Commissioned Vampire Portrait, Customer Hates It.

[Cynder]

image removed

 

I posted an incarnation of this a while ago when it was still in progress. It was commissioned by a guy who wanted to see himself as a Vampire.

 

I've kept up on it with him the whole time I've worked on it. But he wasn't too happy with the final product. Oh Well. Still, thought I would post here for critique and feedback from you all.

[metrogirl]

He kinda looks drunk in the pic.......I would find it more believable if the vampire looked a little evil.

[Honey Pumpkin]

Well, maybe it depends what he wanted? I mean, I have to say it would not be what I expected if I were to commission a vampire portrait, I think I would want something more realistic but sinister and so on. It looks a little cartoonish to me, to be honest.

[Nixee]

I tend to agree. Maybe it is the Twilight saga era we live in... but vampires seem to be appearing more and more friendly lately - like dark playboys, and less like the seductive evil they have traditionally been.

 

I'm sorry your customer was disappointed Did he give you any feedback/reasons as to why?

 

It is easy for someone like me to say I think a vampire should look more dark/evil, but since this is a representation of him, his reasons for not liking it may be more personal.

[Catdancer]

I just wanted to add that your artist creativity and talent is freakin amazing. Whether he likes it or not, it cannot be denied that you are a wonderful painter.

[OmegaMan]

I'd like to give you some critique but it won't be nice and flattering although I can assure you it will be honest.

 

Let me know if you'd like to read them.

[HealingHandsWarmHeart]

there are a lot of things that are distorted- his face looks very distorted - i.e eyes too close together.. and his hand is very distorted-

 

i would imagine if he wanted to be "transformed" he would at least want it to be recognizable that its him/her.

[EQD]

thin the hair, it seems too full. go back and redo the lips, the shadow will do a slight break before the lipline. in your picture there is no break, making it look like you put a sticker of lips on the picture. there is no 3d feel to it.

eyes spaced further apart. (rule is one eye width between the two)

and reshape and slightly shorten the nose... or extend the jaw and shift the lips down.

the mouth being agape is going to change your entire face shape, so you must take that into consideration.

and his left hand needs a little work.

 

what i do like about the picture is the shading effects of the skin and clothing, curtains and other objects. this will of course help you if you apply it to the lips.

 

just practice on facial expressions and anatomy of the skull and you'll be set.

[In the Dark]

What kind of mood did he want portrayed in the painting?

How did he want to see himself?

 

This is what I see

The portrait looks to be of a happy go lucky, welcoming vamp who likes to drink rose coloured wine.

His cat has the evil expression though.

 

But at the end of the day it's whatever mood, expression, demeanor he was wanting portrayed.

[Cynder]

I'm not that wounded that he hates it. As an artist I've become an expert at taking criticism, both constructive and non constructive. When someone hires me to do something they have a vision in their head. And I try to capture that vision the best I can. But, I'm no psychic, so my vision is always a little different from theirs.

 

This guy is obsessed with Twilight. And I went over every detail of this painting with him as I was doing it.

 

The process started with a photoshoot at his house. I worked from a photo reference. In every pic I took of him he was smiling and making goofy faces. I told him if he wants this to look serious make a serious face. He said he wants it to look like him and capture his personality.

 

I agree, his face is a little more goofy than faces warn by most of my paintings... But since he doesn't want this I guess it doesn't matter now if it looks like him or not. So I can always go back and redo the face more to my liking.

[annie24]

did the guy tell you what about it he didn't like specifically and would you be able/willing to fix it? has he seen your other work? obviously, you'll get a different result if you ask Picasso vs. Renoir to make a portrait....

[Cynder]

I'd like to give you some critique but it won't be nice and flattering although I can assure you it will be honest.

 

Let me know if you'd like to read them.

 

By all means, I love honest critiques. Most people don't really have the balls to be honest. (And that's not an insult to anyone here, I just mean in general, most people don't.)

 

You can PM me if you would feel more comfortable doing it that way.

[Cynder]

did the guy tell you what about it he didn't like specifically and would you be able/willing to fix it? has he seen your other work? obviously, you'll get a different result if you ask Picasso vs. Renoir to make a portrait....

 

He doesn't like the look on his face. He loves everything else about it. But that's the face he made in all the photos. He knew I would be working directly from a photo reference.

[EQD]

oh.. i know what he wanted then.. just sprinkle some glitter effect on his skin. *nods* i bet thats the finishing touch he's craving.

[In the Dark]

So he made goofy faces in the photos.....

Then what exactly did he want?

A serious face from goofy facial expressions?

 

And artist can only work with what they've got.

[Cynder]

I just wanted to add that your artist creativity and talent is freakin amazing. Whether he likes it or not, it cannot be denied that you are a wonderful painter.

 

Thank you!

[HellFrost666]

I can tell just by looking at this that he's Twilight obsessed.

 

Did he expect you to make him look like Edward or what? Lol...

[itsallgrand]

I'll say this: I'd love to see what you'd do as a portrait of my cat. That cat is damn awesome.

 

Sorry how things turned out with this customer. It seems like so much time and work to do one of these, and then to have him nix it at the last moment, that really sucks.

[Capricorn3]

He kinda looks drunk in the pic.......I would find it more believable if the vampire looked a little evil.

 

It looks a little cartoonish to me, to be honest.

I agree with the two comments above. The face looks a little too female? The "evil" aspect is missing.

 

Generally speaking though, very interesting artwork.

[OmegaMan]

Argh! She beat me to it!

 

To be honest, when I first looked at your painting I thought: Ok, two people painted this.

 

The folds in the curtains are just top motch, I just really like it.

 

But the face of the man is really subpar with what you did with the curtains. It looks like it was painted by someone who just started (as opposed to the curtains).

 

I don't know what happened really, maybe you were short on time and had to rush the face or maybe anatomy is your weakness, but to quite frank (as I've mentioned beforehand), I too would have been disappointed by the final result.

 

I don't mean that the whole thing is bad, but I'm a bit surprised you were satisfied with the face considering how well done other aspects of the paintings are.

 

I hope you'll be intelligent about his reaction. i.e. I hope you won't put the blame on him.

 

Looking forward to see more of your stuff and kudos on being open minded and lot limiting yourself to comments like: ''YOU ARE SO AWEZOMMMMMM!'' which are not really useful when you want to get better at pretty much anything.

[catfeeder]

Love this. I'd contrast the chair a bit more against the curtain, otherwise the cat appears to be floating in an awkward pose. If client wants a realistic face, he should provide or sit for a realistic photo. By sabotaging your access to that, he should compensate you for the rework.

 

In your corner.