I love to work in the tradition of the street buskers and itinerant artists who created 'life drawn' portrait images and cartoon spoofs of people in the days before camera images. I can also work in studio from 'photo reference' to create custom portraits and caricatures.
For an image "from life", I can come to your home or event location, or you can arrange to come to my home studio. A person has to pose for at least 20 minutes for a basic portrait. That's a very, very long time for a preschooler, so please be realistic about a child's personal limits. You can provide me with photos to work from, or book a sitting time at your house with pauses for runabout breaks! I work in either colour (chalk pastel and pencil crayon), or in b&w (graphite, pencil, conte, charcoal, pen & ink) to create either an impression and likeness of a face or a gentle caricature cartoon of a person (doing their favorite thing or in the theme/costume of your choice). I charge 75 cents per minute for 'busking' individual portraits, and $30.oo per hour studio time. The longer the sitting/working time, the greater the amount of detail/shading/fine tuning etc. For schools, group events and parties my rate is $30.oo per hour (plus tips if applicable). More formal portrait paintings in either watercolour or acrylic, and mural projects (or group portraits) can be commissioned at $40.oo/hour (minimum of 5 hours) studio time.
I will work for select NPOs, charitable fundraising events, and special school/seniors/support group etc. programs on a volunteer basis. I need to make sure that any volunteer status requirements are met and (if possible) tax rebate receipt-for-services arrangements are made. At family event fundraisers, asking a base fee of $5.oo per face (what kids and other tightly budgeted people can afford) plus donations (parents and grands are often generous) has averaged out at gifts of $10.oo per face (doing three faces per event hour) for the organizations I've volunteered for.
People really enjoy watching the process of a face taking form from shapes and lines on paper, and I really enjoy answering "How do you do that?" questions or getting advised by the real experts - young children know all there is to know about faces and drawing! (Just try getting away with doing a 3/4 profile with only one ear drawn showing of a five year old art critic who knows their anatomy!)
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