Why I’m not pushing ahead with pet portraits

Last year, the new creative activity boost saw me revisiting old techniques and subjects. But it’s a different world in 2010.

Pet portraits are not overly challenging and very rewarding creations. When I did them years ago there were few artists working specifically on pets. So trying to inject more creativity into day to day life in 2009, I made the straightforward decision to start with what I already knew.

I should have done my research first…

Now, the world is awash with pet portrait artists. Far too many are, sadly, awful. But there are some who are excellent, who can deliver character and a clear likeness, and push their work beyond simply duplicating a photograph. What has also become clear is that I cannot compete with these folks on pricing.

Pet portraits are heavily labour-intensive, particularly to get the quality I strive for. To bring my pricing to compete with most of the good, established artists around, I simply could not survive. Add to that I would need to be chained to a drawing board for 8-10 hours every day, plus the tasks of promoting, order processing/shipping, etc. I’m not sure how some of these artists are able to offer the pricing they do.

There is also the problem of growth: there isn’t any. There’s a maximum level of productivity for one person creating art. And with a saturated market, there’s very little opportunity to increase pricing over time. and poor opportunities to create additional works.

The more I looked into this aspect of the art business, the more I realised what a nightmare it could become.

I will still produce pet portraits here and there as commissions, of course, but will not be actively promoting them as a specific service.

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