Oil Painting Commission Prices UK (2026): What a Custom Painting From a Photo Costs, by Subject and Size

Oil painting commission prices in the UK run from £220 for a 12 × 16″ canvas to £549 at 36 × 48″. One subject is in every price and each additional person or pet is £59 to £105, depending on the canvas. Nothing else moves the number — not the style, not the background, not how difficult the photograph is.

This is that price list read subject by subject. For the reasoning behind the figures rather than the figures themselves, see what a commissioned oil painting costs.

The price in one table: size first, then subjects

Every figure below is hand-painted oil on canvas, unframed, with worldwide delivery included. Read down for the canvas and across for the number of faces in it.

Canvas	1 subject	2 subjects	3 subjects	4 subjects	5 subjects
12 × 16″	£220	£279	£338	£397	£456
16 × 20″	£275	£334	£393	£452	£511
20 × 24″	£330	£389	£448	£507	£566
24 × 36″	£449	£524	£599	£674	£749
30 × 40″	£489	£578	£667	£756	£845
36 × 48″	£549	£654	£759	£864	£969

That table is the whole of it: take the canvas price, then add that canvas's own charge for every subject after the first. It is £59 on the three smaller sizes, £75 at 24 × 36″, £89 at 30 × 40″ and £105 at 36 × 48″, because a bigger face takes longer to paint. A family of four on a 24 × 36″ is £449 plus three lots of £75, so £674. There is no minimum group size and no charge for a difficult pose.

Two cells in it are correct and practically wrong. Five subjects on a 12 × 16″ gives each face the area of a stamp, and 16 × 20″ is not much better. We say so when you send the photograph.

WELCOME20 takes 20% off a first commission, applied to the whole total including extra subjects, so that family of four comes to £539. It covers commissions rather than catalogue reproductions, which start at £129. The same grid without commentary sits on the pricing page.

What every price includes, and what it does not

Included at every size: oil paint applied by hand, one subject, worldwide delivery rolled in a tube, and a photograph of the finished painting to approve before it is dispatched. If the likeness is not right in that photograph we keep painting until it is. That is the job, not a paid extra.

Not included: a frame. Every painting arrives unframed and rolled, and you frame it locally. That is deliberate: framed canvases are damaged in transit far more often, and a frame chosen near the wall suits the room better. Budget £80 to £250 at a decent framer; framing an oil painting in the UK covers what to ask for.

Nothing is charged when you send the order form. We reply within one working day with an honest read on the photograph and a plan, then send a payment link. If the photograph will not make a good painting, you find out before spending anything.

Pet portrait prices: one pet, two pets, and costume

One dog or one cat is a single subject, so pet prices start at £220 for a 12 × 16″ and £275 for a 16 × 20″. Most people end up wanting the 16 × 20″: a single animal reads properly from across a room at that size, where a 12 × 16″ ends up on a shelf.

Two pets is £334 at 16 × 20″ or £389 at 20 × 24″. The larger canvas is usually the better spend, because two heads on a 16 × 20″ leaves very little room around them. Both are on the dog and cat portrait page.

Costume and setting cost nothing. A dog in Renaissance armour, a cat as a Dutch burgher, a changed background, the lead painted out — that is a note on the order form, not a product tier. There is no style picker and no style surcharge: you describe what you want in the notes field and the price stays where the table puts it. Horses, rabbits and every other animal use the same numbers.

Family portrait painting cost, by number of people

Family portrait painting cost is where the extra-subject line does most of the work, so it is worth setting out at the sizes people actually order.

Family	Sensible canvas	Price
Two adults	16 × 20″	£334
Two adults, one child	20 × 24″	£448
Two adults, two children	24 × 36″	£674
Two adults, two children, a dog	24 × 36″	£749
Five people	30 × 40″	£845
Five people, full length	36 × 48″	£969

A group of five needs a 30 × 40″ as a floor. The rule is about faces rather than walls: below roughly four inches of canvas height per head, likeness stops being reliable, and five heads across a 24 × 36″ leaves you under that. Go to 36 × 48″ for full length, or for a wall viewed from more than about three metres. The family portrait page shows the same sizes in composition.

Pets count exactly as people do: a dog added to a family of four costs what a fifth person would. Pricing follows subjects in the finished painting, not photographs sent.

Wedding, couple and anniversary prices, including work from an old print

A couple is two subjects: £334 at 16 × 20″, £389 at 20 × 24″, £524 at 24 × 36″. Add a child or a dog and it is one more subject at that canvas's rate. Anniversary and engagement pieces use the same table, as does the wedding portrait page. There is no occasion pricing.

