How to commission a Portrait
Fine art portraiture is a unique and wonderful adventure; the creation of which can only be called a miracle.
A portrait commission generally happens once in one’s lifetime; it is a true investment and a celebration of life and status. Having a portrait to pass on to one’s children and descendants is always a unique gift and treasure. A masterfully created portrait is essentially a recreation of life on canvas. The major criteria of a portrait are vitality and radiant inner beauty. A luxury portrait is infinitely more profound than simple a photograph: it should have the full vitality and character of the model. As Tom Diamond once said: “Veronica, you made me immortal…”. There is a complete difference between Realism and Hyper or Photo- realism. Photorealism is attempting to copy a photo, this lacks spirit. A portrait is the collaboration between the model- artist and the spirit of painting. Leonardo Da Vinci said: if there is no spirit in a painting there is no art. If one wishes to save money, it is best to just enlarge a photo.
If you are still reading and decide to create a portrait of you or your loved one, you should be familiar with the procedure:
After the meeting with client Veronica Kvassetskaia provides the client with a compositional idea and study and offering the best setting in overall artistic idea, composition and color temperature of the portrait. After a decision on the choice of portrait setting is made, the Artist begins work on the portrait, preparing the canvas for a museum quality work. The Artist will schedule few regular sittings during the work on portrait, normally each sitting will take 3-4 hours in the Artist’s studio or client’s location
The creation of portrait can take from 20 hours (for a portrait in pastel or charcoal/pencil), and from 80- 400 hours (for a portrait in oil, depending on size and composition). Veronica is working in the unique Old Masters’ technique that creates works of superior museum quality with archival permanence.
After the portrait is complete the Artist may suggest a frame style and interior placement to the client. For international clients the portrait shipped to their country via FEDEX , a certificate of authenticity with an exclusive archival number is provided for every portrait created by Veronica Kvassetskaia.
A 50 % deposit is required upon the signing of the Portrait Agreement. The portrait price is quoted in Canadian/US dollars and is based on the size and billable hours spent on portrait, available upon request (veronica.at.portraitcanada.dot.com). The frame, shipping cost and travel expenses are extra and are not included in the portrait fee.
Available traditional portrait media are old Holland oils on canvas, charcoal/ pastel/sepia/pencil |