Oil Painting Sizes Explained: The Size Ladder, What Each Looks Like on a Wall, and Which Subject Needs Which

Most single portraits want a 16 × 20in or a 20 × 24in canvas. Most family portraits want 24 × 36in or larger. Below is the reasoning, and where it stops holding.

Our oil painting sizes run from 12 × 16in to 36 × 48in — six rungs — and the choice comes down to two measurements: how many faces are going on the canvas, and how wide the wall is. Get either wrong and the painting will be good and still feel wrong in the room. This is the ladder; if you would rather work backwards from the room, what size portrait do you actually need goes wall by wall instead.

The size ladder, with something real to compare it to

Size	Metric	Nearest paper size	Commission price
12 × 16in	30 × 41cm	A3	£220
16 × 20in	41 × 51cm	Just under A2	£275
20 × 24in	51 × 61cm	A2 with a margin round it	£330
24 × 36in	61 × 91cm	A shade over A1	£449
30 × 40in	76 × 102cm	Between A1 and A0	£489
36 × 48in	91 × 122cm	A shade over A0	£549

Prices are for the canvas with one subject, hand-painted in oil, unframed, UK delivery included. Each additional person or pet adds from £59, depending on the canvas size, and WELCOME20 takes 20% off a first commission. Reproductions of gallery paintings run on a different ladder starting at £129 for an 8 × 10in: see the pricing page and what a custom oil painting costs in the UK.

Paper is a first anchor. Furniture is a better one, because furniture is what the painting hangs above:

• 12 × 16in is a vinyl LP sleeve with a few inches added: an object on a shelf, not the thing that owns the wall.
• 16 × 20in is the smallest canvas that can hold a wall on its own, and only a modest one. It puts one face at roughly life size.
• 24 × 36in landscape is about as wide as a 43-inch television and some 7cm taller. It is what most people picture when they say "a painting", and our most ordered rung.
• 36 × 48in landscape is as wide as a 55-inch television and a third again as tall. In a normal sitting room it is the first thing you see on walking in, which is either what you wanted or a problem.

Sizes are quoted short side first; any can be painted portrait or landscape, so say which in the notes.

Which size your subject actually needs

Headcount is the obvious variable. Crop is the one people forget: head-and-shoulders, three-quarter and full-body compositions need very different canvases for the same one person, because the face takes a smaller share of the height each time.

The anchor is that a real adult head is roughly 23cm from chin to crown. Head-and-shoulders on a 16 × 20in lands close to that; on a 12 × 16in the face comes in slightly under life size, which is rather intimate for one person. Put five people across a 16 × 20in and each head is six or seven centimetres tall: legible at arm's length, thumbnails from the sofa.

Subject and crop	Works at	Better at
One face, head and shoulders	12 × 16in	16 × 20in
One person, three-quarter (waist up)	16 × 20in	20 × 24in
One person, full body	20 × 24in	24 × 36in
Couple, head and shoulders	16 × 20in	20 × 24in
Couple, three-quarter or full body	20 × 24in	24 × 36in
Three people	20 × 24in	24 × 36in
Four people	24 × 36in	30 × 40in
Five or more	30 × 40in	36 × 48in
Family plus the dog	24 × 36in	30 × 40in
One dog or cat	12 × 16in	16 × 20in
Two dogs or cats	16 × 20in	20 × 24in
A horse, standing, side on	24 × 36in landscape	30 × 40in landscape

Canvas sizes for portraits of animals follow the same logic with one exception: a standing horse seen from the side is far longer than it is tall, so it needs width; a portrait canvas will either crop it or strand it in sky. Dogs and cats sit comfortably much smaller and have their own page at dog and cat portraits; horses, rabbits and the rest are on other animal commissions.

The extra-subject charge catches people out, so here is the arithmetic. It rises with the canvas: £59 on the three smaller sizes, £75 at 24 × 36in, £89 at 30 × 40in and £105 at 36 × 48in. Five people on a 30 × 40in is £489 for the canvas plus £89 for each of the four extra subjects, so £845 before WELCOME20. The next rung up comes to £969 and buys every face another couple of centimetres, which on a group that size is usually worth the difference.

The rule that prevents most regrets, and the tape test

The painting should fill roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the width of whatever it hangs above. That one rule accounts for most of the "it looked bigger on screen" messages.

