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| I do not know who created this, but it made me laugh. |
Commissions are difficult and even more difficult with friends and acquaintances. With art commissions you are supposed to take half the payment before you start and the other half upon delivery. But with friends you want to make them happy, rules get blurred, and I have said and done things that put me at a disadvantage. Here is a list of positive and negative moments I experienced.
Commission 1
Finished. Paid.I was asked to draw or paint a positive and strong portrait of a friendly acquaintance. I felt honored. But I was in a vulnerable phase with my art and it took me about 4 months to finish. Plus she said to search through her Facebook photos and pick one that I like best. The unfortunate thing about that is that Facebook photos are usually bad quality. At the end of it all, I had created a 16x20 acrylic canvas portrait that looks awful and had to tuck away for another day. I also created a 9x12 acrylic painting that was fairly good, and was paid dearly for it. After I was paid then inspiration struck, I created my favorite portrait of her in ink and oil pastels that I will gift her the next time I see her. For a 1st time commission, that was a great experience.
Commission 2
Finished. Paid.I put myself in a horrible situation by joining Fiverr. I created a Fiverr gig, $5 portrait on 3x5 cardboard. I offered other options for more money for a larger cardboard piece. An acquaintance bought it for $25 and wanted a portrait of her stepsister that passed away. Why would you want your stepsister's tribute to be on cardboard? That is a major honor. But on cardboard? The reason the portraits are so cheap is because it is on cardboard.
So I decided to put the portrait on quality toned paper instead and 7 hours later I was finished. It was too late to mention that cardboard was bad paper to use and she shouldn't have bought that Fiverr option and should have contacted me directly instead. I regret not thinking it through and not telling her to cancel the order.
Fiverr took $5 from the gig. And another $1.00 to send it to PayPal. Then my friend wanted it snail mailed and that was about $6. She only offered shipping if I made her another portrait. OH HELL NO! Not at that price will spend hours on a piece for that amount of money. So no extra money for shipping was offered.
For a piece I worked on for 7 hours on good paper ended up being $13.00 in my pocket. As her acquaintance I would have charged her less than $85, but definitely not $13. That was a horrible feeling. I felt taken advantage of. After that I deactivated my Fiverr account due to it not being worth it in the long run. After I shipped it I calculated that I made less than minimum wage, about $1.85 an hour using my personal art supplies and seven hours of my time. Not to mention I used an expensive protective cover to ship it in.
Mini regrets are the best when you learn from them, because in the future you will have to make a similar decision with a bigger piece.
Commission 3
Finished. "Paid."I have friends who offer free meals in exchange for portraits in the form of paintings and/or photographs. I did it, but they now constantly make our hangouts about "let me do this for you and you'll do that for me." So I try to distance myself because I want to earn cash for my art, not favors. I am not holding up a sign like a homeless person, "Will Draw for Food." In a sense, it is insulting.
Some people do not view art as work, yet always mention they don't have the skills to create art. Um... People go to college to develop a wide range of skills. When they graduate they expect a career. I went to school for art and poetry, some parts of art comes naturally to me. Just like math or science comes naturally to others. Why have the arts been so discounted and undervalued? It is so sad. So many people list their favorite past time as watching movies, going to the theater or museum, shopping, decorating their home, etc... The majority of these things are from artists. The only time art is not work is when you are creating something for yourself and not applying someone else's vision to paper or canvas. If you view my art as not that good or not worth the money, then you are not my audience and we should not be doing business together. Let's not waste each other's time.
Commission 4
Started but Canceled. Unpaid.Not all accountants are the same. Not all lawyers take care of divorces. Many years ago I had friends that were starting their own business and asked me to create a PhotoShop Logo with hockey pucks and sticks. They saw my portraits and figured I was an all-purpose artist. I draw portraits of women, not animals, not couples, not landscapes, not graphic arts... Being asked to draw a corporate logo was a huge honor, but that is not what I specialize in. I mentioned that I am not that kind of artist and not good with PhotoShop. They said they believed in me and I said I would try. After hours of cutting and pasting I emailed them the results. They asked me to tweak a bunch of things and gave me a deadline. I couldn't. It got to the point that what they were asking for were beyond my skills and abilities. I wrote them a long letter asking them to find someone that knew how to do it, I was overwhelmed and I already had enough stress in my life. That led to our friendship ending because they thought I didn't care about their business or success. They thought I was being lazy. I just hope one day they realize where they went wrong. I know where I went wrong, I should have said no from the start. I will trust my instincts from now on. Would you ask Lisa Frank to create a portrait like a Georges Braque painting? No, you would ask Picasso to do it instead.
Commission 5
Finished. Unpaid.This was supposed to be a $40 portrait of a couple. I said I didn't want to be paid until I was done since we were friends. I sketched, watercolor sketched, etc... and when I finally got a good grasp of their likeness, I drew it on quality paper. I shared it in a secret Facebook album and all I got was a Like. Apparently after all that work she didn't like the results and didn't bother to ask when I could give it to her. Nothing. I deleted the album. You are not always going to have a happy customer and that is ok. In the future, when I spend my time on a drawing or painting a portrait, I will approach this much differently.
OK, so the majority of my commission experiences suck. Ha! I also found that it hinders all my creativity to make more art because I am worried about finishing that one important piece. It makes me feel guilty if I take a break and just create something else while I brainstorm my next step for the commission.
I decided to become more business-minded so I am not disappointed in the future. I created a commissions page detailing prices for subject, size, and mediums. I created an agreement document that I will have people sign in advance before I start a commission. When it comes to friends and acquaintances, I will always have a soft spot for them, but I may not create another commission this year due to needing space from what had happened so far. And I may never create anything for a friend in the future so that there will never be any bad blood between us. I need a fresh start with how I conduct myself. To clarify, I will paint portraits of friends, but they will be a surprise. It will happen when I am inspired. They will not be gifts either.
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