You would have to be out of your mind to do a commissioned piece of art. There are so many pitfalls, red flags and potential problems with commissions! However, one day you may find yourself broke and in a sufficiently ‘economically compromised position’ to proceed with a commission against all advice. Brace yourself Bridget, the commissioned art business can look like this:
Scenario 1: You are asked to paint a photograph of the client’s important person, pet, moment or place. The photo has enormous emotional content for the client. The client is crying and shaking as she begs you to recreate the photo as best you can.
Scenario 2: You are asked to fill a specific wall space with something the client can’t really describe (Surprise me!) but it needs to be super-duper beautiful plus it has to match the sofa colors. Oh, also it needs to be done by next weekend when they will have house guests.
Scenario 3: The client describes a subject to paint, maybe a unicorn or a rainbow or something. After you start the painting, you discover your client expects your painting, including frame and glass, has to cost less than $90, which is the cost of a cute print they saw at a Michael’s store.
What can a starving pastel artist do with these scenarios from hell? We have six solutions for you to control your client expectations while having a rewarding and enjoyable artistic experience for yourself:
- You must first agree about the cost and size of the final art. Remember, your commission is priced without a frame. You could say, “In an art gallery this would be $1300 framed, but I can offer you a “Friend of the Artist” price of only $800 without frame! I will work with you about a frame no matter what you decide, and I can even frame it for you for an additional $200, or you could take it to your favorite framer and get it framed for about $350.” If the client was referred to you from a gallery you will owe the gallery a commission on your commission, so factor the commission into the price. By offering the client a discount you should be stopping any further negotiations about the price.
- Most clients have no idea what goes into creating an artwork; it’s up to you to lay out a concrete plan for how you go about their commission and communicate how long the process will take. Divide your process into stages and assure your client they get approve each stage before you move forward. Do not deliver the final art too quickly! Clients can do the math about how long you worked and how much you charged, so slow everything down. Do not deliver the art too quickly! Working in stages lets you catch client concerns before you get too far into the process.
- Some clients take advantage of artists. We recommend you get a 50% non-refundable down payment, particularly if you have never worked for the client before. Down payments protect artists from investing in labor without pay. Clients are less likely to cancel a project if they have already invested money. Non-refundable down payments should be discussed at the very beginning of the project. Sometimes artists use written contracts to make things more clear, and more legally defendable.
- For the client that wants you to paint a personally important person, pet, moment or place- it will not be possible for your painting to meet all the emotional requirements of the client, but a beautiful painting can meet all the artistic challenges and can end up being way more cherished than any reproduction. This probably means you will have to change parts of the photo, such as composition or color palette, to turn a photo into art. Do not hesitate to give yourself a rewarding and enjoyable artistic experience because that’s the whole point being an artist.
- Sometimes clients ask you to paint something you don’t feel 100% qualified to do. For me this would be portraits. I know I should not attempt to paint any portraits. In cases like this it’s better for your client, and for your own reputation, for you to refer the client to someone better qualified for what they want.
- Assume that a client’s verbal description of what he or she wants is not going to align with your visual interpretation right away. If your artwork is up to the task, and if you can add a dash of charm and charisma to your relationship with the client, the commission can end up much better than the client, or than you yourself, ever envisioned.
