Never Assume What Your Client Wants

How I Almost Made a Big Mistake

Recently, I was commissioned to do a portrait of a dog named Harry. It was a simple enough task, but one in which I almost made a critical error. I almost forgot my number one rule…never assume what your client wants. Chances are fifty-fifty that what you want and what the client wants is one in the same. Fifty-fifty just isn’t good enough odds for me, so I adopted the ‘never assume what your client wants’ rule. Even so, I almost forgot it. Let me explain…

Harry’s a rescue and has become an integral part of his human family. Every day he waits for his man human to come home. This was the picture I was given…

Harry waiting for his human.

Keep in mind that I initially received the photo on my cell phone so the image was small. When I actually printed it out large enough for me to keep on my drawing board for reference, I noticed that Harry is squinting one eye. My natural instinct was to ‘correct’ the eye and open it up so that it would better match the other eye. Now, my natural process, because I’m right-handed is to work from the upper left corner down to the lower right corner. So I had some time before I reached that squinty eye.

During that time, I kept having a mental debate. Should I correct it or shouldn’t I? A co-worker who was looking over my shoulder said that I should keep it the way it was in the photo. While I was leaning more towards correcting it initially, I then began doubting myself. I contacted the client and asked. And thank goodness I did!

Harry’s progress photos.

She said to keep it. That look, she said, happened to be a signature look for Harry. Well far be it from me to correct a signature look! Admittedly, it does give Harry some character. My assumption would have deleted that signature look and with it, Harry’s character. So, disaster averted and lesson learned…never assume what your client wants!