Having a painting made from your own photograph

When the painting you want does not exist, it can be painted from a picture you send. What decides the result is the photograph you choose and the size you settle on before the first brushstroke.

Having a painting made from your own photograph

01What can be painted

A person, a couple, a family, an animal, a house, a car, a landscape: the subjects that come up most often each have their own page, reached from the commission desk. Anything outside those is still possible; it is simply quoted case by case rather than from a page.

What cannot be done is a copy of a work still in copyright. Everything else is a question of the photograph and the size.

02The photograph decides the painting

A painter can only work from what the picture actually contains. The best reference is sharp, taken in daylight, and shows the subject filling most of the frame.

  • Resolution. Send the largest file you have, straight from the camera or phone, not a version pulled from a chat app, which strips detail.
  • Light. Soft daylight beats flash. A face lit from the side has form; a face lit by a flash is flat and the painting will be too.
  • No filters. Heavy editing, beauty modes and strong colour grading get painted faithfully, including the distortions.
  • Faces. Eyes in focus. A blurred eye cannot be invented.

If the only picture you have falls short, send it anyway and say so. An advisor will tell you plainly whether it is workable before anything is agreed.

03How the process runs

You send the photograph and say roughly what size you have in mind. An advisor comes back with a price and a timeline, usually within a day, and asks whatever is still open: how many figures, whether to keep or change the background, what the painting is for.

Nothing is charged until you have agreed to both the price and the timeline. Once it is agreed, the work is painted in the workshop and shipped free, exactly as a catalogue painting is.

04Size, medium and frame

A commission is an oil on canvas, painted by hand. Size is yours to decide rather than picked from a table, and the same reasoning applies as on any other painting: measure the wall first, and read the size guide before naming a number.

Presentation works exactly as in the catalogue too. Rolled, stretched or framed, with the same mouldings, described in the delivery guide.

05How long it takes

A hand-painted oil takes one to four weeks in the workshop, depending on the size, the complexity of the subject and how many paintings are in the order. A large group portrait is at the long end of that; a single pet on a plain ground is at the short end.

Transit follows: a few days within Vietnam, and generally ten to twenty-one working days elsewhere, as set out in the shipping terms. If the painting is a gift with a date attached, say the date at the outset rather than at the end.

06What you can still change

Everything is open until painting starts: the crop, the background, whether a figure is added or removed, the size, the frame. Once the canvas is under way, changes mean starting again, which is why the brief is agreed in writing first.

If what arrives does not match what was agreed, send photographs within 30 days and it is put right; the replacement policy sets out how.

Good to know

Questions people ask

Can I combine several photographs?

Yes, and it is common for family paintings where no single picture has everyone in it. Send all of them and say which face and which pose should be taken from which.

Will I see the painting before it ships?

Yes. You are sent photographs of the finished work, and anything that genuinely departs from the agreed brief is corrected before it leaves the workshop.

What does a commission cost?

It depends on the size, the number of figures and the complexity, so it is quoted rather than listed. The quote comes before any payment, and it is a fixed price, not an estimate that moves later.

Can you paint from an old or damaged photograph?

Often, yes. A painter can work around scratches, fading and cropping in a way a print never can, which is why old family photographs are among the most frequent commissions. Send it and ask.

If you already have the picture in mind, the shortest route is the commission desk itself: send the photograph and the wall measurement, and the rest comes back as a price and a date.

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Keep deciding

Other guides

Hand-painted oil or fine art print

Every painting here is offered in two forms. One is painted with a brush and has a surface you can see across the room; the other is printed and has none. The image, the sizes, the framing and the free shipping are identical.

Choosing the right size

Almost every painting here comes in ten sizes, all of which keep its original proportions. Which one is right is decided by the wall, the distance you see it from and the furniture beneath it, not by the painting.

Rolled, stretched or framed

Three ways to receive the same canvas. One of them decides what you have to do when the parcel is opened, and whether you choose a frame now or leave it open.

Room by room

A painting is judged in the room it hangs in. Light, viewing distance and what the room is for decide the subject and the scale far more than taste does.

Living with an oil painting

An oil on canvas outlives the people who buy it, provided three things are right: where it hangs, what light falls on it, and what you do - and never do - when it needs cleaning.