able to work through situations like that, but the clients didn't seem to feel as awkward about it as she does!
Thanks for taking the time to comment on this thread. I think it's been very educational for me!
Leslie
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