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Subject: When the Painting is no longer yours...

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Maggie429

Posts:441

06/18/2008 6:15 AM	Alert
I thought it would be fun to feel how others feel when doing commissioned work (as I am very new at this)... Question (I love questions..): When doing a painting for someone else, commissioned, and they ask you to adjust or change certain aspects of your painting, do you feel a bit deflated because those little changes are no longer your interpretation but theirs. The querky paint strokes or colors are what made the painting yours, but they are paying for it and you adjust the painting accordingly. It looks good, but it is no longer yours, how do you feel?

Mgi www.hoviscreations.com

Kassie

Posts:275

06/18/2008 7:58 PM	Alert
The first oil painting I ever sold was of generic people walking through a park. The central figure had a cute off white hat and a cute little figure. The person who bought it wanted the figure to look like her. The changes. Take away the hat make the hair red and add more hip to the figure. I had already taken a photo and made prints of the original and the customer knew this. So I still have a record of my work and continue to sell it. Perhaps you would feel better about it, if you took a photo of it before you change it. In all I've had 4 oils that people wanted minor changes, but I still have the original photos. Most of them were too customer oriented to place in my prints for my sale prints. But I still have the pictures to show to prospective buyers and this satisfies me.

mikec@pols

Posts:864

06/19/2008 7:57 AM	Alert
I feel your pain, Maggie. It's really hard to 'accept' what the commissioner wants after you've finished the piece. Afterall, they send pics and dicuss in detail and then they want changes after you've finished. I think the best thing to do is to detatch yourself from the piece as soon as you begin. I know that when I paint commissions I 'feel' totally different while I'm doing them. That's why I don't like doing them, but they put the bread on the table. I just look at it asa job, just like painting a wall or a car. I still do the best I can and keep my 'art spirit' going, but I don't attach myself to the piece..does that make sense? Anyway, I know what your feeling... Mike

"You either grow or regress...nothing stays the same...." (unknown) "A man may fall several times in life, but he is not a failure until he says that he was pushed..." www.portraitsoflifestudio.com

mette

Posts:56

06/20/2008 7:07 AM	Alert
Hi! I did a portrait once,the commissioner wanted me to do some canges. I told him no,and then I told him that the man he saw on the canvas..is the man I see, with my eyes.That is what he wanted me to paint... At the end he thought it was wery good and axepted it ,as I painted him.(he loocked a bit more grumpy on my Painting than he does in real life, seen trhou his eyes) I think everyone should paint what they see with theyr eyes, not try to paint what other sees.. I feal hurt when someone will cange something .... It happend once and I hope it wont happen again.

Mette

MTillie

Posts:36

06/23/2008 11:36 AM	Alert
Sometimes it is necessary to sell a work. Be brave. The customer is asking for the changes. If possible, make a new painting for the customer if you think the changes will destroy the work. Or take photos before the changes.

Snowartist

Posts:196

06/27/2008 4:02 AM	Alert
Definitely, don't change it ! Hand them a paint brush and tell them to do their own. Ha! Hugs Lona

Carver Shivers
Posts:143

06/27/2008 4:04 PM	Alert
Not once have I not had a customer ask for changes... Usually to do with hair or teeth or background. Nothing too serious.. But the one thing I allways remembered, the customer is paying me and not someone else. I try to to take it in stride. I never felt that they were changing the original scope of my vision, so I just let it go.. I don't want to make the experience for them painful in any way... I feel blessed that ANYONE wants me to do this for them in the first place. The painting is still mine, no matter what they want changed. I hope to keep this in mind always...

Carver www.shiversgallery.com

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