• A 130cm mantelpiece wants 87–98cm: a 24 × 36in landscape at 91cm.
• A 150cm two-seater sofa wants 100–115cm: a 30 × 40in landscape at 102cm.
• A 165cm king-size headboard wants 110–124cm: a 36 × 48in landscape at 122cm.
• A 90cm hallway console table wants 60–68cm: a 20 × 24in at 61cm.
• A full 200cm three-seater wants 133–150cm, wider than anything we make. Hang a 36 × 48in and accept it sits under the ideal, or two 24 × 36in side by side.

Then test it. Cut newspaper to the exact dimensions, tape it to the wall at the height you would hang it, and leave it three days. Paper on a wall is far more honest than a screen, and the cheapest way to find out you wanted the next rung up. Where to hang a portrait covers the height question, which the same test settles.

A frame adds two to four inches on every side

The canvas measurement is not the wall measurement. A typical moulding is 5–10cm wide, so a framed 16 × 20in takes about as much wall as an unframed 20 × 24in, and a framed 24 × 36in the footprint of a 30 × 40in. On a tight wall — an alcove, a landing between two doors, a chimney breast under a picture rail — measure the framed footprint, or the frame will not fit the gap you measured. It cuts the other way at the small end: a 16 × 20in that felt marginal alone can carry a wall once framed, because the frame does part of the work.

Everything arrives rolled in a tube, so framing is two steps. A framer stretches the canvas onto bars for roughly £30–£80, then frames it; ready-made frames start around £15–£60, bespoke runs into the hundreds. How to frame an oil painting in the UK has the full costs.

Sizes for specific gifts and specific rooms

The right size for a gift is the size that fits the recipient's wall, not the size that reflects how much you like them.

The situation	Size	Why
A grandparent's flat	16 × 20in	Small rooms, picture rails, walls already full
A care-home room	12 × 16in	Little wall space, often not theirs to alter; sits on a chest of drawers
A first home or housewarming	20 × 24in	Substantial, but forgiving about which wall it lands on
A hallway or landing	20 × 24in or 24 × 36in	Viewed from a metre away, so a huge canvas cannot be taken in
A tack room or stable office	24 × 36in landscape	A horse needs width, and these rooms have one good wall
A milestone anniversary or multi-generation piece	30 × 40in or 36 × 48in	Several faces, and the centre of the room

Buying for a wall you cannot measure? 20 × 24in is the least risky rung: rarely too big for a real room, rarely so small it looks apologetic.

Why we stop at 36 × 48in, and why everything ships rolled

36 × 48in is the largest oil painting size we sell, for three reasons. Freight jumps once a tube passes a certain length. A canvas that size is a two-person job to stretch, and the framing bill climbs steeply with it. And beyond that scale most homes stop being the right setting: it belongs in foyers and dining rooms with the ceiling height for it. If you genuinely need bigger, say so in the notes before ordering and we will tell you honestly whether we can.

Everything ships rolled in a tube, unframed. A rolled canvas travels from the studio in Xiamen without the corner knocks a framed piece picks up, and a frame chosen in the UK will match your room far better than one cross-shipped with the painting.

Size does not change the timeline. A commission takes about three to four weeks to paint, plus delivery, whether it is a 12 × 16in or a 36 × 48in. Before it ships you are sent a photograph of the finished painting, and we keep working until it is right. Nothing is charged when you send the order form: we reply within one working day with an honest read on your photograph, and the payment link comes after that.

Frequently asked questions

Is 12 × 16in too small for two people?

Almost always, yes. The canvas is 30cm across, and two adult faces at any believable scale use most of that width before you have drawn a shoulder. Two people should start at 16 × 20in; 20 × 24in is what we would recommend. If the budget is fixed at the bottom rung, a 12 × 16in of one person beats a 12 × 16in of two.

Can you do a square canvas?

The six standard oil painting sizes are all rectangles, at ratios between 2:3 and 5:6, so square is not on the ladder. Ask in the notes before you commit and we will tell you whether we can and at what price. Some weeks the honest answer is no.

Can I ask for a custom size?

Same route: put it in the notes and you will get a straight answer. Most requests for a size between two rungs are better solved by taking the rung above and letting the frame make up the difference.

What size should a memorial portrait be?

16 × 20in or 20 × 24in for one person. Memorial paintings get looked at closely far more often than decorative ones, and usually hang somewhere personal rather than above the sofa. A face at roughly life size is the point, and those two sizes give exactly that.

Does a bigger painting reproduce the photo better?

No, it does the opposite. A soft or low-resolution reference that carries fine at 12 × 16in will show its limits at 36 × 48in, because every flaw is enlarged with everything else. If your only photograph is a poor one, size down rather than hoping.

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