Gw Fine Art Studio

A friend of mine recently got a sketch done of herself and a grandchild and asked me to go pick up the finished sketches. I walked in and my jaw hit the floor as I looked around and saw the absolutely brilliant pen and ink sketches that covered every wall. I knew what she paid for the work and expected the sketches would be good, at very least and, after seeing their work, I expected something exceptional.
What she got, in two sorta cheap little folders made of corrugated cardboard hinged with masking tape, was a couple of pen and ink pieces with smudge-​pencil shading; something barely better than I could have done myself, given my enthusiastic but very limited experience in sketching and the fact that I am NOT an artist. The layouts looked very much like a hurry-​up job intended to rake in a few bucks and the work put into her part of the portrait made the thing look like a picture of her, with her grandchild tossed in as a thumbnail sketch. It ws really not any better than what you’d get by sitting for one of those quick and dirty portraits done on a boardwalk or by a very good high school art student.
I know art is subjective but what is less subjective is the price involved for the quality rendered. If these two sketches had cost $ 75 apiece, I would have understood what she got. They were $ 178.00 apiece and, for that money, I think you have the right to expect more. If I hadn’r seen the work they’re capable of, hanging there on their studio walls, I would have simply thought that she was gouged by someone not capable of doing any better. Having seen the truly magnificent examples of what they can do when motivated, I can only conclude that somebody offering a mere $ 350+ gets far less than their best efforts.
If you go to Gw, I suggest you ask what it would cost to get the Good Stuff and pay that. It would doubtless be worth the extra money. As for what she got, it was simply a scam.