There is a grease-pencil tag wired to a stretcher bar, and on it someone has written +$75, and under that, smaller, 4-6.
No name. No face. Just the arithmetic pinned to the wood like a toe tag.
I stared at it for a full minute and felt relief — because I'd spent two weeks reading commission pages that talked about soul and legacy, and here was a studio telling me the truth in six characters. You want a fourth face? Seventy-five dollars. Next.
The 30-Second Answer
A hand-painted oil portrait from your photo costs $166–$822 at an atelier that prices by canvas area, and $300–$3,500 from an independent artist who prices by the hour. Canvas size is the dominant variable — not the artist's skill. The number of faces is second, and it is charged as a flat surcharge, not a multiplier.
Measured per square inch, the atelier runs about $0.67/in² and the independent artist about $2.50/in² — a ratio of roughly 3.7 : 1. That single number explains most of the confusion in this category.
Three Completely Different Things Are Called "Commissioning a Painting"
Almost every misleading price comparison online comes from mixing these up. I mixed them up. For about a week I went around telling people portrait commissions were a scam, which was both rude and stupid.
| Atelier commission | Independent artist | Marketplace commission | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who paints it | A trained copyist in a production studio, assigned by skill tier | One named artist in their own studio | One named artist, found via a platform |
| What you buy | A skilled rendering of your photo, to spec | That artist's interpretation, in their style | The same, plus escrow and returns |
| Priced by | Canvas area plus options, published in advance | Hourly rate × hours, or per square inch | Artist sets it; platform takes 30–50% |
| Typical range | $166–$822 | $300–$3,500 (to $10,000+ hyper-real) | $1,500–$9,000 |
| Approve before painting | Yes — digital mock-up | Sometimes — a sketch | Artist-dependent |
| Resale value | None | Some, if the artist has a market | Some |
Both ends are honest. An atelier sells skilled labour at a known rate. An independent artist sells authorship.
If you want a painting of your grandmother that looks like your photograph of your grandmother, the atelier is the correct purchase and the price difference is not a quality difference. If you want a painting recognisably by someone — a thing with a name on the back that means something to a future stranger — no atelier can sell you that at any price.
Why the Atelier Number Is as Low as It Is
Not a mystery, and not a trick. Industrial concentration.
Dafen Oil Painting Village, in Shenzhen, is roughly 0.4 km² — smaller than a decent city park — and holds over 1,200 workshops and more than 10,000 painters, producing on the order of five million paintings a year.
At its peak, Dafen accounted for an estimated 60% of oil paintings sold worldwide. Other counts put 70% of the US and European market as Chinese-produced, with 80% of that output from Dafen. Since around 2025 many painters there have shifted toward original work, and lower-cost copying has migrated to Xiamen and Yiwu.
Five million paintings a year, from an area you could walk across during one phone call.
Two consequences worth stating plainly:
- Quality is a sourcing question, not a category question. "Hand-painted in a studio" tells you nothing on its own. Ask who painted it, at what tier, and whether you get a photograph of your canvas before it ships.
- The cheap price is not suspicious, and the expensive price is not a rip-off. A painter charging $65/hour for 20 hours on a 20 × 24 in (51 × 61 cm) couple's portrait arrives at $1,300 by arithmetic no less honest than the studio's published table.
The Price Matrix: Size × Number of Faces
Live computed prices, August 2026 — not "from" prices, not "starting at," not an asterisk in sight. Excludes frame and options. Worldwide shipping is included.
| Canvas size | Metric | Area | 1–3 faces (included) | 4–6 (+$75) | 7–9 (+$150) | 10+ (+$300) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | 516 cm² | $166 | $241 | $316 | $466 |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | 1,239 cm² | $188 | $263 | $338 | $488 |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | 2,065 cm² | $214 | $289 | $364 | $514 |
| 18 × 24 in | 46 × 61 cm | 2,787 cm² | $236 | $311 | $386 | $536 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | 3,097 cm² | $245 | $320 | $395 | $545 |
| 24 × 30 in | 61 × 76 cm | 4,645 cm² | $292 | $367 | $442 | $592 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | 5,574 cm² | $320 | $395 | $470 | $620 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | 7,742 cm² | $386 | $461 | $536 | $686 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | 11,148 cm² | $489 | $564 | $639 | $789 |
| 48 × 72 in | 122 × 183 cm | 22,297 cm² | $822 | $897 | $972 | $1,122 |
The two structural facts
Price scales with area, sub-linearly. There's a fixed setup component — photo assessment, mock-up, artist assignment, stretcher, shipping — and then area does the rest, with a small volume discount as canvases grow.
