|
Debra
Love your work! I do have several comments to make about your brochure in particular, and portfolios and brochures in general.
1) I am concerned about your prices. I couldn't clearly read all of the information, but your numbers seem to be way too low. I tell my "just out there" students, (you are already beyond that stage...) to start at $500 for an oil head and shoulder. After they've done a few and are comfortable, to jump to $1000. You need to differentiate yourself from the quick draw artists. There is nothing wrong if that is your chosen course, but if you want to be a professional portrait artist, you need to be charging a price which will allow you to make a living. (Surprisingly, many of the problems you and Renee alluded to, i.e., people getting cheap on you, are directly related to your charging too little. You need to price yourself into a different cliental.)
The portfolio or brochure:
2) Separate categories If you want to do animal portraits, have a portfolio/brochure with just animals. Have a separate portfolio/brochure with just charcoals. Have a portfolio/brochure with just children. I would not have animal portraits in with your human portraits (unless they are both in the same painting). I would not include non-portraits, i.e., the figure pose or still life. You are better off having a portfolio/brochure that has six portraits of children than a scattershot that has everything.
3) Standardize your work. There is a typical portrait. It is dignified. It follows conventions. There is the head and shoulders, the head and hands, the seated 3/4, the standing 3/4, and the full length. Price by the size/body part. I would stay away from the full grin smiling portraits. (Grins are fine for the charcoal, which I see as less formal and more experimental than oil). Don't do candids. Look carefully at the body of work that Cynthia Daniel has on the Stroke of Genius sites. Produce enough work to have a solid portfolio before you solicit commissions. You will be judged by the weakest painting in your portfolio. Eliminate any paintings that are not your best. If you only have one good painting, only show that.
4) I suggest to burgeoning portrait artists that they paint five to eight head and shoulders of children for their first portfolio. The head and shoulders paint up fast and the easiest "sale" is to the parents of young children. You can get commissions right in your own backyard. To fill your portfolio with head shots, I suggest you paint your own children, your nieces or nephews. Paint your neighborhood children, but do charge money (even if it's only $50). The parents will love everything you do if it's free, but the second you charge money, they'll have an opinion. It's important to get used to hearing the clients opinion. (They are usually right...)
5) Photographs of the subject do not belong in your portfolio. On this I have a very strong opinion, and I am sure this will cause some controversy, but I personally don't think you should include photographic references of your work in the portfolio/brochure. To most viewers there is an automatic assumption that you have created a likeness. If you include a photograph, you are challenging and encouraging the viewer to compare the two. You are also making the point in the strongest way possible that what you create is a painted photograph. If someone insists that they want to see the photographs, I will show them a different photo from the one I used in the painting. My point is, yes, it does look like the person, but I am not encouraging hypercritical inspection. If you have a strong brochure/portfolio, people will assume that is what the sitter looks like.
This is probably enough for one post.
Peggy
|