Price, lead time, and the question of whose photograph it is

Room text, at the entrance

Here's the number you came for: a hand-painted oil from your photograph runs $188 at 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm) to $822 at 48 × 72 in (121.9 × 182.9 cm). Your first three faces ride free. After that it's $75 for four to six, $150 for seven to nine, and $300 if you're painting a whole softball team. Standard delivery is four to five weeks. Pay $30 and it's under three. And the studio owes you photographs of your actual canvas within 20 open business days of order confirmation — call it four calendar weeks, longer if what you ordered is genuinely a beast to paint.

Stack that against the field. PaintYourLife wants $389 for a 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) oil, plus $79 if you'd like a frame with that, thank you. Instapainting starts at $89, which should make you suspicious before it makes you excited. A local gallery painter runs $300 to $2,000-plus and takes eight to twelve weeks doing it, because a human is actually standing at an easel the whole time. A moderate oil portrait is twenty to forty hours of somebody's actual life on a 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm) canvas, fifty to seventy for a big, detailed one — do that arithmetic before any of these numbers mean a thing to you.

Here's what none of that money buys you, though: the right to use somebody else's photograph. Whoever pressed the shutter owns that picture, full stop, and a painting made from it is a derivative work whether you like the sound of that phrase or not. The Supreme Court said so, in these exact words, about these exact facts, in 2023.

The essay

Taped to the counter, under a lamination gone amber at one corner where somebody's coffee has clearly visited more than once, is the price list. Somebody has annotated it in pencil — a little or less beside one figure the studio apparently reconsiders more often than it reprints the card.

The front desk is the last room, the one you hit whether or not you meant to buy anything. Three people ahead of me, moving at the speed queues move, which is to say barely. The woman right in front is asking, quiet enough that I only catch half of it, whether a photograph her cousin took at the wedding is even hers to use. Behind me somebody reads the price card out loud to a companion who has already stopped listening, in that flat voice people use for menus they've already talked themselves out of.

Twelve by sixteen inches, a hundred and eighty-eight dollars. Forty-eight by seventy-two, eight hundred and twenty-two. Between them a ladder that gets less steep the higher you climb — nobody at the counter notices this, and it's quietly the most honest thing printed on the card: the big canvas is eighteen times the area of the small one and only four times the price. There's a fixed cost baked into every single order — the stretching, the setup, the first hour of a painter's attention no matter what it's aimed at — and that cost spreads thinner the bigger you go, like butter across more toast.

Then the arithmetic nobody prints.

A moderate oil portrait eats twenty to forty hours at 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm); a big detailed one, fifty to seventy. Working from a photo collapses what used to be six to ten live sittings into one or two — Sargent, just for scale, sometimes blew past eighty. Take the low end of the modern figure against a $320 canvas at 24 × 36 and you land somewhere between eight and sixteen dollars an hour — out of which still comes the canvas, the stretcher bars, the paint, the studio's cut and the crate. Nobody standing at this counter is getting fleeced. Whether anybody at the other end is getting paid fairly is a different question entirely, and the honest answer has more to do with a concentrated production hub in Shenzhen than with anything a laminated card is going to explain to you.

One line holds my eye longer than the rest, printed small, in the type reserved for whatever they'd rather you skimmed past: photographs of your finished canvas sent within twenty open business days of the order. Twenty working days. Four calendar weeks once you subtract the weekends, longer if the painting turns out complicated enough to earn it — which the card admits, in a subordinate clause, in the smallest font on the page. Standard delivery four to five weeks. Faster for thirty bucks.

It's a date, not a vibe — an actual enforceable promise in a business that mostly deals in soft ones, and it's the only line on this card I'd hold anyone to. It's also your moment to flag a problem. Not the moment the crate lands on your porch, by which point you're having a completely different, much worse conversation.

The woman ahead of me is still on the wedding photograph. The clerk gives an answer I recognize, because I looked the same thing up once, for a painting I never actually commissioned.

Am I even allowed to use a photograph I didn't take? Not automatically, no. The shutter creates the copyright, hands it to whoever pressed it, and a painting made from that photograph is a derivative work — the framing, the posing, the light, that's the authorship, not just the face floating in the middle of it. Sounds like a technicality nobody's ever actually enforced? The Supreme Court of the United States spent a whole term on exactly this and came down 7–2 in May 2023. Lynn Goldsmith photographed Prince in 1981 and licensed one frame to Vanity Fair in 1984, for four hundred dollars, explicitly and in writing as an artist reference. Vanity Fair handed it to Warhol. Thirty-two years later the Warhol Foundation licensed the resulting silkscreen to Condé Nast for ten thousand dollars, and the Court ruled that slapping a new meaning on a picture doesn't automatically make it transformative when the purpose is basically the same and basically commercial.

