Everyone makes mistakes, not least the busy artist juggling many pet portrait commissions at once. And whilst I’m happy to say they’re rare for me, last month I held my hands up to a client. However in this instant there was a silver lining to this one.
He had commissioned me to ‘PAINT’ his cross breed ‘Ruby’. As usual I entered all the details of this dog portrait on my work schedule sheet. When it came to start this commission I was quite excited because it was for a graphite drawing, something I’d not done for a while. I duly completed it and referred back to my work sheet to find the client and address details. It was then I spotted my infuriating error. I had mistakenly read the wrong column where Ruby’s owner had clearly requested a coloured pastel dog pet portrait.
There was no problem in correcting this but, of course, the client was expecting delivery as promised. There was no option but to call him to explain and agree a new delivery date for the correct dog portrait. I added that he could have the graphite drawing for free but he was having none of it and insisted on paying me for both.
So we came to a compromise – he would pay for it at a significant discount but I’d produce the new dog portrait in pastel this time but using a picture that showed Ruby from a different angle.
Everyone was happy but it’s a lesson that you can never take your eye off the ball, however busy you are.