It’s simple to commission an oil portrait. Send us your photograph and comments to our artists and watch them work their magic! The final draft will be approved by you and carefully packaged before being delivered to your door.

The overwhelming presence and quality of an oil painting is unsurpassed in the art world. The soft textures and beautiful translucency on canvas are unlike any other artistic medium.

Your life is full of memorable people, places and events. Capture the essence of your memories in a commissioned oil painting.

To ensure all of your requirements are met, our commissioned oil paintings are created through a specialized and detail-oriented process. Your painting is completed entirely under the brushstrokes of our accomplished artists. Your commissioned work will retain the same excellence and technique of those found in our online portfolio.

The subject of the commissioned oil painting is provided by our clients. The client has full creative freedom to decide the style and subject of the final painting.

A color photograph is submitted to Museum Oil Paintings for our artists review. Your commissioned oil painting will be created from the photograph. The ideal photograph for our artists to work from is crisply in focus with adequate lighting. The subject for the oil portrait should fill the majority of the frame. Photographs that are out of focus, lack details due to under or over exposure, or where the subject is small in relation to the frame are less favorable for our artists to work from. Our Proofing Department will advise you if any of these issues are present in your photograph.

Your photograph may be submitted as a high-definition digital image to our Artistic Proofing Department by email at proofs@museumoilpaintings.com

If you are unable to submit digital images, we will accept photographs by mail. We ask you to please consider submitting copies, as the safety of your original photographs cannot be ensured.

Museum Oil Paintings, unlike many studios, does not charge a 50% increase when additional figures are added to the portrait. In other studios, prices listed for commissioned works are typically for a one subject portrait. As you proceed through the checkout process, additional subjects and detailed backgrounds can significantly increase the cost of your commissioned work. At Museum Oil Paintings, the price is decided solely by the canvas size and not by the complexity of the work. Our client’s have the freedom to design and customize their artwork, without incurring hidden charges.

Our professional artists hold years of experience in painting oil reproductions.Reproductions of historical works may not require a reference photograph, as Museum Oil Paintings retains an extensive portfolio of renowned oil paintings. For reproductions of more unique and individual works, a color photograph or high-definition digital image is required.

The tone and lighting of your photograph will set the mood and feel of your painting. Please take this into consideration when selecting your photograph. Overexposed or underexposed images may not be suitable.

If you have any specific elements you would like altered from the photograph in the final work, please feel free to communicate these ideas to us. In conjunction with our skilled artists, we promise quality and will do as many revisions as our valued clients require.

Composite designs can be created by the client prior to submission, or sketched by our artists. If you decide to have our artists design the composite painting for you, please provide detailed instructions as to how you would like the two subjects to flow together.

An experienced artist will compose a charcoal or graphite draft of your commissioned portrait or reproduction. The draft will be created directly on your canvas to remain true to proportions and the final size of the composition. Areas of contrast and shading will be evident at this point. Customers often find the presence and character of their final work will be remarkable even at this stage and the likeness to the original photograph evident.A detailed copy will be sent to you for your approval. At this step, our artists are extremely open and capable of altering elements of the painting at your request.

If you are unsatisfied with the draft of your work, you are under no obligation to continue with your commission. Your personal associate with IGE will do their best to remedy the situation and provide you excellent service. Our promise to our customers is uncompromised quality.

The canvas is selected based on your size specifications. A chemical free, soft woven canvas is the choice of our artists. All work is done in well ventilated studios, so that air has the ability to flow freely across the canvas.

The artist begins the work through a process known as under painting. Light layers of varying pigment are spread with a ‘Flat’ brush across the entire canvas, creating a base for the preceding applications. Warm tones like burnt sienna, or cool colors including cerulean blue are chosen to set the mood of the painting.

The artist can rework the tone and flow of the canvas to create a perfectly balanced composition. Once under painting is complete, fine outlines of key features are sketched directly onto the canvas.

The artist then applies the oil paints onto an artist’s palette. The palette provides a fresh surface to liberally blend pigments to appropriate shades before application to the canvas. Museum Oil Paintings’s diverse network of artists use only the finest oil paints, a medium unrivaled in the art world. Individual brushes are selected for each element of the painting, optimizing the effect of the brushstroke. Brushes of hog’s bristle are used for bold strokes, round brushes are selected for detailed work and a palette knife is used to add and remove paint from the canvas.

Layers are composed in the accordance of ‘Fat over Lean’, where each layer applied must contain more oil than the one below. This enables proper drying of the painting, which can take up to several weeks. It also prevents the painting from taking a cracked appearance over time.

When your oil painting is completed, our quality control professional will ensure that your requirements have been met, through open lines of communication between the artist and the client.

A colored copy of your oil painting will be provided for your assessment. If you are in any way unsatisfied with the work, you may request modifications. After a modification is made, a new copy of the painting will be provided for your assessment. The process of communication between the artist and the client does not stop until we ensure that you are completely satisfied with your commissioned work.

After the final approved painting is completely dry, a thin transparent glaze is applied to seal the surface. This prevents degradation by UV light, moisture and other environmental hazards.

Commissioned oil paintings are expertly packaged by our artists to ensure safe delivery. Special care is made to ensure no tears or stretching of the canvas is possible. The packaging is inspected carefully once more before shipping. All paintings on canvas are shipped inside an artist’s tube carton, additionally protected with a removable plastic sleeve.

Museum Oil Paintings understands the excitement of commissioning your own oil painting and how frustrating it can be to wait. For client satisfaction, your painting will arrive within an average of 3 weeks of submitting your photograph.