Both Portraits of Thompson Completed--Another Happy Client!

The client who ordered two 5X7 colored pencil portraits of her nephew, Thompson, finally picked up and paid for her order. (See October 27th for first portrait of Thompson.) Last week she came by and I showed her both the portraits. Well, one was just perfect, the other one, she said was just a bit off and didn't look as much like Thompson as the first one. So I went over the flawed one using tracing paper so I could detect any and all flaws. I found one near the neck and the ear area, so I corrected it. Then I changed the shape of his head just a bit. Those changes seemed to do the trick because today, when my client saw my corrected portrait, she loved it! This is actually the first time I have done two originals of the same person, from the same photograph. I have decided that next time, I am going to ask for two different photographs. I don't really like doing two portrait originals that look exactly alike. I feel like I am doing it assembly-line style. There is something in me, as an artist, that says, "Okay, I've done this one portrait in this style, now I would like to do the other portrait differently." But you can't do that because the client wants them exactly alike.