Selling portraits...

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The Mutant

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I'm seriously considering to accept commissions to draw/paint portraits of beloved family members (either of the four legged etc. kind, or the two legged, human kind), all to be able to buy some more Paphs that I still want (Dollgoldi, I'm looking at you...). This, because I'm studying at the moment, and not full time, so money is pretty scarce...

The question is, would anyone be interested in ordering portraits made by me?

The human portraits would, unfortunately, only be made in pen, a.k.a. black and white/grey scale, since I'm not good enough to paint humans in colour yet. I might dare to make animal portraits in colour, but I can't guarantee that the quality is as good as I would like it to be (man, I'm so good at selling myself!).

Also, I have no idea what the cost should be for the portraits. I thought of offering two sizes; A4, and A3, and that PayPal be used for payment. I would also be willing to ship the drawings/paintings anywhere in the world, as long as the buyer understands that shipping costs will be added (shouldn't be too much though, seeing as the package shouldn't get too heavy).

I would take some liberties with the pictures like I did when drawing this doggy portrait:

e612f6b438bb14b56246134a5f12552d-d5nuq86.jpg


Here's the original photo, and I felt that the dog sort of disappeared into the background, so I removed it and tried to make the dog, pop out more. Also, note that my picture is drawn/painted in Photoshop, and since I can make as many adjustments, for as long as I want to in Photoshop (correcting mistakes etc.), I can't guarantee that my pen portraits would be as good as I consider this portrait to be (brag, brag :p ).

Here's the only example I have to show for a human portrait (again, it's done in Photoshop and wow...4 years ago... - Still proud of it, even if there are parts where I feel I could have done better):

practice-copy.jpg



So, the questions are:

What do you think people would be willing to pay for a portrait with shipping costs etc. included? What's a reasonable price?

Is anyone here on ST interested in ordering a portrait to, hopefully, get a portrait of a beloved family member, and support my orchid obsession? :wink:
 
I think your work is wonderful and you should be proud and brag a bit.
I'd love to have a portrait of my PBGV Sophie. How might you and I manage to do this? From a photo? I don't have a really good photo of
her and she's a bit camera shy. Are you familiar with the breed...Petite
Basset Griffon Vendeen? She's a rough-coated French tracking hound so
lots of texture in the coat and she's a tri-color.

I have no idea about size or what you should charge. I suppose you could
charge on how long it takes you to do the portrait and how difficult the
subject. How to calculate that is beyond me!
 
I would have to use a photo that was emailed to me, a good photo would of course be the best, but any photo really.

Didn't know what the name of the breed was, but I've seen some around here in Sweden. :)

Personally, I would go for A3, since it's larger than A4, but that's completely up to you to decide. And I can't charge based on how long it takes, because then it would get so expensive, I would never be able to sell anything. :rollhappy:

I'm going to ask my art teachers tomorrow about the price and PM you. :)
 
Wow! You ARE extremely talented The_Mutant. I am sure you will get many customers and wish you good luck with this venture.
 
So, I've decided on a general price after consulting my art teachers and other artists (people who actually do this from time to time); 75 - 150$, 55 - 110 EUR (other currencies will be calculated if needed), all depending on size and work involved.

Also, I realized that I confused "pencil" with "pen", sorry for any potential confusion. Plus I realized I can offer to make digital portraits too, and in this medium, I'm more confident in regards to colour portraits (at least drawing/painting animals in colour, humans not so much).

If you're interested, just PM me. :)
 
great work!!!!
Why not make an account on a site, e.g etsy.com, and ask for custom orders?
Also work with social media to make yorself visible to others.
Show some pieces of your work and just define what your work will involve and prices.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!!! :)
 
great work!!!!
Why not make an account on a site, e.g etsy.com, and ask for custom orders?
Also work with social media to make yorself visible to others.
Show some pieces of your work and just define what your work will involve and prices.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!!! :)
Because:

1) I've never heard of the site you mentioned, until you mentioned it. :p :wink:

2) ST and OB ARE my social medias... I'm not that social a person...

I do plan on getting a Fecebook account, though... Any day now. :rollhappy:
 

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