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I recently decided to venture out into the murky waters of commission painting, and by recently I mean I just finished my first ever commissioned model. I would like to get some constructive criticism as I feel that all of my friends say my stuff looks great, but I would really like to get some feedback to try and better myself as an artist, not to mention I want to try and market my services and have more to offer potential clients, current and future.
This leads me to my issue... I have seen the dynamic here how sometimes someone will say "look at me I'm a professional painter" and then post something that is less than great and get a great deal of criticism, which in and of itself isn't a big deal, but my concern is that if I'm posting something that was painted for myself and it gets a lot of criticism that's fine, but if it's work I did for a client I'm concerned about it getting a great deal of "constructive criticism" and ruining their otherwise good feeling about it.

So my question is how do you go about getting feedback from higher skill level painters that have the expertise to teach you something, without getting your work torn apart to the point where it gives your clients a salty feeling? Do you just bite the bullet and hope for the best?

Don't actively direct your clients to places on the internet where you've solicited criticism?

I mean, it's all irrelevant anyway, either your client is satisfied or they aren't, but I'm really not seeing a problem outside of your own creation here?

Don't ask for feedback on the internet on client pictures, if you think this might happen.

It's obviously not as easy, but ask for feedback at the local miniature wargaming community. Bring along your business card because you'll also be advertising yourself.

You could, of course, paint non-commissioned miniatures at the same time, and post this work on the 'net for feedback.

Still, do you really need to continue looking for feedback if someone's giving you work? The skills you have as a hobby artist won't necessarily be the ones you need as a painting service.

Indeed. If you're concerned about feedback being negative, practice and learn on personal pieces and leave out mention of being a paid service. Note you don't need to be doing high end work to be pro, you just need to do what you do properly. Neat flat basecoats are better than rough splotchy not-quite-dry brushing. Clean assembly, finished bases, clear photography etc.

I wouldn't make too big a thing about it, beyond a "if you have any feedback, please let me know" line in your dispatch email. You can soon turn a satisfied customer into an unhappy one if you ask them to go looking for flaws to critique.

I'd just post pictures of your personal stuff, and ask for feedback that way.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I think I will just stick to posting my own stuff as advised and then try to get some feedback that way.

 JamesY wrote:
I wouldn't make too big a thing about it, beyond a "if you have any feedback, please let me know" line in your dispatch email. You can soon turn a satisfied customer into an unhappy one if you ask them to go looking for flaws to critique.

I'd just post pictures of your personal stuff, and ask for feedback that way.

I disagree with this. I always ask for feedback or final tweaks before dispatch.

Of course I also make sure I have a very good idea of what the client actually wants in the first place. You'd be surprised how easy minor tweaks are, like more stubble, glazing back if something isn't quite the right tone and so on. The majority of the work is in the base job, so as long as that's right an extra hour to ensure the clients happy is time well spent.

@winterdyne I was meaning after dispatch. I'd expect an opportunity for a thorough critique before completion.

Ah right. Yep. Misread your intent there, sorry.

ced1106 wrote:

Still, do you really need to continue looking for feedback if someone's giving you work?

Maybe not. In can be useful, though. I always used to post finished pieces for comment, because more eyes see more things. While it was generally too late to change anything about the finished piece, it gave me things to take into consideration for future work.

It's amazing how often what one person sees as an awesome, heroic action pose, another person sees as 'really needs to go potty'...

This is going to seem absolutely stupid... but it didn't even occur to me to post pictures before dispatching.
That's a much better idea, I'd like to think that I'm smart enough I might have figured that out after doing more than one commission model lol.

I'll definitely follow the advise on both posting my own models and posting them before sending them out.

One of the most 'eureka' moments I had was when I realised that work-in-progress photos and in particular ones near 'finished' helped me more than the client.

It's surprising how many things you'll notice in a photo (especially a good clear one) that you don't see as you're working. Quite often the first 'done' pics I take never go to the client, because I notice something I'm not happy about which needs fixing before I sign off on it. It's a superb QA tool.

Edit: This doesn't mean take photos at every stage (that's just inefficient), just that it's most definitely worth doing before you do 'top' stages (pigments, varnish, etc).

I just got my camera setup up and going and am still tweaking the setting, so I don't have a lot of pictures of my personal stuff photographed well. This is the only one I have done of my stuff so far and it was more of a "test shoot". I painted this about a year ago, so I would like to think I've gotten a little better since then, but would still welcome any thoughts:

It's an old paintjob so I'll just comment on the photography.

Clear, well-lit and in focus, with no distracting background clutter. Slight softening of focus toward the top of the staff and foreground at some angles. Try having the camera further back and accepting having to crop the image to size / to remove background clutter. With 'auto focus' cameras (basically most compacts) this can actually save some headaches.

I'm not a fan of the dead space to either side of the figure (I tend to take and present pictures of tall models in portrait rather than landscape). That's a personal taste thing though.

In short, those are good enough photos I think.