Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Story of a commission

When I work on a painting commission, it is always with a mix of excitement and fear.  Will I produce the painting my client is expecting?

Recently  I recieved a request for a 30x40" commission.  The client had already purchased a small 8x10" and wanted a similar scene.  She especially liked the sky.

SOLD


I painted a small study of what I thought the client was asking for....focus on the sky and a more interesting marsh area.


Nix!  The sky is much to gaudy for the client, and could I please add some birds.



This had a better reception, but perhaps a few more herons?



Here we are getting closer, but the client felt the flying heron was too distracting to the sunset.



SOLD!
I photo shopped the offending bird out of the composition and got the go ahead!  This is the completed 30x40" canvas which the client is totally happy with.

Most clients have sent me a photo image of exactly the scene they are looking for.  I found this trial and error system has worked well for me when there is no photo image to work from.

I would love to hear how others handle this situation.

Thanks for reading my blog today.

www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

2 comments:

Kim Vanlandingham said...

I find that when working on commissions, you have to handle each client differently. In this case, they probably enjoyed having so much input. I think the painting's great. I agree..I also like it without the flying bird. Seems nicely balanced now. Lovely, lovely work!

hmuxo said...

Very nice paintings Carol!! Congratulations on the sale ..I can see why it was sold!