[Chris Saper]

Dear David,

Having been in the position (as I suspect the majority of portrait painters have) of needing to work a day job, and grabbing painting hours wherever possible, I wholeheartedly applaud your sense that it is much better to paint than not to paint.

There are a handful of painters perhaps who have never painted from photographs, only from life, but it is beyond me to guess how they pay the rent along the way. It would indeed be a luxury to have a studio ready at hand, and willing cooperative models who arrive on time, don't change their hairstyles. For most people, though it is simply an unworkable demand.

To paint successfully from photographs, I think you need three things:

1. Experience painting from life. If you can get people you know to sit for you, do it. If you can work your 5 available hours to include an open studio in your local area, where professional models will sit (usually for a few dollars an hour, when artists share the fee), do that. But is you can't find a live model, PAINT ANYWAY. You can also use some of your hours from time to time to paint the still life from life. It's something you can set up and leave between sessions, and it will sharpen your skills in seeing values, colors, and edges.

2. Become familiar with the problems inherent in photographs, so that you can apply the skills you have gained painting from life to overcome the limits of photographs.

3. Hours and hours of time. If you clock in your hours at five per week, you will be ahead of where you would be at three per week. If you can work this up to 6 hours per week, then 8, do it.If you can't see #1 above, PAINT ANYWAY.

When I was working a full-time day job (more like 50 hours per week than 40)I would take my vacation time, and use it to attend full week workshops. See if this is something you can do.

To the question at hand (finally): I think Cynthia's comments are on the money. Rather than use celebrity images to demonstrate whether you can get a likeness, be willing to show clients source photos as well as the finished painting, and let them judge this for themselves. There are artists who don't agree with this either, but I can tell you I would never commission someone without having a feel for the degree of likeness to expect.

Spend time learning how to take your own photos, since the way you view and pose your subjects is part of your approach and style. If you do need to work from another person's photos, I agree that you will face copyright infringement problems. I have had several circumstances where I have requested written permaission from the photographer, and to date, have received it willingly. In this case I always credit the photographer in the legend of the work.

I wish you well.

Chris