I had a hint in the very beginning that this commission wasn’t going to go smoothly. When I first spoke to the woman on the phone, there was no hint of friendliness or even cordiality, just a very standoffish tone and words. “This is what I want. Can you do it?”
What she wanted was a pencil drawing of two Arabian horses running on a beach from left to right. One was to be a stallion and the other a mare. The drawing was to be used to etch a large mirror. I got right to work looking for references of horses running since there were no photographs provided for this project. Since I’m not an Arabian artist, the only photographs I had in my own morgue files were of Thoroughbreds racing. I did some thumbnail sketches and came up with two sketches I liked that would work well together. Then I set to work on the preliminary drawing, changing those Thoroughbreds into Arabians as best I could. After completing it, I sent it to the client for approval, and waited anxiously. The word soon came; she didn’t approve.
Again, there was nothing friendly in her tone or words. Never having encountered anything like this from any of my other clients, I was puzzled. Most people are very friendly and open during the whole process.
The changes she wanted were a full out gallop depicted, higher more flowing tails, more “free spirit” feeling and less “playful’ feeling. I scrapped the first two horses and came up with two more which I thought fit better the feeling that she wanted. I sent her a second preliminary drawing and waited for her reply. It took a while for her to get back to me, and again she had changes to be made. Make the nostrils on the left horse more flared. Give the right horse a more intense expression in the eyes and mouth.
Again, no friendliness (or even annoyance!) in her voice.
This time, thinking the changes were minor, I went ahead and completed the final drawing and delivered it to her in person. Again, her demeanor and tone were very standoffish.
A short time later she called to tell me that they had decided to scrap the whole project and she would be returning the drawing. It was a bit of a blow to my ego at the time, but I soon realized there was no way this woman was going to be happy with anything I did. She had such a firm idea in her head of what she wanted that it would be difficult for any artist to please her, and I was certainly not that artist.
I’ve thought a few times over the years of doing this image over again with my own vision. I know which of these two designs I like better and which has potential to become a new painting. What do you think?
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