Four hundred dollars for the reference photo. The exact same transaction happening at this counter, several times a day, minus the paperwork most of the time.

For ordinary people the practical answer is duller and much easier: use your own snapshots, or just ask. Most photographers, asked politely for a private, non-commercial commission, say yes — and a print release, which is what wedding contracts usually hand you, is not the same document as permission to make a derivative work. It lets you print the photo. It does not let you have it painted.

I think about a print I bought once in a museum gift shop, of a painting I'd just spent twenty unhurried minutes standing in front of. Flat, color-accurate, completely faithful, and somehow not the thing at all — missing the one quality that had kept me rooted there, a surface you could have found with your eyes shut. I never hung it. It's in a drawer somewhere doing absolutely nothing.

How long does this take, and what happens if my photo isn't good enough? Four to five weeks in the ordinary run, less if you pay for it, and the twenty-working-day photo checkpoint is when you find out where you stand. A thin reference photo doesn't stop the process; it changes what the process can honestly promise you, and the studios worth your money say so at that checkpoint instead of waiting for delivery day to break the news. A weak photo, weirdly, is actually an argument for the painting and against the print: a print reproduces every flaw at full size with total fidelity, while a painter at least interprets around them. If your only reference is a thousand-pixel phone scan, the right purchase is a small painting, not a big print.

The line moves me forward before I finish the thought. The person at the till asks, not unkindly, whether I'm buying anything. I say no. Back out through the door I came in by, past the room with the corkboard, past the room with the sticking door, into weather that has decided, in the hour I was inside, to actually rain instead of just threatening it.

Some things you leave a building having only priced.

Three questions asked at the desk

What does a custom oil painting from a photo actually cost?

A hand-painted oil runs from $188 at 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm) to $822 at 48 × 72 in (121.9 × 182.9 cm) on TopImpressionists, with ArtsDot and OriginalUniqueArt close behind or above. The first three faces are free; four to six faces add $75, seven to nine add $150, ten or more add $300.

Faces: first three free, +$75 (4–6), +$150 (7–9), +$300 (10+). Options: elite artist +$100, customisation +$50, urgent production +$30, varnish +$15, nameplate $10–30.

Three totals worth doing in your head: a single portrait at 16 × 20 in (40.6 × 50.8 cm) is $214. A family of five at 24 × 36 in (61 × 91.4 cm) with an elite artist is $495. A wedding group of eight at 30 × 40 in (76.2 × 101.6 cm), background simplified, rushed to eighteen days, is $616.

Compare configured totals, never "starting at" numbers — that's the whole trick of a starting price. PaintYourLife's tested 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) oil comes to $389 + $79 frame = $468 against $245 here for the identical size, though their bracket absorbs multi-subject complexity that's itemised here at $25 a face. The gap narrows as the group grows, so do your own math before you assume anybody's cheaper.

How long does it take?

Four to five weeks standard, under three weeks for +$30. Photographs of your canvas are due within 20 open business days of order confirmation — about four calendar weeks — extended when the painting is genuinely complex. It's a configured, enforced deadline, not a courtesy, and it's the moment to raise any objection.

Across the market: Instapainting quotes 5–15 days production, roughly three weeks door-to-door with express shipping, four to six weeks economy. PaintYourLife advertises "as fast as 15 days"; one reviewer clocked 16 days to shipment. Independent gallery artists traditionally run eight to twelve weeks, because they're painting it themselves, often from live sittings.

Working backward for a gift: a standard order needs five weeks plus shipping. Want it for December? Order in the first week of November.

Can I use a photograph somebody else took?

Not without permission. Copyright vests in the photographer the instant the shutter clicks, and a painting made from their photograph is a derivative work — the posing, framing and lighting are the protected expression, not just the face inside it.

This is settled, not theoretical. In Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (May 2023) the U.S. Supreme Court held 7–2 that a secondary work conveying new meaning isn't automatically transformative when the purpose stays substantially the same and commercial. The facts are almost exactly this transaction: Lynn Goldsmith's 1981 photograph of Prince, licensed to Vanity Fair in 1984 for $400 explicitly as an artist reference, handed to Warhol, and the resulting silkscreen licensed onward in 2016 for $10,000.

In practice: use your own photographs, or ask in writing. Most photographers grant permission readily for a private commission. The print release in most wedding contracts is not the same thing — it permits printing, not the making of a derivative work. School, studio and professional pet photographs are the identical situation.

