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Originally Posted by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco
always claim you have worked from several photos and that there is not one that can be compared exactly.
Ilaria
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Dear Ilaria and Alex,
Thank you both for your reply. You are both saying the same thing! That I shouldn't show the client the reference photo. Thanks Alex for walking me through the process in great detail so I can prepare myself ahead of time for next time.
I think part of the problem this time, though it really wasn't much of a problem, was that this woman had no idea how the portraits were going to look. She came over with the grandchildren and I took photos. She was comfortable with not seeing any preliminary sketches or even which reference photos I was going to use, which was great. But, the downside was that she had no idea what to expect when she came over to get the portraits. I think I've learned, as you said Alex, to include the client a bit more in the process
along the way. That way there will be no surprises. I'm probably very lucky she liked the poses I chose!
I have another commission in the works and this client and I have alread spent an hour looking at sample portraits for ideas. She doesn't know if she wants head and shoulders, 3/4, indoors or outdoors. She's the opposite of the first client I had!
Back to the reference photos . . . When I explain I used a number of ref. photos, I can just see someone saying "well, show me the reference photo you used for the mouth then". I guess I'll cross that bridge when and if I ever get to it. Meanwhile, I would try to focus more on their general impression of the painting. That's GREAT advice.
I will have to think long and hard about at what stage in the portrait I would invite them to come and look at it. I'm sure there are a lot of different opinions on this. Though from now on I think I will definitely show the client a color study or some kind of mock up of what I plan to do, even if they say "Oh, I trust you, do whatever you want".
thank you both for your helpful replies,
Joan