A Portrait Commission Is The Ultimate Gift
A commission is a true collaboration between the artist and the client. It reflects not only my style and observations as the artist, but also your preferences and personality as the client.
The whole process can be as memorable as the portrait itself.
Get the conversation started to commission a beautiful portrait in charcoal or in oil of various sizes and composition, including portraits of children, adults (individuals or family groups), pet and equine portraits.
Let the fun begin! Scroll down and fill in the form below to get started.
Gift Vouchers can be purchased as payment towards any commission. They can be particularly useful if you would like to commission a piece as a gift but do not have sufficient time to have the work produced or if you are not able to obtain appropriate reference photos of the subject without the cooperation of the one to which it is gifted.
Gift vouchers can be purchased HERE
“as a native of New Orleans, Louisiana I have grown up within a community of artists and art culture. My wife and I discovered the style of charcoal portraits when talking with friends about how we wanted to capture each of our three children’s being at the special age of 3. While we had commissioned a local artist in Louisiana for a portrait of our oldest son, we then moved our family to Florida shortly thereafter and lost contact with that artist. Fast-forward to our second child .... we scoured the online art community for a skilled individual. We stumbled upon Nikki Carr’s website and immediately reached out to her. From initial contact to final receipt of the work, this was the most pleasant ‘customer’ experience my wife and I have ever had. Not only was Nikki responsive, highly-communicative, and expedited in her execution and delivery, she truly captured our daughter’s ‘being’ in the sense that hoped – e.g., Nikki interviewed us and requested several photos of our daughter to gain a better sense of her personality. We now have two of our three children’s charcoal portraits hanging in our living room side-by-side, and as our baby-boy (third child) will be turning 3 years old within the next 12 months, we have already asked Nikki to allot capacity come Fall 2022 for another commissioned portrait!”
The Commission Process
From A Photograph
While my preference will always be to create a portrait in person, this is not always possible for a variety of reasons. I am therefore happy to work entirely from photographs, provided that they are taken with a digital camera (not an old phone camera or downloaded from Facebook as these do not give me the tonal detail that I need) and are of a high resolution. The photo/s are a substitute for a 'sitting' and need to provide enough close up detail to get a good likeness (I will use the computer to zoom in on the image to get this detail).
Do contact me if you are considering a portrait commission based on a photograph and I will send you a guide to the kind of photograph/s that I can work with.
A note regarding copyright and reference photographs
Please make sure that you hold the copyright on any photographs that you wish to use as reference material. If you do not own photographs, you must have permission from the copyright holder for the photograph/s to be used as the basis for a portrait commission (this will form part of a signed agreement between us before a portrait commission is undertaken).
In Person
I undertake portrait commissions in person from my studio at home or at the home of the sitter (as long as there is a well lit room in which to work!). Initially, I will spend considerable time talking to the client about their ideas for the portrait - pose, mood, lighting, composition, size and clothing. I want to understand the kind of portrait they are hoping for and also to get a sense of their personality and spirit.
In addition to initial sketches, I will also take a large number of digital photographs which gives me the maximum amount of detailed reference material to take away with me. This cuts down the required sitting time considerably to perhaps one or two sittings.
Agreement
Once we have had an initial discussion on size, composition, cost, procedure etc, I will send you an Agreement document detailing all aspects of the project that have been discussed. I ask for a 40% deposit before I begin work on the piece or have our first sitting, with the remainder (including Shipping) due on completion.
A charcoal portrait can expect to take 3 to 4 weeks and an oil portrait considerably longer - between 2 to 3 months is normal.
Completion
When the portrait is close to completion, a photograph will be taken and emailed or posted to you for your feedback, where upon I will attempt to make small adjustments that we may discuss (I am happy to attempt up to three small adjustments).
Once I have your approval of the final image, I will send over your completion invoice with details of how to make payment. When this has been received, I will send your commission by courier to your address (please see below for details of possible shipping costs dependant on your location).
Please be aware that an oil painting cannot be shipped until it is at least 'touch dry' which will take 3-4 weeks following completion. This has been included in my 2-3 month estimate.
Guarantee
Of course, I want you to be totally trilled with your portrait. If, however, you are not completely happy with your final completion photograph and I am not able to adjust the portrait to your liking, then I will not insist that you buy it. The deposit however, remains non-refundable (I might add that this has never happened and hopefully never will!).
Copyright
I retain the copyright on all the artwork produced by myself, Nikki Carr, including any artwork resulting from a commission. This also includes the right to use images of the artwork in promotional material (including Limited Edition Prints and Art Cards) or on my website.
You may not reproduce any piece of artwork or artwork print in any form without prior permission. You may, however, display commissioned artwork on social media (Facebook etc), but it must not be reproduced in any other form whatsoever. Limited Edition Prints and Art Cards featuring the commissioned artwork may be obtained from me.
Pricing
Every portrait commission is unique and the fee quoted will take into account size, scale, medium, number of subjects, clothing and background detail. My custom work runs at about 15% more than my read-to-ship pieces which takes into account the additional time that I spend to create a piece that meets all your wishes, including any sittings. Please find below approximate sizes and their costs. However, these are estimates only and are intended only as a rough guide.
I ask for a 40% deposit before I begin work on the piece or have our first sitting, with the remainder (including shipping) due on completion. I will supply a custom shipping quote before we start but please see my DELIVERY page for an esitimate based on item, size and your location.
Let the fun begin!
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