{"id":722,"date":"2022-05-28T22:56:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T21:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/?p=722"},"modified":"2022-05-28T22:56:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T21:56:43","slug":"concerning-commissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/2022\/05\/28\/concerning-commissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerning Commissions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was rummaging through some old stuff recently and came across an image folder full of paintings that were produced as commissions. This is a cut-down preview of a painting I was asked to paint of Manchester City’s old football ground, Main Road. It was a specific view of the ground painted from a particular seat in the stadium, commissioned by a lady for her husband who was a lifelong fan of the club, and occupied said seat regularly. The recipient of the painting was clearly a sport fanatic, as his wife also commissioned from me a painting of a golf club in the Peak District where he played, and Cheltenham Racecourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s notable that the painting was not to include spectators or footballers, just the ground itself. Likewise, the racecourse was requested with no spectators or horses (which is just as well, because I hate painting horses).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mention these particular commissions because the client requested specific things, in order to create a result that would have personal meaning. Both the football ground and the racecourse required a day out visiting those venues, and gaining the appropriate permission to enter them and collect raw material in the form of photos and sketches. In both cases, a not-inconsiderable travel cost element had to be factored into the final quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get asked about commissions quite frequently by students who wish to take the next step in their artistic careers; how much should they charge? How should they present their proposal? What happens when the commission doesn’t meet the expectations of the client?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that last point, I would say that technology is your friend. I remember the anxiety of delivering commissions in ‘the old days’, never quite knowing if my work was going to meet the approval of my customer. After all, they were paying me good money for the work, so it had to meet their requirements… not necessarily mine. In all the years of painting professionally, I can honestly say that there is only one instance I can recall when a commission was rejected outright. The really odd thing about it was that I’d spent a lot of time with the client, who not only had a specific set of requirements for their painting of Swaledale, it had to be a snowscene and feature two walkers and some sheep and it, too, was a specific view looking down into the valley from an old dilapidated caravan high on the hillside, for which the client sent me a key and contacted me the moment he knew there was actually snow on the ground. I spent a week in that freezing caravan, getting water from the nearby farm and working on a painting that I felt was capturing the essence of the location as perfectly as was humanly possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except, when it came time to deliver the work, the client was unhappy with it. It was an awkward meeting, made all the more awkward by the fact that we’d arranged to meet at a junction of the M42, only he and I were both waiting at different junctions. Roughly an hour after the prearranged time, when he finally gazed upon the the painting in the boot of my car, created and framed to his specific requirements, his look of dismay and displeasure was crushing to say the least. The good news is, the painting was hung in the Victoria Art Gallery in Ashbourne soon after and sold to a customer who absolutely loved it, so I got my fee after all – just not from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At which point, I would like to wrap this up with a handful of tips that may possibly help you if you fancy the idea of taking on commissions…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly; work as closely as you can with your client to ascertain as precisely as you can what it is that they are expecting of you. Photos of a subject can help and may be the primary exchange of information if a commission is being done from a distance (via email, for example). Once you’ve agreed on the finer points of the subject in question, and a price, which should cover as many eventualities as possible (including travel expenses), and be sealed with a reasonable deposit, I recommend putting together a sketch or two – perhaps even a simple thumbnail watercolour, showing colours and the mood you’re planning create. Use this stage to give the client the opportunity to have their say; do they want anything changing? Are they happy with the colour palette and the mood you’re proposing? The client should feel like they are in total control of the situation, and can ask for whatever changes they would like, however small. Always remember that the client is the one paying the money, and even if you don’t entirely agree with some of their requests… the customer is always<\/strong> right. If you really don’t agree with their requirements, then be prepared to turn it down before anyone gets hurt. If necessary, it can be handy to have small print that enables you to back out of the commission if you feel the creative differences are going to be insurmountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, when the painting has been completed, send a good quality, watermarked, image to your client to approve it before sending it off to them or throwing it into the boot of your car to go and deliver it to them. That way, the outcome is likely to be favourable (and ‘in the flesh’ paintings always look better than their digital counterparts anyway). The point is; your client, knows in advance what to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissions can be good earners, but they’re a different proposition to painting your own, personal work because they have to meet the expectations of only a single client, or perhaps a couple. In some ways, part of the skill of a commission is that of being able to visualise exactly what it is that your potential client wants. Left to my own devices, I might put cracks into the wall of a house or holes in the roof because I think it makes it more aestheically pleasing. Normally, If I don’t like the colour of a door, I’ll have no qualms about changing it or moving it (or taking it out altogether). Such modifications might not go down too well with the customer, though, who just wants a nice watercolour of their home on their living room wall. Some people have no taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was rummaging through some old stuff recently and came across an image folder full of paintings that were produced as commissions. This is a cut-down preview of a painting I was asked to paint of Manchester City’s old football ground, Main Road. It was a specific view of the ground painted from a particular seat in the stadium, commissioned...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-general","category-tips","category-watercolour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}