Four Unpleasant Situations I Encountered As A Portrait Artist
Being a portrait artist, sometimes I encountered several interesting situations when communicating with my clients. Now before I proceed further I understand that people have expectations and these expectations are necessary especially when you are paying someone to do something for you.
But there are times when these expectations are down right ridiculous.
Situation 1: People expect me to do FREE drawings for them
When I first started to get serious in pursuing art, I did offer to draw portraits for free to build my portfolio. But after a couple of months I started charging reasonable fees. However some people took me for granted and wanted me to draw their portraits for free even after I told them they need to pay. And when I told them this they took it personally and said I am selfish!
Situation 2: People are willing to pay BUT they want me to draw in the style of an artist they admired
This makes me wonder why bother contacting me if you want me to draw like other artists? Why not contact that artist and pay him/her to draw for you?
Situation 3: People are not satisfied with the portrait because they look old
Maybe some artists do make their subjects look younger in their drawings but for me I can only draw what I see. If you look old in your photograph, I would draw a portrait that look exactly like it. I am sorry if I can't make you younger. If you want to look younger perhaps you can consider manipulating your photo in Photoshop. Pay someone to do it digitally for you.
Situation 4: People thinks stencil portrait is EASY and the fees I am charging for it is ridiculous
Some people thinks creating stencil art is very easy - posterized your photo in Photoshop, print and cut. Easy as ABC. What they don't realize is the amount of hand cutting involved. It's hard and the more details you include the more complex the cutting process would be, especially multi-layered stencils (for creating different tones). Hours and hours of tedious work.
However rest assured majority of my clients are very cooperative and generous. Despite those unpleasant situations I would not stop drawing portrait or pursuing art :)
Photos below: My latest work-in-progress: cutting stencil of a tiger. My daughter is sitting beside me, doodling.
It's great that you know to only choose clients who appreciate what you do. 😊
It's unavoidable. It's annoying and amusing at the same time.
As long as you can laugh at it. :)
That's people for you! Always wanting what you can't do for them. Probably most artists go through that. Your tiger is great, well done. Upvoted and following so I can see more of your work.
Thank you @deemarshall. I accept it as part and parcel of the profession. I have followed you too :)
thank you :)
Totally understand where you are coming from 🤣
Thank you for stopping by @bitrocker2020
Thank you very much for this post.
You are most welcome.
uff... I can totally relate, I had a friend ask me if he could have one of my paintings, he thought it would be a great gift for a couple he kew that was getting married as they collected art... hmnnn and what did he propose to pay ? A big fat nothing ... it was like but you have painted a lot of paintings , and it will be seen by many ... lol ...not gonna put butter on my bread ( a big oilpainting lol 1meter by 1 meter ... took about 300 hours to create) ... My answer was pretty simple ... NO !
That is so rude of him. A lot of people thinks art has no value and creating art is not a real job. They thought we just dabbled. Like this is just a hobby. While this is true for many people but we need $ to live. Our art is a way for us to feed our family, pay bills.
exactly ... and artists end up working several jobs on the side while still trying to create art ... and then are told oh but you are only a hobby artist ...either way the lack of respect for artistic professions is big ... even though most of what surrounds us is art and created by artists
Hello my dear friend
You are flattered
Please flood me @haji ♥
As mentioned, I did the cutting when I did etching. It's hard to do that and keep a good, sharp tip, to follow an image exactly and then not muck up the stencil when you're trying to use it.
I have encountered 2 of these, though. People either want the art for free or they want you to draw like someone else. I love Amy Brown, but don't want people asking me to draw her drawings. I consider that insulting to both of us (A. too cheap to go to the original artist) and (B. you clearly don't like my stuff.)
Great job