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We all improve with experience. Of course the ideal would be to be able to paint without the need to earn a living and not have sold any paintings until we have established our style and expertise. But even I can look at paintings of artists whose earlier work was very, very good and see that their current work surpasses it in many ways. But I still like their early work just the same.
An artist who comes to mind is William Whitaker. Now he has been kind enough to have included a few galleries on his site of his earlier work. This retrospective shows a lot of very good paintings but I feel the work he is doing today is even more masterful. Does that mean his early work is not good? No of course not, and I would be more then proud to be the owner of any of his paintings.
For clients not to expect that your work will improve over time is unrealistic. But as your work improves and your reputation grows your fees will or at least should increase. I had a few early clients that could not afford what I now charge so they treasure the painting I did for them all the more.
Now, I am not a famous portrait artist by any means and my fame is very limited even within my own community, but nonetheless, my art has improved. It is in more demand and I can get higher fees than my early clients paid. I do not feel the need to apologize for my early work. It was the best I could do at the time and they paid a fair price for it as it was.
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