Thanks for responding!
I've been doing this pretty inexpensively for a few years, and think I need to start charging more, because I have more work than I can get done. I've done some in particular places, often yards with the kids, and I do some fairly close-up things, in a slightly untraditional way. Not the averaged dose of background space.

But among portrait artists I talk to, and spy on, any of these little tweaks of style and particularities seem very outre', and one is firmly advised not to advertise with them. It strikes me sort of funny, I feel like I'm giggling in a church, and don't know what it's about, really. Afluent clients will be put off by everything that doesn't look a lot like everything else, is basically what I hear.

I know a fair number of wealthy people, and don't immediately see where this is coming from. It's true that as an art shipper I saw a lot of houses with genuine and interesting art all around, and then a State-Fair looking portrait stuck in with it. But I don't know the cause and effect. Is there a special reason portrait artists need to respect a sort of National Style, as if we we're living under a despotic regime? I hope not, but there seems to be something to it.