Custom Watercolor House / Building Portrait DEPOSIT

~ Current slots are for completion in Winter/Spring 2024* ~

Homes and other buildings can hold so much meaning in our lives! An original, hand-painted house or building portrait is a really special, one-of-a-kind way to:

• preserve memories of the place you raised your children,
• celebrate the special house you and your fiance have finally saved enough to buy,
• honor your family's life as your parent prepares to sell your childhood home,
• commemorate the place where you met your partner, or
  
• send your neighbor with a parting gift as they say goodbye to a beloved home.

Erin will use her expressive style to create a pen and watercolor portrait capturing the essence of the home or building you wish to commemorate, from the photos you supply. Lines and paint application will be loose and sketchy (not photo-realistic) to create a vibrant, lively way to remember places that hold special meaning for you!

Please read through ALL of the following details to understand this offering before paying the non-refundable 50% deposit. By paying a deposit, you indicate you have read and agree to the following, as well as the Artist's Rights and Source Material sections of Erin's standard terms & conditions for custom artwork. Due to the custom nature of the Artwork, all sales are final, and the Deposit is non-refundable.

Neighbor detail:

If your home is a row house, I will assume you would like me to include a little bit of detail of the immediately neighboring home(s), unless you tell me otherwise when you send your reference photos. Occasionally, a neighbor's tree covers so much of their home so as not to be practical to show neighbor detail, in which case I will not include it.

*Completion/Timing:

To guarantee completion in Winter/Spring 2024, you must email your photos by December 31, 2023. Unfortunately, Erin can't forecast or guarantee specific turnaround dates because of the nature of her creative process for this offering.

Your reference photos:

After receiving your deposit, Erin will email you some tips for taking better reference photos. Erin is unable to work from photos for which you do not hold copyright or otherwise have explicit permission from the copyright holder to use in accordance with my terms and conditions. Typically, Erin is unable to use real estate listing photos or Google street view images as her main references.

What if I want to request that certain things be omitted or a child/pet to be included?

For this offering, Erin is unable to entertain specific requests for things to include/omit, including people and pets, as planning for this kind of customization takes significant additional time. If you wish to request those types of customization or add-ons, you might consider commissioning a piece of artwork, for which the process and pricing includes time to communicate about these sorts of personalized details (you can sign up here to be notified when Erin will release commissioned artwork slots).

For this offering, Erin will use her judgment based on the photos you submit, and she may use artistic license to move or omit tree blockage, eliminate or reposition cars or obstructive street signage from the view, etc. If your house reference photo(s) include pets or children, Erin will not be able to include them in the artwork within this offering.

Materials:

House portraits will be done with pigment-based pens and professional grade watercolors (and possibly touches of gouache or other pen) on paper which is suitable for pen and watercolor application. Note: the artist will take efforts to minimize the buckling of the paper that naturally occurs with the application of wet media, but buyers should expect there may be slight buckling, which is part of the charm and reality of watercolor artwork. Long term, you are advised not to display watercolor artwork in direct sunlight or humid locations.

Sizing:

For each available size, there's a square orientation and a rectangular (landscape or portrait) orientation. This is because certain homes/buildings lend themselves to one or the other. Erin will use her judgment as to which orientation — square, portrait, or landscape — makes sense based on the reference photos provided and your choice of whether to include neighbor detail.

The sizes listed are based on a mat cut for that size artwork (for example, for the 5x7 option, the artwork will be sized to fit within a standard 4.5x6.5" mat opening, with a comfortable amount of white space between the lines/strokes of the artwork and the edges of the mat). Meanwhile, the paper will be trimmed to slightly larger than the selected dimensions, to allow a mat to overlap with the paper.

Framing Discount:

This offering is for unmatted, unframed artwork. Erin strongly advises you arrange for custom framing to help protect the finished original artwork. When you pick up the artwork, ask Erin for information about a framing discount with a local shop!

Using artwork for stationery, wedding, commercial, or other printed/digital purposes:

If you wish to use the artwork other than to hang the original on your wall at home (for instance, to hang it in your business or for other commercial purposes, print it on personal/wedding stationery, reproduce it to make additional prints, use it as your social media profile image, etc.), these uses require additional licensing, so please contact me to discuss before purchasing a deposit on a slot. Reproduction of the Artwork without Erin's prior written consent is prohibited, but you are welcome to post a photo of the artwork to your social media feed with attribution to me (@ErinThompsonStudio) -- I love to see photos of people receiving my artwork, in place on your wall, etc!