The consequence is the thing worth knowing: going from 8 × 10 in (20 × 25 cm) to 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) multiplies the area by 10.8× and the price by only 1.9×. Read that again, because it's the closest thing to free money in this article.
Complexity is a flat fee, not a multiplier. A fourth face costs $75 whether the canvas is 8 × 10 in (20 × 25 cm) or 48 × 72 in (122 × 183 cm). That's +45% on the small canvas and +9% on the large one.
| Your group | Band | 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm) | 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) | 30 × 40 in (76 × 102 cm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One person, a couple, or two kids | Included | $214 | $320 | $386 |
| Family of five | +$75 | $289 (+35%) | $395 (+23%) | $461 (+19%) |
| Extended family, eight | +$150 | $364 (+70%) | $470 (+47%) | $536 (+39%) |
| Large group, twelve | +$300 | $514 (+140%) | $620 (+94%) | $686 (+78%) |
A six-person family at 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm) ($289) is poor value against the same family at 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) ($395): +37% price for +170% area, and every face gets 2.7× the canvas to be recognisable in.
I've seen a family of six painted at 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm). The youngest child's entire head is the size of a thumbnail. She is technically present. She is not, in any meaningful sense, there.
Options, and What They Tell You About a Vendor
| Option | Price | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| Elite / senior artist | +$100 | Higher skill tier; more detail, longer production |
| Final varnish | +$15 | Applied only after adequate cure |
| Custom modifications | +$50 | Change a background, remove a person, merge two photos, change clothing |
| Urgent production | +$30 | Queue position, not faster painting |
| Bronze / acrylic nameplate | +$10 / +$30 | Engraved plate on the frame |
| Frame — gallery wrap | $89–$231 | Stretched, ready to hang |
| Frame — outer moulding | $151–$522 | Traditional profile around the canvas |
| Frame — ornate / gilt | $250–$745 | Baroque and museum profiles |
| No frame | $0 | Ships rolled in a tube |
Here's my favourite vendor test in this business, and it takes four seconds. A vendor whose "museum quality" is one flat claim with no priced options behind it is selling you an adjective.
Priced options are a confession. They tell you the studio knows exactly what varnish costs, what a nameplate costs, what queue-jumping costs. Adjectives cost nothing, which is precisely why some sites are made entirely of them.
The framing reality check. Across 2,595,509 hand-painted oil orders, only 33% took a frame. Frame prices include international freight on a bulky box, so at 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) a moulding frame costs $306–$401 against $320 for the painting itself.
You read that correctly: the wood around the picture can cost more than the picture.
Am I Paying for the Canvas, or for the Skill?
For the canvas, mostly — and that is the single most useful thing to know before you order.
At an atelier the shape of the price is public: area drives it, with a fixed setup floor underneath. Skill enters as a $100 line item — the elite/senior tier — not as the base price.
So the honest way to spend more money is to buy more painting, not to hunt for a better painter within the same studio. You cannot bid your way to a better hand. You can only buy more square centimetres of the hand you get.
With an independent artist the ratio inverts completely: skill is the price. The conventions are $2–$10 per square inch (beginners near $2, established artists $10+), or $30–$65 per hour against 10–20 hours for a simple portrait and 40–80 hours for a large detailed one. Most add 20–50% on top of what the piece would sell for off their studio wall, because a commission carries client time, revisions, and the low-grade dread of painting a subject they didn't choose.
Will It Look Like My Photograph, and Should It?
It will look like a painting of your photograph, and the gap between those two things is what you are paying for.
A painting that reproduces a photo pixel-for-pixel looks like a bad print. I know because I once asked for exactly that, got exactly that, and hated it.
What you're buying is a painter making several thousand small decisions about edge, temperature and emphasis — softening the back of a shoulder so the face comes forward, warming a shadow under a jaw, deciding the ugly bright thing in the background is a distraction and killing it.
If literal accuracy is genuinely the goal, a giclée print of the same photo at 30 × 20 in (76.2 × 50.8 cm) costs $68 and will be more faithful than any human hand.
The source file is where the disappointment lives
- Send the highest-resolution original, not a messaging-app copy. Check it on a computer, enlarged to the finished painting's size on screen.
