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Thoughts please.
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Message
Posted
This is a portrait my 20 ( today ) grand daughter has done for someone as a commission . It’s on A3 and in my opinion is lovely. She quoted £75 for it unframed.
There is/ was a small black mark to the left of the dog. They complained even though they think it’s a wonderful likeness and love the picture. They gave her £ 30 less .How mean is that. Is that a lesson learned ...sadly it probably is. How would you have coped with it. Me as her G Ma is hopping . 
Posted
Staggering - staggering meanness, and an insult to your grand-daughter's talents. All right - in all honesty, I've been a professional artist and if I'd managed to drop a dollop of black paint, or ink, or whatever, in the wrong place in a painting, or in a place where it would be hard to hide it, I'd drop the price, if I couldn't crop the image. But £75, unframed or not, was a rock bottom price for this work to start with - maybe your granddaughter ought to bump her prices up by around £100 - at least a cut would be less painful. And this is easily worth £175 to £200.
But - there's not much you can do about it in a buyers' market. Chalk it down to bitter experience, crop these parsimonious rotters off your Christmas list, but - to be honest, I think the real answer here is, don't under-price your work in the first place. OK, your granddaughter can't expect to command Hockney prices; neither - tragically! - can I. But £75 for an original watercolour was too low in the first place, and set up an expectation on the part of the purchasers.
I don't say I wouldn't get out of bed for less than £100, because I probably would - but..... why? Really? The work, the time, the presentation - even on the minimum wage we ought to be worth a bit more than that.
Posted
I know a well respected professional artist who did a portrait commission and the purchaser offered less and had the cheek to say 'well no one else would want it'. The artist, who is a friend of mine and sadly through ill-health is no longer able to paint, refused to sell it to him saying he would rather stick it in his bottom drawer never to see the light of day than concede to 'blackmail'.
Posted
A relevent story to show how foresight is far better then hindsight:
Yesterday I went for my newspaper just in time to see the shop manageress of our local store showing a customer a portrait of Marylin Monroe in a brushed alluminium frame, and about 24 x 15 inches in size. Now whilst the very thought is off-putting, the whole thing was done in multicoloured crystal glitter beads and was a really impressive work for what it was. It was something done for a friend or aquaintance of hers.
"How much do you think she charged?" the manageress asked. Not having any real idea, I estimated a couple of hundred pounds for the skill, patience and time involved. Imagine my jaw-drop and table-tennis ball eyes when she said....
" Fifteen pounds!!.......well, she had no idea what to charge really!"
The frame alone must have cost that and Lord knows how many crystal beads were in it. Now you know what you are up against. A little ignorance is a dangerous thing!.......I don't sell paintings, but if I did I'd surely agree a charge before starting and the painting would still be mine until they paid the agree price. This was the case with your grand-daughter Sylvia and she should have sought your advice. I'd advise she does next time..
Posted
It is a really good animal study Sylvia, and has probably captured the little mutt very well. Pretty insulting really if we're honest but that's people for you - she will put it behind her of course and move on. It may, as others have said, been a good idea to have darkened the background, but only the bottom part in my opinion, she will have considered that of course and decided against it.
Sometimes it's better to take what you can and forget about the experience, she did right by doing that. Being a somewhat vile and outspoken person (I know that's hard to believe), I may well have torn it up in front of them, followed by a few well chosen words - but that's me!
Pricing is that difficult one again that is always cropping up. I don't think that £75 was too bad quite frankly, she has that about right, again, in my opinion, Robert differs on this point. Punters just won't splash out their money at the moment, I'm having to drop my prices in the little local craft shop that I have around 50 paintings for sale. Just about everyone askes for a discount and it's a matter of 'get what you can' at times, but I do have a bottom limit of course. I tend to work pretty fast anyway, so I'm happy enough, and my work has no sentimental value to me.
Posted
I doubt they were ever going to pay the £75 in the first place. They sound like the type of people who were going to argue once it was produced to have the money knocked down. If these people come back again to your granddaughter, advise her to either refuse them, or charge them double, and always always always take a full half non refundable deposit first.
Posted
I think I would agree with Michael's friend and said 'Fair Enough, if you don't like it don't have it, but I am not doing another one for you'. I know your granddaughter would have been out of pocket, but I am sure we have all known people who examine things way too closely in the hope of spotting a flaw to their own advantage. But It did make me think perhaps I should write to the National Gallery and point out (as Hockney has in his book Secret Knowledge) that the right hand of the man to Christ's right in the 'Supper at Emmaus' is way out of proportion. I wonder if I offered them £30 for it, they'd let me have it, as it is so clealry imperfect?
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