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Farming, Art, Music, Life, and Fish |
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Work Faster / Get Deposits |
March 27, 2008 5:36pm |
A lesson learned the hard way: next time get the commissioned portrait art done quicker, and, get a deposit on the piece up front.
I've never had anyone stiff me on a painting commission in years of doing business through Craigslist. But it finally happened.
After waiting for over a month for some word on when these folks were gonna pick up the piece that I'd worked like five weeks on, they finally broke down and 'fessed up that a friend of theirs had "surprised" them with a free gift painting that just happened to be based on the EXACT same photo reference that I'd been given, and that looked a LOT like what I'd done. Except that it was more slavish to the photoshop art that they'd done to illustrate the concept. Being that it was free, and they thought it was awesome, they no longer wanted the painting that I'd worked for many many hours on, generating a full-color rough version of the (which I don't always do for clients) and many revisions.
A bit of a body blow, as it was a higher-ticket painting than some that I do. Well, next time I'll get money up front. It's particularly aggravating for me, as I'm culpable in that it took a couple of weeks longer to finish than I'd wanted due to illness and other factors, and if I could have just gotten it to them a bit sooner, I'd have sold it!
I just waited and waited to hear back from them, though; I wrote a couple of short notes wondering what they were up to and got zero response, until finally a THIRD prompt brought the truth out of 'em. I guess they were hoping that Mr. Artist-guy would just go away and not want to be paid for the cool work he'd done.
Kinda bashes your trust in people in general when someone pulls shit like that. Thanks, folks! I just couldn't believe, as I waited and waited, that someone would really stiff me on a painting that they had said they totally liked, and that it looked great.
Ahhh, feels so much better to publicly vent about it!
Aside from that, things are humming along this spring; a trip to North Carolina for two weeks, coming up soon, my first one there; a music-commission that I'm waiting to hear back about (I just sent them the finished rough song) hoping that I won't be crushed by them not liking it at ALL, and preferring instead that they love it outright, or, at the worst, ask for a bunch of revisions, which, since it's a collaboration, would be par for the course and no big deal.
And there's another portrait commission sitting on the board as well, which I need to hurry up and get done, before someone does the same piece for the client for free!
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