- Soft, directional light. Painters actively want part of the face in shadow — as much as half — because classical portraiture is built on shadow, and a flat-lit face has no three-dimensional information to paint.
- Avoid on-camera flash, motion blur, and phone portrait-mode background blur. All three transfer. The fake bokeh especially: it arrives as a smear of mud and nobody can fix it.
- Send several photos, not one. An extra angle rescues a bad jawline or a half-closed eye.
- A +$50 custom-modification fee covers merging two photographs, removing a person, changing a background or clothing. Routine, priced services. Don't apologise for asking.
And this is the best vendor test in the article: a good studio will tell you a photo is unusable before taking your money. Anyone who will take any file and promise a masterpiece is not confident. They're hungry.
What the Rest of the Market Charges
Observed August 2026. Conversions at PLN 3.7211 / USD, EUR 0.8657 / USD.
| Vendor | Model | 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm) | 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) | Extra subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WahooArt.com | Atelier, published table | $214 | $320 | +$75 per band of 3 | Shipping included; 30-day money-back; mock-up before painting |
| Most-Famous-Paintings.com | Atelier | $214 | $320 | +$75 per band | Masterpiece-reproduction angle |
| ArtsDot.com | Atelier | $207 | $310 | +$75 per band | Slightly lower base |
| PaintYourLife | Atelier | $299 | — | +$50 per person or pet | 20% deposit at order; Express +15%; 4-instalment financing |
| PaintMyPhotoNow | Atelier | $221 | $388 | +$33 to +$614 by size | +$19 shipping; frames $35–$185 |
| Etsy | Marketplace of individuals | $95–$319 observed | Quote-based | Artist-set | 2–4 weeks from deposit; variance is the entire risk |
| Singulart | Curated marketplace | — | — | Artist-set | Commission observed at PLN 32,750 (≈ $8,801) for 150 × 100 cm; pet portrait PLN 5,950 (≈ $1,599). Platform takes 30–50% from the artist |
| Artmajeur | Open marketplace | — | — | Artist-set | Artists pay €60/yr + 35%; commission example €3,000 for 100 × 100 cm |
| Fabulous Masterpieces (UK) | Own studio, commissions and replicas | From £197 + VAT | £500 + VAT at 100 × 140 cm | Not itemised | Free worldwide delivery; approval photo before shipping; 4–6 weeks |
| Reproduction Gallery | Own studio — catalogue only, no photo commissions | — | — | — | $299–$329 at ~75 × 75 cm; free worldwide; 45-day returns |
| TOPofART | Own studio — catalogue only | — | — | — | Oils €944–€1,084; prints €52–€55 |
| MFA Images (Boston) | Museum replica programme — prints only | — | — | — | Archival pigment on rag paper or cotton canvas |
| Independent artist, direct | One artist | ≈ $800 at $2.50/in² | — | +30–50% per figure | $500–$3,500 standard; $5,000–$12,000 for a 40 × 60 in (101.6 × 152.4 cm) high-detail oil (50–70 hours); $10,000+ hyper-real |
The honest read. The spread from $214 to $8,801 for the identical sentence is real, and it is not mostly a quality spread. It's a labour-market spread, with marketplaces adding 30–50% on top of the artist's own number.
Singulart and Artmajeur aren't really commission houses at all — they're marketplaces for original art where some artists also accept commissions, which is exactly why their commission prices sit at original-art levels. Nobody's lying. Everybody's answering a different question.
And note the three bottom rows before the independent: three established studios that won't take your photograph at all. They reproduce catalogue works, where the source file is their problem rather than yours. That's a legitimate and much simpler product — and if what you want is a Monet rather than your grandmother, it removes this entire article from your life.
What People Actually Order
From 6,380,542 order lines, 12 June 2008 – 8 August 2026:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Commissions from a customer's own photo | 988,669 |
| Hand-painted oil, all sources | 2,595,509 |
| Median photo commission | 4,636 cm² — 79 cm (31 in) long side |
| Most-ordered exact size | 30 × 40 cm (12 × 16 in) |
| Second most-ordered | 61 × 46 cm (24 × 18 in) |
| Oil orders including a frame | 33% |
Photo commissions are bimodal — a gift tier and a centrepiece tier, and almost nothing in between. People buying a present buy small. People buying a monument buy big. Nobody buys medium.
And this delights me: the highest-volume size, 30 × 40 cm, is not on most vendors' standard-size lists. It's the European gift format — the size of a thing you carry to someone's house wrapped in brown paper. Vendors offering only US canvas sizes are missing their busiest rung entirely.
