Painters Online Logo

Login/register

Studio

Commissions

Welcome to the forum.

Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.

Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.

Hang on Studio Wall
Author
Message
IMG_8857

Marjorie Firth

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 8079
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 2454
Posted
I hate them and nowadays don't accept them - too many uncertainties, plus the fact that I get embarrassed to put a price on something before I've done it and it's even worse afterwards! I'm definitely not business minded. However, after a recent club exhibition, in which I showed some portraits of family members, I was asked to do a commission. Foolishly I agreed. The circumstances meant that it was from photographs ( taken by me, I'm not completely daft!) Unusually for me, I gridded it up instead of painting instinctively, which is my way. I've finished it, it seemed to take forever and then I decided to do a quick version - no grid, adjusting as I went along. I actually prefer the quick version! This, I am sure, was because the pressure had gone. Here are the two versions, what do you think? The first is the "proper" portrait.
Moi 17

Linda Wilson

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 3607
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 1536
Posted
I think It's 50:50 Marjorie. I prefer the scarf on the right, but I prefer the hair on the left. I prefer the background on the right, but the face has a warmer feel to it one the left. I prefer the shoulders on the right but the features on the left.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 24825
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 8654
Posted
I prefer the second too, the reason being that in the first version, the sitter looks somewhat as if she's making a "posing face", the way you do, slightly tensely, for a camera. In the second version, there's a wistfulness and thoughtfulness, as though the painter has not determined the expression and imposed it on the subject; she looks less tense, which means, of course, that you were. There are strengths in both versions, and these things are largely subjective - the subject herself may well feel that she looks happier and more determined in the first one: that may be the way she would like to be seen. Perhaps she also looks a little younger in the 'proper' portrait, I don't know.... The second portrait seems softer to me, in a way that suits the subject, and is less obviously painted from a photo (I don't think either is actually "obvious", but there is a hint of that in the first one which I think largely absent from the second). http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Pat Harrison

  • Esteemed User
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 310
Posted
Your client will choose the right one which may not be the one on the right.

Dermot Brennan

  • Forum Member +
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 65
Posted
Hi Marjorie , To me the one on the right is better it's got atmosphere and looks extremely accomplished the first one is good but has not got the same feeling for me anyway , it's a splendid portrait . Artists are rarely good at pricing their own work and indeed often get somewhat embarrassed when asking for money , recently a gallery I put work in asked how much I wanted for my oil paintings I replied ' € 600 please ' the gallery owner told me to add another 300 on top so they're selling at € 900 yet another gallery price them at € 500 but take no commission but insist on framing them so it's all very confusing when setting prices . I would in your case present the client with the two options in the event another family member would buy the second one 😊

Peter Davison

  • Forum Expert
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 533
Posted
There are plus points in both versions as others have described but for an overall impression I prefer the second or 'quick' version.