Paul Palcko is a 1998 graduate of the University of the Arts who, until recently, had spent his career working as an illustrator in the medical field. "First [I worked in] medical illustration with textbooks for a few years, and then I worked for Advance magazines, a healthcare company, and I did medical art and editorial illustrations."
But, when Paul was laid off in 2010 he decided to spend more time taking freelance assignments and to consider using his artistic talents to start his own business. “I began freelancing and had the pleasure of working on a myriad of inspiring and challenging projects, including gallery exhibitions, print and web design, logo design, construction renderings, fine art commissions, and concept art for M. Night Shyamalan’s current movie project. I felt like there were so many possibilities I could do for work, and I thought, 'if I'm going to make a side business, what do I really like to do?' And I thought, 'I like making portraits.' I wanted to be a better business person so I took Empowerment Group's class with Angel Rodriguez and others from UArts. Within that class I developed the funkidsportraits.com project.”
Having seen many people struggle with spending large amounts of money on oil paintings over the years, Paul wanted to offer an alternative that would allow customers to have great original paintings without paying an arm and a leg for it. “I still definitely enjoy being able to offer people oil paintings, but I wanted to additionally provide an alternative that makes the process for commissioning original artwork easier and more affordable, and acrylics really allow me to do that. My goal was to make it affordable for younger people that understand why original art is good but maybe can't afford it yet.”
After using acrylics for several projects of pet portraits, Paul realized that they offered many benefits that oil paints did not. “Acrylics make commissioning original art more affordable because the drying time is faster as opposed to oil which takes a long time for the layers to dry. And acrylics can really make a piece look much more colorful and bright.” He designed his business to capitalize on this and even speed up his painting process. “If people supply a photo, it cuts down the time a project takes because I don't have to design a whole composition. They can upload it and I paint pretty much exactly that."
Paul's website, funkidsportraits.com walks each person through the steps of commissioning original art. From uploading the photo they want painted, to choosing the canvas size and background color, the website makes the process extremely easy and can cost under $100.
For Paul, balancing his continued freelance work with the start of his business gives him a variety he loves. “The goal with the business is to keep things diverse and keep doing what I love to do.” Since starting his own business, Paul has found that that also has become a new passion for him. “I’m working on figuring out how to better advertise FunKidsPortraits.com to reach the right market.”