What Makes a Commission Go Wrong

Commissions almost never go wrong in the middle. They go wrong at the beginning, quietly, and nobody notices until the piece is finished.

Here are the five ways it happens. I would rather you avoid all of them, including with somebody who is not me.

Nobody said what the piece was for

The brief covered size, palette and subject, and never touched what the work is supposed to do in the room.

A piece meant to calm a space and a piece meant to command it can be the same size and the same colors and be completely different paintings. If that question is never asked, the artist is guessing, and they will guess according to their own instinct rather than yours.

The artist was hired to copy something

Somebody arrives with an image of another artist's work and asks for something like that.

It never works. Beyond the obvious problem of copying someone, the result is always a diluted version of two visions rather than a strong version of one. If you love another artist's work that much, buy theirs. If you want mine, let me make mine.

References for mood, palette and feeling are enormously useful. A reference to reproduce is a warning sign for everyone.

The approvals were never defined

This is the one that damages relationships. Nobody agreed who signs off, or at what stage, or what happens if two people disagree.

Then a piece arrives and one person loves it and another does not, and there is no process to fall back on. Settle this at the start, even for a private commission, especially if two people share the wall.

Unlimited revisions were implied

If a commission has no defined approval points, every stage silently becomes an opportunity to change direction.

Work made that way ends up committee-shaped. The colors get safer, the composition gets more balanced, and the thing that made it interesting is sanded off. Real approval points at real moments protect the work from that, and they protect you from a piece that pleased everybody and moves nobody.

The timeline was never real

Somebody wanted a date and the artist said yes because they wanted the project.

Then the piece gets rushed at the end, which almost always means it is handled or shipped before it has cured properly, and that is how work arrives damaged or ages badly. A date that is not real is worse than no date.

What I do about each of these

I ask what the piece is for before I ask what it should look like. I will not work from another artist's piece. I define who approves and when, in writing, before anything starts. Approval points are set at moments where a change is genuinely still possible. And I build margin into a schedule rather than quoting my best case.

None of that is complicated. It is just the difference between a commission you love and one you are polite about.

If you have one in mind, start with a conversation, and I will tell you honestly if I am not the right person for it.

Warmly,

Dani