A poor source photograph does not cost extra either. Much of what we are sent for a fortieth or a golden anniversary is a photograph of a photograph: a curling 1970s print shot on a phone, a scan with a crease across it. Reconstructing skin tone from a faded print and painting past a scratch is normal work at these prices, not a restoration surcharge.

It does change what we owe you. If the print is too soft to establish an eye socket or the line of a jaw, we say so in the reply, before payment, and set out what will be interpreted rather than copied.

Memorial portrait prices, and why they are not priced differently

Memorial commissions are the same table again. One person at 16 × 20″ is £275. A grandmother with the dog she had for fourteen years, on a 20 × 24″, is £389. Someone who has died added into a family group counts as one more subject, like anyone else in the painting.

That is worth stating because grief attracts pricing: it is one of the few categories where a customer will not shop around. Charging more for a memorial portrait than for a birthday present would be indefensible.

The real constraint on memorial work is the photograph, not the money. The best image of someone who has died is often a snapshot nobody took carefully, and there may only be one. Send what you have and we will say whether it carries a painting at the size you want.

The honest ladder: what each type of service costs

Prices only make sense compared like with like. These are types of service rather than named firms, because the same money buys very different objects.

What you are buying	Typical price	Where it wins	Where it does not
A digital file from a marketplace listing	£10–£30	Fast and cheap	A JPEG; printing and framing are yours
A photo printed onto canvas as a portrait	£40–£90	Good on a wall, arrives in days	No paint, no texture
A watercolour or pencil artist	£80–£250	Real person, real materials	Lighter medium, less presence at scale
An unbranded overseas painting studio	£150–£400	Lowest honest price for oil	Often no UK contact or approval stage
Us	£220–£549	Approval photograph, repainting until right	From a photograph, not from life
A local UK portrait painter	£600–£3,000	Sittings from life, a named artist	Months not weeks, several times the money

Every row is a legitimate purchase. The mistake is buying one while believing you bought another, which is what happens when a printed canvas is sold with the words hand-finished doing a great deal of quiet work.

Why the price floor exists

The floor is set by hours. An oil portrait is one of the last things sold where the cost is almost entirely someone's time, and oil dries slowly enough that the work cannot be compressed — layers cure before the next goes on, which is most of why a commission takes about three to four weeks plus delivery.

Materials are the small part: artist-grade oils, canvas and brushes come to tens of pounds on a mid-sized piece, and air freight from the studio in Xiamen adds a real cost per parcel. Everything else in a £275 painting is labour. There is no arithmetic in which a genuine hand-painted 16 × 20″ oil sells for £99 delivered.

The tells are consistent. It ships in two or three days, faster than oil dries. Every example image shows identical brushwork, because it is one texture overlay. There is no approval stage, because there is nothing to approve. The wording is oil-effect or hand-finished rather than oil on canvas. Any one is worth a question; all four together is a print.

To see it in one place before choosing a size, start on the commission from photo page — photograph, subject, size, and a reply within a working day.

Frequently asked questions

Does WELCOME20 apply to the extra subjects as well?

Yes — it comes off the whole order total, including every extra subject, on a first commission. The discount is a flat 20% with no cap on it, so the larger the order, the more it takes off. It covers commissions rather than catalogue reproductions.

Is there VAT or an import charge on top?

The figure in the table is the figure you pay us, and delivery is included in it wherever the painting is going. Import VAT or duty charged by the destination country is separate from delivery and is the customer's responsibility. Damage in transit is replaced or refunded in full.

Can I pay extra to have it framed before it ships?

No, and it is not an oversight. Every painting travels rolled in a tube and unframed, which is why delivery is included and why the canvas arrives intact. Frame it locally, with the size in hand.

What does a painting of two pets cost?

£334 on a 16 × 20″ or £389 on a 20 × 24″. With two animals the larger canvas is usually the better buy.

What about six people?

Six subjects is the canvas price plus five extra subjects: £934 on a 30 × 40″, £1,074 on a 36 × 48″. Do not go below 30 × 40″ with six faces, or it becomes a group of small heads rather than six people you recognise.

Is 12 × 16″ or 16 × 20″ the better buy?

£55 separates them and the 16 × 20″ is worth it in almost every case. A 12 × 16″ is a shelf picture, and looks smaller on a wall than it does in a photograph. The commonest regret is not overspending — it is buying one size down and living with it.