Survival

[John de la Vega]

Yes, there's a very good chance of not just surviving, but of thriving as a portrait painter, no matter how good and vast the competition.

A few caveats:

1) First the obvious: work must be good, or at least appealing to a fairly broad spectrum of potential portrait customers.

2) Marketing must fully convey the work's worth. This is a somewhat thorny subject, as the manner in which we present ourselves and our work can involve some, for lack of a better expression, psychological subtlety.

The presentation of work and working procedures are key, whether at a website such as this or any other means of letting the public know, through advertising (which requires capital to be effective), or other means. Pricing and description of working procedures is, in my view, critical to convey to the client what the artist really thinks of his or her work. Many 'working procedures' are entirely too specific, with information that is either redundant, confusing to the client, or coy. A portrait painter need not surround himself or herself in a veil of mystery, but must understand that there's always the right time to disclose details of how we produce our work, or even how we go about conducting our first sitting or photo session.

'Survival' is not really hard, if one can get a good resemblance in an artistically pleasing painting. For many, of course, this would be a tall order. To turn mere 'survival'into 'success' requires tremendous commitment, concentration, an uncompromising attitude, and very hard work. To reach that level there are no shortcuts.