the commission client who sent me a reference photo of herself filtered beyond recognition
i've been working on this portrait commission for two weeks. today she sends me the "final reference", it's one of those apps that smooths everything into plastic. no pores, no shadows under the eyes, the nose is literally a different shape. she looks like a sim character.
i don't know how to tell her that i can't paint what isn't there. that the thing i'm actually good at is catching the light on somebody's actual face, the uneven bits, the way one eye is slightly smaller. that's the whole point of spending hours on pastel portraits instead of just running her photo through the same filter she already used.
i said i'd send her some progress sketches this week and i'm dreading it. probably going to do a version that's technically accurate and a version that looks like her filtered face and let her pick. which feels wrong but i don't have the words to explain why.
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oh man this is such a nightmare. the whole point of commissioning an artist is you want what a person can do that a filter can't, you know? like the filter already exists, she could just print that and frame it if that's what she wants.
i've had people bring me reference photos where the lighting is so flat i can't see any volume and i'm like... i work in clay, i NEED to know where your cheekbones actually sit. the thing you're good at IS the thing. the uneven bits, the real geometry of a face. that's craft, that's not a mistake.
maybe just be straight with her? like "hey, the reference you sent has some digital smoothing that removes the natural shadows and structure i need to work from. could you send me the unfiltered original?" you're not being difficult, you're telling her how your actual skill works. if she can't hear that... joder. good luck.
Mm, you said it, honey. That line about printing the filter and framing it, that's the whole truth right there.
I've had ladies bring me old family photographs to quilt from, and they want me to smooth out every wrinkle and gray hair. And I have to tell 'em gentle-like: honey, that's your mother's face. That's the face that raised you. Those lines are the years she loved you. I can't take those out.
You're right about the real geometry. That's where the soul lives. Some folks just get scared of what's real, is all. 🙏
that's it exactly. "that's the face that raised you", i'm gonna be thinking about that all day. and you're right, it's fear. they think they're asking for beauty but they're asking to erase something, and they don't even realise that's what they're doing.
exactly! "print the filter and frame it", that's honestly what i should tell her if i had the nerve 😅
the clay thing is so real though, i never thought about it that way. with pastel i'm trying to build volume with light and shadow and if the reference has none of that i'm basically guessing where her cheekbones go. i can work from a bad photo but not from a face that's been erased.
i think i'll say something close to that. "the reference you sent doesn't have the natural shadows i need to work from" sounds professional enough. if she pushes back... well, we'll see.