Commission disaster - what do I do?

[Kimberly Dow]

Lisa,

My first thought after reading this is that you shouldn't have let them see it before it was complete to your satisfaction. Perhaps you were going to kick up the colors or make other changes to the composition before it was finished. I let my clients see work in progress if they stop in and it's right there, but I do not invite it if I can help it. Their inexperience with how a painting develops can lead to them wanting changes or thinking it's not what they wanted.

If it's gone and they have made up their mind that they do not want it, then brush it off. It was a small difficult one anyway. Or, you can try it again, making changes, then show them and see if they are interested.

Heidi, thanks for your comments. Wow, that painting is way better - really gives me something to aspire to!

Kim, you're right, it's over. I've already re-stretched those stretcher bars.

Another thing I've learned here is not to do anything I wouldn't like to see hanging around my studio. As soon as the client gave up on it I was thinking I didn't like it either. I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

I see it now - there wasn't any way this was going to turn out well. I definitely should have passed this one up, but beggers can't be choosers!

[Michele Rushworth]

...beggars can't be choosers.

I disagree. Unlesss someone is literally starving in the streets I think we have to be very choosy in what we paint, and how.

I have recently put up little signs in my office and in my studio that say "Quality, Not Quantity". They are reminders to me that my goal is to strive toward creating much better work than I do now. My goal should not be to try and get as many paintings in the hands of clients as possible, or to get each step completed as quickly as possible.

Seeing those notes to myself often stops me in my tracks and makes me do things like spending an extra day going over some reference photos to see if they are as good as they can be. It makes me choose to begin a painting over again in order to have it on linen and not canvas or to create it at the right size if it was too small or too large to begin with.

I believe that "Quality, not Quantity" is the path toward my financial success as well as my personal satisfaction with my work.

[Mike Dodson]

Michele,

I totally agree with you.

I remember John Howard Sanden talking about how that many of the portraits that hang in museums today were actual commissions. He says that before he begins a new commission that he approaches it with the thought that this could potentially one day become a museum piece.

I have found myself spending more time creating preliminary drawings, value studies and oil studies to help prepare me for the final piece. It's amazing how much one can learn while involved with all this "extra effort" that will certainly pay-off in the long run, both from a financial and quality stand point.

[SB Wang]

Try it before giving up.

Do an impressionistic likeness of one face; if it is approved, ask for that part be paid! Then go on next face, then the background.

[SB Wang]

You may use the images they supplied.
I got a similar commission, I'll figure out if it is better idea than a formal commission.