I posted a little while back about a customer of mine who didn't like the pink I painted inside his deers' ears, and wanted them white.
He brought his head over today and I tried to show him some reference photos of live deer ears. He wouldn't have anything of it. The shade of pink I had painted the ears was not very intense, it was a medium shade of pink. I mixed up some white paint with just a little pink in it so as not to have such an intense white, and airbrushed the ears with it. At first he said he wanted it even whiter, then decided that "he could live with that color" (I think he liked it but didn't want to admit that I was right)
Well things got even worse. He said, "Look inside the nose.. it's PINK too! Will you just paint it BLACK?". Now this I did have a problem with. I kept showing him pictures of reference photos, and telling him that how I did it was very near to what a competition piece would be like. He just kept on saying "I understand, but I just want to to look lifelike" which made absolutely no sense. In the end, I smothered a bunch of black paint inside that nose that I had so carefully painted and made a septum for. It made me just sick, but he said, "Oh, that looks a TON better".
But, I guess you have to please the customer. I hate to have him show that deer to other people and tell them that I did it, but he's happy with it now and I guess that's what really matters. I feel like a bad taxidermist for doing that to a deer head, but I couldn't argue with him too much.
Oh well...
-Amy Ritchie
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It,s apparant that so many people don't know a quality piece from a garage sale special.The thing I try to do is sell them on the fine points of your work before they leave your shop. This gives them that feeling that they have the best mount around and they do tell others. We all have had customers like this at one time or another.
His friends and family and 99% of the world wont know what the ears and nostrils are to look like. They will listen to how much he loves it, and more about the hunt and how he got it rather than the details of the mount. Although, he may now talk about how he had to twist your arm to get what he wanted. He doesn't know or see the amount of work, detail, pride and care you put into his mount, it is like paying good money on a train set for your kids and they have the engine burned up in half a day and the track put together in ways that it was never meant to go. They don't care; they just wanted a train to play with. Any train would have done ok. Customers don't care about paint schedules or techniques, and we should never expect them to. If it something you can fix for them, do it. If it is unfixable, then argue with them. Remember, you are working for him or her.
Your on your way!
I am like your worse client; their is a difference in a piece of shin tinted with a color and one that is painted with a color.
i'LL LEAVE IT AT THAT.
The same thing happens with the sharp edges in cast bird heads.
You can live by the sword if you're willing to get stuck a few times in the process. I've had a couple dozen customers just like this and I ALWAYS gave THEM what they were willing to pay for. Just like Mr. T said, this is your advertising agent going out the door. Guess what his remarks will be to his buddies that when he asked you to make a few minor changes, you jumped right on him. I never try to educate a customer who's already made his mind up. I make my money off the friends I make, the enemies I make take their work to the other guy.
Like every other business out there, the customer is our boss. If he wants his deer nose fluorescent orange, that's what he'll get. No matter how incorrect it is, it's what the boss wants. That's something you're gonna have to get used to. Make your customer happy and he and his friends will be back.
My guess is the guy had some other mounts done already and wanted to match them. Educating him that a deers ears are white only when it's dead because the blood is no longer flowing through them. Looking at them alive in my pen, they will have more of a fleshy rust color to them. It is fairly dark in color.(winter) In the summer the color varys depending on lighting and amount of hair on the ears but can have more of the pinkish tan color at that time.
I believe that most people don't really look closely at a mount. I was with a buddy and there was a deer in a store that I looked at for probably ten minutes. He finally brought up the point that every time I see a mount I analyze it while most people look at the rack and walk away. So...my point is, most people that see his mount in his house won't notice anyhow.
i agree with drew. i re-done a nice doe mount for a guy, and he had the same issues with the nose. he just wanted it black. i did it even though i didnt like it, but he was happy. i also had a strange request on a older deer head, a guy wanted the area around the eyes black. where it should have just been a neutral tan, he wanted it black. it looked like a racoon more than a deer, but u know the saying, the customer is always right. but, taxidermy is a art, and i admire your dedication to detail. keep up the good work, it will pay off soon. good luck!
my son in law swears that all mammals have the white showing all around the iris - when i had him look in the mirror and showed him that the top of his eyelid covered the white made no difference - some people are dense - all of his deer done by another tax. look like they have had an electric prod stuck up their rectum and their eyes are WIDE OPEN