Wall label

Hand-painted oil, base price by size (formula-derived, excludes frame, options and shipping)
12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm) $188 · 16 × 20 in (40.6 × 50.8 cm) $214 · 18 × 24 in (45.7 × 61 cm) $236 · 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) $245 · 24 × 36 in (61 × 91.4 cm) $320 · 30 × 40 in (76.2 × 101.6 cm) $386 · 36 × 48 in (91.4 × 121.9 cm) $489 · 48 × 72 in (121.9 × 182.9 cm) $822.
Metric: 30 × 40 cm $187 · 40 × 50 cm $212 · 50 × 60 cm $242 · 60 × 80 cm $297 · 80 × 100 cm $394 · 100 × 150 cm $604.

Figures — 1–3 faces included · 4–6 +$75 · 7–9 +$150 · 10+ +$300 · unit rate $25 per additional face · pets count.

Options — elite artist +$100 · customisation +$50 · urgent (under 3 weeks) +$30 · varnish +$15 · bronze nameplate +$10 · acrylic nameplate +$30.

Time — standard 4–5 weeks · urgent under 3 weeks · canvas photographs due within 20 open business days of order confirmation (≈ 4 calendar weeks), longer for a genuinely complex painting.

Same size, printed instead — 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm) $49 · 16 × 20 in (40.6 × 50.8 cm) $55 · 24 × 36 in (61 × 91.4 cm) $79 · 36 × 48 in (91.4 × 121.9 cm) $118. Roughly a quarter of the hand-painted price; reproduces the photograph exactly, flaws included.

Market benchmark — PaintYourLife $199 (8 × 11 in / 20.3 × 27.9 cm, one person) to $729 (48 × 72 in / 121.9 × 182.9 cm, multiple), frames $49–79, express +15% · Instapainting from $89 · PortraitVilla $89, 3–4 weeks · Fiverr and budget platforms $30–500 · local gallery artist $300–$2,000+, 4–12 weeks · market survey, 12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm) oil, $200–600.

Labour behind the price — 20–40 hours for a 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm) oil portrait; 50–70 hours for a large detailed one. From life, six to ten sittings; from photographs, one or two. Sargent occasionally exceeded eighty.

Rights — copyright belongs to the photographer from the moment of exposure. A painting from a photograph is a derivative work. Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, 598 U.S. 508 (2023), 7–2. A print release is not permission to make a derivative work.

What it is not — not an investment; a commissioned portrait has no secondary market and is worth what it costs to have another one painted. Not colour-accurate to your screen. Not proof against a weak reference: an elite artist paints a 150-pixel face more beautifully, and it is still not your grandmother's face.

Related on TopImpressionists.com

• The longer version of the price card, dressed up as an actual guide: Turn Your Photos into Custom Oil Paintings.
• If it's a family you're painting, not just a face: Commissioning Oil Portraits as Heirlooms of Romantic Love and Family Heritage.
• Before you pay, read what the paperwork is actually for: Certificates of Authenticity, explained.
• The return window is the other number on the card nobody reads first: how returns policies actually work in the fine art reproduction market.
• Not everyone at that counter wants an oil: Giclée Prints Explained is the honest case for the print instead.
• The last decision on the card, after the painting's already dry: a full guide to varnish selection.
• Eighty sittings and no camera in sight — see what that bought John Singer Sargent.

Sources

Market pricing and turnaround

• Hand Painted Portrait Prices — PaintYourLife
• Is it worth spending hundreds on a custom pet portrait from Paint Your Life? — Reviewed
• Paint Your Life — CNN Underscored
• Custom Oil Painting from Photo — Instapainting
• Instapainting Custom Oil Painting Review 2026 — Dogster
• How Much Does a Custom Portrait Painting Cost in 2026? — PortraitVilla
• Custom Portrait Painting Cost: 2026 Pricing Guide — Acousart
• Oil Painting From Photo — Etsy marketplace

Labour, sittings and studio practice

• Commissioning a Portrait: step-by-step guide — The Royal Society of Portrait Painters
• Commissioning a Painting: Cost Guide and Price Range 2026 — Design Transition Studio
• Commission an Oil Portrait — Kevin McEvoy
• Chinese village produces 60% of world's replica oil paintings — Nikkei Asia

Copyright

• Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 598 U.S. 508 (2023) — Justia
• Opinion of the Court (PDF) — Supreme Court of the United States
• Case summary — U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index (PDF)
• The US Supreme Court's Warhol decision revisits the boundaries of fair use — WIPO Magazine
• Copyright Law: Understanding Your Rights as a Photographer — Professional Photographers of America
• Wedding Photography Copyright vs. Print Release — Cameron Martinez
• Copyright vs. Print Release — Alicia Lacey Photography

Materials and finishing

• The Six-Month Rule: When Is It Safe to Varnish Oil Paintings? — MontCarta
• How Long Does Oil Paint Take to Dry? — Fine Art Tutorials