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The Journal

Ideas, craft and guidance for a painting of your own.

Explore what moves you—from people and pets to the places, images and ideas you love.

Photographs, a charcoal composition sketch, brushes and oil paints arranged on an artist's worktable.

Commissioning

How to Commission a Portrait from a Photograph

Learn how photographs become a commissioned painted portrait, from choosing references and shaping the composition to review, framing and delivery.

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A conceptual portfolio display includes several fictional painted sitters, a brushwork detail and a framed portrait.

Commissioning

How to Choose a Portrait Artist

Look for an artist whose way of seeing you trust, then make sure the working relationship is equally clear.

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A conceptual atelier arrangement shows a sketch, an unfinished portrait, a finished painting and a frame.

Commissioning

How Long Does an Oil Portrait Take? From Photograph to Finished Painting

The painting schedule is only one part of the journey. A reliable completion date accounts for everything around it.

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Three conceptual views compare small, medium and large versions of the same portrait above one console.

Commissioning

What Size Should a Portrait Be? Choosing Scale for the Person—and the Room

The right dimensions give the sitter enough presence and the room enough space to receive them.

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A conceptual photograph of an older man is paired with a painterly interpretation that simplifies the surrounding room.

Inspiration

A Portrait Is Not a Photograph

A photograph can give a portrait its beginning. The painter decides how that beginning will become an image to live with.

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Three separate conceptual photographs of a grandmother, daughter and boy sit beside a unified fictional painted family portrait.

Technique

One Family, Several Photographs: How We Compose a Portrait When No Perfect Photograph Exists

The people who belong together in a portrait do not always appear together in a photograph.

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Blank canvases in two sizes, frame samples, a palette and brushes on a fictional atelier table.

Commissioning

How Much Does a Commissioned Portrait Cost?

A useful portrait quote tells you what is being made, what is included and which choices will change the price.

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Six conceptual painted panels show one fictional sitter from drawing through block-in to a resolved portrait.

Technique

From First Mark to Final Glaze: How a Portrait Is Painted

A portrait develops through decisions that remain visible even when the first marks have disappeared.

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Four conceptual photographs of one fictional woman compare expression, lighting, distance and cropping.

Commissioning

How to Choose the Right Photograph for a Painted Portrait

Start with recognition. Then look for the light, detail and posture that will help a painter understand what you see.

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Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in a flower-trimmed straw hat, holding her palette and brushes.

Inspiration · Featured read

The Art of Being Seen: What Vigée Le Brun Understood About Portraiture

What Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s portraits reveal about likeness, sympathy and the art of truly seeing another person.

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Laeticia sits on a moss-green sofa, with a large gilt-framed portrait of her mother on the wall behind her.

In the Home

At home with Laeticia

Art books, a green sofa, and a portrait of her mother—with the listening expression Laeticia knows best.

Imagined home · Fictional story

Catherine sits on a blue sofa while Margot, a brindle whippet, rests in a woven bed beneath her portrait.

In the Home

At home with Catherine & Margot

Paintings, books, ceramics—and a whippet with a good view of everything.

Imagined home · Fictional story

The Martins and their two children share a family room beneath a painted sibling portrait.

In the Home

A room for the whole family

At the Martins’, drawings collect on the walls and two children share a book, when they can agree on the page.

Imagined home · Fictional story

Amelia and Daniel sit together on a cream sofa in their West Village apartment concept, with their painted portrait visible behind them.

In the Home

At home with Amelia & Daniel

A small City Hall wedding, a wait on a bench, and a picture the couple still have different stories about.

Imagined home · Fictional story

James stands beside walnut bookshelves, across the room from a painted portrait of his younger father.

In the Home

James and a photograph from 1978

Among the books in James’s apartment, a portrait of his father at thirty-one began with a small family photograph.

Imagined home · Fictional story

Anna sits in the walnut armchair while her sister stands beside the fireplace, with their grandmother’s portrait between them in Anna’s Paris apartment.

In the Home

At Anna’s, a gift for her sister

Two sisters, a family photograph, and a portrait making a temporary stop among Anna’s books and pictures.

Imagined home · Fictional story

Two children run through a sunlit living room while their mother sits beside a large portrait of all four family members.

In the Home

All four of us

A busy sitting room, two children on the move, and a family portrait with room for both parents.

Imagined home · Fictional story

The Salon is a collection of imagined homes and stories.

A starting point of your own?

A favorite photograph, an image or a few words is enough to begin.

Begin your portrait