I am sure that many clients or potential clients have the fear that they will pay a lot for a sculpture and it will not look anything like what they have envisioned in their own mind. Here are some thoughts on that fear-

When commissioning an artist you must be absolutely sure that the artist understands what you want. First be clear of your thoughts. How do you see this loved one? Do you see them younger? Is it a formal pose or casual? If it is a full figure pose or life size what mannerisms does the individual have that can be portrayed?

If the artist requests a photo sitting it is assumed that the sculpture is at the same age as the sitting. If you request a different age be sure that you have as much reference of the person at that age that you can possibly provide.

The difficulty about blogging a process is that many times people see parts of the process and think that it has ended. It has not ended or complete until the artist writes- I am done. And then there is an entire client approval process. I am sure there are some artists who won’t change their artwork, but I am not one of them. This process of approval is an important element to the entire process. It is the place where the client can have input. I know you might ask is a sculpture totally correct when a client arrives to the studio? Sometimes, but this is rare. I think there are many reasons for this.

Let me give you an example…
Years ago I was sculpting a little girl and the client came in and was quite bothered by the sculpture. They did not know how to explain it but, it was just not her. Together we looked at the piece and decided that indeed all the features were the features of the little girl. The main element in the sculpture that did change was the mouth. You see when I shot all of the photographs of this little girl for the sculpture sitting she was very timid toward me. This is not unusual; I am after all a stranger. In most of the photographs her mouth was closed, but her mother informed me that she is a talker and that is not normal for her. With a little work from my tools I had opened her mouth into a perpetual talking motion and that was all it took. This was a nuance that only the mother would know. This is what I depend upon from my client.

You should be able to see a larger image if you click on it.