saper articles index

Looking in the Mirror: Setting the scope of your commissions

Girl with Lyre, 1905 By Cecilia Beaux Berry Hill Gallery, New York

An objective understanding of your own portrait painting skills is critical to your progress and your success, because it will guide virtually every aspect of your commissioned portrait painting—which includes establishing the size, medium and complexity of what you offer, as well as pricing. Commission work will require that you be specific in what you are offering, and what you offer should be based on what you do well.

In every case, that means undertaking a brutal self-assessment in evaluating where your artwork is strong,—and perhaps more importantly—where it is weak. Such an effort is not for the faint-hearted, nor should it be left to family or friends. Seek out regular, honest critiques of your work—from a portrait instructor, a fellow artist (find one who paints better than you), or a variety of resources available to you online.*

There tend to be several frequent and very common problems in portraiture:

• Drawing errors;
• Value error in conveying three-dimensional form;
• Composition; and
• Use of inadequate reference photographs

I include the problem of poor resource material, because so many portrait painters rely, to some extent, on photographs, and because it's rather useless to practice, let alone apply, elements of drawing and value when a painter starts with a reference that will doom the painting before it's ever begun. Helping you to get excellent resource material will be a future topic in this column.

Drawing skill/Value control

I 'd have to say that I think drawing and value are so essentially connected that it makes little sense to try to separate them. Color is unnecessary in conveying a portrait, and no amount of exciting color can overcome drawing or modeling errors.

Accurate value, edge, and color information are elements that are unavailable from photographs. The only way to learn to work with photos is to get as much practice—and regular practice—working from the live model as often as possible. And it doesn't matter how long you've been painting successful commissions, you still need regular practice. As Harley Brown says, "You have to draw every day just to keep from getting worse." :

It is quite rare that I can get to the available Open Studio sessions in my area, since they are most often weekends or at night, when I'm either doing family things, or am just too darn tired to go out in the evening. As I mentioned previously, practice should be perfect practice—and only imperfect practice is possible with physical or mental exhaustion at hand. Try to set your practice time at your best time—based on whether you're a "morning person" or a "night owl", or any other relevant criterion.

When I find myself feeling rusty, I schedule live "sittings" at my studio—based on a half-day schedule that works with my calendar and doesn't interfere with what I need to do for my family. Currently, I am hosting my "volunteers" on Wednesday mornings, 9-12. This is the most productive use of my time, because my sitters come to me—and leave when the session is over. I don't have to spend time packing up materials, driving, or taking a lunch break. Contact potential sitters/fellow artists/students either though email or by placing a small ad in the local art group newsletters. I block out several months of Wednesday mornings (or any other time slot) on my calendar for no other purpose than real-life practice. I do everything I can to avoid setting conflicting appointments, because I think it's an important part of my work.

The fact that there may not be an open studio near you, or that classes aren't available to you, doesn't' matter: YOU are the one model who is ALWAYS available. If the mirror can't come to you, take your easel to the mirror. The self-portrait from life is an irrefutable and classic standard. Plus, you never have to show them to anyone else if you don't want!

Please take special note that I do not speak of drawing "talent." Since I am not really sure exactly what "talent" is, I think it's more practical to discuss drawing "skill," and skill is something that can be developed. The only limits I see to developing skills are your willingness to objectively "see" (both literally and figuratively), and your willingness to work hard. If you have been fortunate enough to have received training by painting from life, you most likely already have a solid background in drawing. If you are one of the very many self-taught artists or an artist who has so far only trained by using photographs, you can rapidly gain invaluable experience by committing right now to working from life as much as you are able. Don't be discouraged in the slightest!

What will you paint?

Obviously, skill in painting the head and shoulders is basic to portraiture. You have to offer the head/shoulders option—but if you aren't yet skilled in painting hands, don't offer them yet. Instead, spend as much time as you can practicing painting hands. The same principles apply to including any additional pictorial elements to your portraits' scope. Evaluate your skill—and desire—to include elaborate fabrics, architectural elements, landscape settings or florals to your portraits.

Offer a larger scope of complexity in your commissions when you feel you're ready.

What about color? Establishing your medium

If you presently work in only one medium, it's perfectly fine to offer only one choice. And it doesn't necessarily have to be color—it might be charcoal or pencil, or any other monochromatic media. It just needs to be a medium where you feel you can do your best work.

It's important to know, though, that if you limit yourself to monochromatic work, you'll lose out on a lot of work. The same hold true for watercolor, pastel and acrylic. In the world of portraiture, oil is king. No other medium is an as high a demand, nor does any other medium command the price structure of oil.

As painters, we know that it takes just as much drawing skill to create a beautiful charcoal, pastel or watercolor portrait. We also know that color is demanding across all media. However, not even the smoothest sales pitch will win the commission from the client who wants an oil portrait.

Does this mean you should avoid offering alternative media? Of course not! Keep in mind, though, that you'll probably want to add oil to the choice of media you'll be offering in the future. Having begun by only offering pastel, I became increasingly aware of how much work passed me by in favor of oil artists. I took regular classes and workshops in oil portraiture, and painted about one hundred heads in oil before I felt ready to offer them to clients. To date, I do not believe I have ever lost a commission because I didn't offer media other than oil.

Your clients will want to see consistent quality in your work. Knowing what to expect is a key part of clients' trust. Don't give them the option to commission something that is not yet up to your standard of quality. When you're ready, they'll be ready, too.

Go to your easel. Pursue perfect practice. Paint from life. What work could possibly be more fun?

See you next time.

Copyright © 2005 by Chris Saper.

NOTE: There are many online discussion forums, critique resources (including a relatively new critique program offered to members of the Portrait Society of America for a nominal fee) available. If you are considering placing your work on an open online forum for critique, do your homework first. Submit work only to those groups where the members have shown, through past critique, to offer honest constructive guidance.

saper articles index