What the Money Does Not Buy
- Not an investment. A rendering of your own photograph has essentially no resale market. If someone tells you otherwise, they're selling.
- Not repeatability. A press is repeatable; a person is not. Insist on a photograph of your canvas before it ships.
- Not rescue for a bad photo. Low resolution, harsh flash, motion blur and crushed shadow all transfer. Oil paint is not a repair tool.
- Not exemption from copyright. Public-domain works are unproblematic; artists still in copyright are not, regardless of who holds the brush.
- Not speed. Four to five weeks at an atelier, months with an independent.
Which Option, by Situation
| Situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gift portrait of one person, under $250 | Atelier, 12 × 16 in (30 × 41 cm) or 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm), no frame | $188–$214; frame locally for less than the freight costs |
| Family of five, living-room centrepiece | Atelier, 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm), 4–6 face band | $395; going bigger costs +37% and gives each face 2.7× the canvas |
| Memorial portrait from an old, damaged photo | Atelier + custom modifications (+$50) | Background changes, repair and merging two photos are priced, ordinary services |
| Wedding party, twelve people | Atelier, 30 × 40 in (76 × 102 cm), 10+ band | $686; the flat surcharge is only 78% of base here against 140% at 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm) |
| You want a painting by a particular artist | Independent artist, direct | Nothing an atelier sells is authorship. Budget $500–$3,500 |
| Named artist plus escrow and returns | Singulart / Artmajeur | Original-art pricing: $1,600–$8,800 observed |
| Cheapest possible hand-painted portrait | Etsy | $50–$319. Read reviews on that seller, not the shop |
| Reproduction of a famous painting | Atelier catalogue channel, or a dedicated studio | +$25 per face beyond the first; or $299–$329 at Reproduction Gallery |
| You need it inside two weeks | Giclée print | No oil commission clears two weeks honestly. None |
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to commission an oil painting from a photo?
$166–$822 at an atelier; $300–$3,500 from an independent artist; $1,500–$9,000 through a curated marketplace. A single-figure 16 × 20 in (41 × 51 cm) oil portrait is $214 at an atelier, $299 at PaintYourLife, $95–$319 on Etsy, and about $800 from an independent charging $2.50/in².
Why is one oil portrait $214 and another $8,000?
Labour market, not quality tier. About $0.67/in² at an atelier against $2.50/in² for the independent-artist convention — roughly 3.7 : 1 — with marketplaces adding 30–50% on top.
How much extra for more than one person?
Banded and flat: 3 faces included, 4–6 +$75, 7–9 +$150, 10+ +$300, regardless of canvas size.
Should I buy the frame from the studio?
Usually not. At 24 × 36 in (61 × 91 cm) a moulding frame costs $306–$401 against $320 for the painting. Only 33% of buyers take one.
Is a commissioned portrait an investment?
No. Its value is replacement cost.
The Verdict
Buy the biggest canvas you can hang, from the studio with the published table, and put the money you saved on the frame into a frame chosen by someone in your own city who can see your wall.
And go back and look at that grease-pencil tag one more time. +$75. 4-6.
Somebody wrote that so a stranger four thousand miles away could know, before paying, exactly what a fourth face costs. That's not romance. It's better than romance. It's being told the truth.
Further Reading
- F.A.Q. Custom Paintings from Photos
- Turn Family Photos into Masterpiece Oil Portraits
- How to Commission a Custom Oil Painting: From Concept to Canvas
- From Blurry to Brilliant
Sources
- PaintYourLife prices; Paint My Photo Now price list; Etsy market; Singulart; Artmajeur pricing; Acousart 2026 pricing guide
- How to Price Art Commissions — Milan Art Institute; $2.50 per square inch — Peacock Oils; WetCanvas
- Nikkei Asia on Dafen; Artsy; Al Jazeera
- Katie Peña on commissioning from photos; Zsuzsanna Pataki on reference photos
- Reproduction Gallery, TOPofART, Fabulous Masterpieces and MFA Images archival replicas — prices and commission scope as published, August 2026.
- Site prices quoted live from the published order pages, August 2026, ex-frame and ex-options, worldwide shipping included. Demand figures aggregated from 6,380,542 reproduction order lines placed between 12 June 2008 and 8 August 2026.
Data as of 8 August 2026. Price tables in this category go stale; check the live order page before quoting these numbers back at anyone.
