I finished my second ‘house portrait’ commission this morning. They’re both still wet so I will wait a day or so to contact the clients. I spent some time earlier trying to figure out how to print out invoices. My biggest struggle ended up being connecting to the right printer on my computer. If my neighbors have an InkJet printer then I may have accidentally printed out five copies of my invoice on it. My bad.
I did notice that it’s possible to set up ways to pay on Quickbooks so I may play around with that later. It would be cool to have my Venmo QR code printed on my invoices.
I’ve got one more ‘house portrait’, a pet portrait, and a painting of a church. The client wants the church painting done as a nocturne, which is just a ‘painting’ way of saying the image is a night scene. That is going to be the hardest part, but I think I can figure it out. I have the scene mapped out in my head so the struggle is figuring out the colors for my palette. I’ve only done one nocturne and I have to admit it was tough. The value differences are really subtle and it’s not just about throwing dark colors on the canvas.
The church is an event space centered around an historic foundation. The original church was burned during the Civil War and now there’s something of a structure built but not enclosed. It’s both beautiful and eerie at the same time. The client is getting married there at Christmas and wants something that captures the venue and the time of year. I found a photo online of the church with a giant wreath suspended between two beams. I’ll start with that idea and see what happens.
For the longest time I avoided business like the plague. I wanted nothing to do with it. But as I’ve gotten more serious about painting I’ve come to realize that I’ve got to bite the bullet and figure this stuff out. When I was young I saw business through other people’s eyes, and by other people I mean men.
What I saw growing up was that business was treated as a way to prove ones manhood - the sports field, or battle field, where men tried to one-up each other, outdo each other, compete with each other, and measure themselves against each other. The way they talked about work, the way they talked about their careers and jobs and bosses and clients. Everything was a way to jostle for power and status. I wanted nothing to do with it.
But I’m learning that business doesn’t have to be that way. Those were the people in my life struggling with the things they were struggling with. If I was going to do business with my family members I might think twice about doing it, lol, but I’m not. I want my business and based on different values and ideals. I want to be of service. Buying a painting is a luxury, but it’s also something that brings meaning and joy to one’s life. I want to be the one to bring that.
I’m developing an interest in the business side of what I do. It isn’t always fun to try and figure new things out, especially when the problem is something mundane and simple like connecting to the wrong printer and sending five jobs to your neighbor’s printer. No one likes to spend the morning chasing down frustrating things like that. But I have to say, once I got that invoice printed out there was no hiding my satisfaction. I was pleased, and it felt great to move on to the next item on my to-do list.