Oil Portraits
Unlike most of our other styles, these portraits are not done by a Graphic artist, and printed. They are real oil portraits painted in England by an artist.
When you commission an oil portrait, in order to keep costs down, we do not have sittings, the artist simply works from an ordinary photograph.
If you have a photo you want the oil portrait based on, but there are elements within that photo which you would like to change - the clothes worn by the subject for example - then our artists can certainly help.
How to commission a portrait in oils
Step 1 - Order your portrait
Use our ordering tool to:
1) Tell us the details of the portrait you're after
2) Choose the sort of colours you’d like in the portrait
3) Choose how to send us the photo/s you’d like us to use
4) Confirm your order by making a 50% downpayment
Step 2 - The artist starts work
1) Our artist will take a close look at the photo / s you send in* and we will then contact you to discuss the composition of your portrait and talk to you about any other details.
2) Once we have agreed the composition with you and are completely clear about your requirements, the artist will start work.
*The last thing we want to do is start work using a photo we don't feel will result in a great portrait. If you send in a photo that we feel we can't work with, and can't provide an alternative, we will simply refund the 50% downpayment.
Step 3 - Draft portrait and feedback
1) About 2 - 3 weeks later, we will send you a number of photos of the work in progress for you to take a look at.
2) You give us your feedback on the painting
3) We make any changes required
Step 4 - Portrait delivered
1) On approval by you, your portrait is framed accroding to your instructions and on payment of the final 50%, despatched straight to you.
In all the process should take about 4 - 6 weeks.
Oil Portrait ordering process in more detail
The sort of photo we need to work from
The first step will be for us to take a look at your photo and make sure we can work with it. For the best results we need to work from a clear, well lit and in focus photo. The person should ideally fill up most of the actual photo and the colour of the eyes should be visible.
Remember the artist only has the photo to work from, so the clearer the picture the more we can pick up on the texture of the skin, the colour of the eyes etc.
As the portrait will be hanging on your walls for many years to come, it really is worth finding the best possible photo for the artist to work from.
Please note that if after seeing your photos and discussing them with you, we find we still can't get a photo that we feel would work well in the style, we will simply refund the 50% downpayment. The last thing we want to do is start work using a photo we don't feel will result in a great portrait.
See examples of the sort of photo we need to create the best possible portrait.
Composition
This is essentially about where the head sits within the canvas. To help decide on the composition of the picture we will send back a number of crops of your photo for you to consider. Some will be close crops, concentrating very much on the face, with others showing the full face and more background.
Colours
With the oil portraits, this is really about the sort of background you want to appear in the portrait.
We tend to use a broken colour background that highlights the people in the paintings. You can let us know the sorts of colour you'd like to use when you order the portrait, or you can ask for the artist's opinion and we can discuss it with you once we have seen the photo.
To give you an idea of how it will look and which colours may work well, we will also do some digital mock ups, cutting out the face/s and dropping various colours into the background. This can be a great way of establishing what will actually work best.
In some cases it may be that you are happy with the actual background in the photograph itself. In a case like that we would take a look at that and if it is especially complicated we may have to charge a little more, but this would be done on a case by case basis.
Your feedback
About 3 weeks after agreeing the composition and colours with you, we will then email you back a number of photos of the work in progress. This gives you the opportunity to feedback to us and we are happy to make any amendments that are needed. Only when you are completely happy with the portrait is it then stretched up, packed and despatched to you.
In all the process should take about 4 - 6 weeks, but due to the nature of the medium, can sometimes take a little longer.
Any Questions?
Most common questions should be answered in our pop art canvas FAQ section, but we're more than happy to chat too, so feel free to call us.
Studio hours are 9.30am - 5.30pm Monday - Friday
Telephone: 020 7193 7778
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