Commissioning a Portrait? Discover The True Cost Before You Buy

The price of a portrait drawing or painting is determined by multiple factors, including the size of the artwork, the chosen medium, and the level of intricacy involved. Typically, portrait painting services can range from $20 to $200 for an amateur artist and way higher for an experienced artist – between $200 to $5000. The cost fluctuates due to the assortment of materials and time needed to produce a portrait painting.

So you have finally decided to commission an artist to paint or draw that portrait you always wanted. But you have never done this before so you have a few questions you want answered such as how much do portraits cost?

Apart from “how much does a portrait drawing cost?” there should be more questions you should be asking and in the blog post I will help answer some questions you may not even have thought of asking. Read on to learn more.

The following list will provide a more detailed guide.

How much do portraits cost?

Portrait costs vary by artist, materials and skill levels. Below I have listed the typical cost of a portrait drawing based price range which usually correlates to the artists skill level. I have also noted where you can hire these portrait painters.

Price Range $20-$200

• A portrait drawing can cost anywhere between $20-$200 but this will also depend on the artists’ experience and location.

• Hiring an artist for a portrait drawing usually requires a full upfront payment or deposit.

Where Would You Find This Artist?

• You can find a portrait drawing artist on many websites such as eBay, etsy, Instagram and Facebook groups

Common Mediums:

• Pencil, Charcoals, Acrylics

Framed/Unframed:

• Usually unframed

Notes:

Price Range $200-$1000

Indicative cost to commission a portrait painting: $200-$1000

• Portrait painters for hire usually require a 50% upfront payment or deposit to cover costs and the rest of the money on completion

Where Would You Find This Artist?

• Portrait painters for hire can be found on but not limited to the following sites: eBay, etsy, Instagram, Local Art Shows, Facebook, Word of Mouth

Common Mediums:

• Pencil, Charcoals, Acrylics, Oils, Inks, Pastels

Framed/Unframed:

• Usually unframed

Notes:

• Again in this price range you will liaising with the portrait artist online via email or social media direct messaging.

• You will be either asked to submit one or two photos and the intention is to reproduce the photo as a portrait drawing.

• The artist will attempt to make as exact a copy. You will be working with an artist or art student who has a fair amount of experience and confident enough to be commanding more money than most unknown artists.

• The size of the portrait will usually be from small to medium and will be produced using some quality materials. 

• Most portraits in this price range will be produced with some level of skill and you may find a few gems in the making.

• Some very talented artists work in this price range. 

• You will probably be shown some progress photos and be asked up front for any specific requests or requirements before they commence on the portrait.

Price Range $1000 – $5000

• In this price range you will be looking more at portrait paintings rather than portrait drawings
• Usually requires a 20%-50% upfront payment or deposit to cover costs and the rest of the money on completion

Where Would You Find This Artist?

• Portrait painters for hire can be found on but not limited to the following sites: eBay, etsy, Instagjram, Local Galleries, Regional Galleries, Online Search, Art Shows, Word of Mouth Referrals

Common Mediums:

• Pencil, Charcoals, Acrylics, Oils, Mix Media

Framed/Unframed:

• Framed on request

Notes:

Price Range $5000-$20000

• A portrait painter usually requires a signed contract and 25% upfront payment or deposit to cover costs and the rest of the money on completion

Where Would You Find This Artist?

• Instagram, Local Galleries, Regional Galleries, Online Search, Art Shows, Word of Mouth Referrals

Common Mediums:

• Acrylics, Oils, Mix Media

Framed/Unframed:

• Usually Framed on Request

Notes:

• In this price range you will be working with an established professional artist.

• You will be either asked to submit one or two photos for references but the artist will prefer the portrait subject to come in to the studio and sit for the artist. 

• Sitting for the artist will be used as part of the cost justification and experience.

• In this price range you will be working with someone who will work in their signature style – something they are known for. 

• The size of the portrait being commissioned will be negotiable and the artist will be producing the portrait using quality materials.

• Very talented and well known artists work in this price range. Expect a waiting list or to even be rejected for requests.

• You will be asked up front for any specific requests or requirements before they commence on the portrait.

• The artist will usually allow for many reasonable changes or edits to be made prior to completion.

• The artist will provide a fixed time line and cost to produce the final portrait.

Price Range $20000+

• Usually requires a signed contract and 25% upfront payment or deposit to cover costs and the rest of the money on completion

Where Would You Find This Artist?

• Art Galleries, Artist Agents, Artist Directories

Common Mediums:

• Acrylics, Oils, Mix Media

Framed/Unframed:

• Usually Framed on Request

Notes:

• This level of artist will be an established professional in their field and will most likely have a long waiting list.

• They will be an exhibiting artist who most likely will specialize in portraiture.

• They will most likely have many corporate clients and be known to have painted the portraits of politicians, the rich and famous and business leaders.

I found an artist; now what do I need to look for in a portrait?

You have approached an artist you like and they have provided you an estimated cost to commission a portrait.

Before you hand over your hard earned money and commission a portrait, I would like to give you some simple advice and tips on what to look for.

This way you know you know you are getting a good portrait from a skilled artist and not an amateurish piece.

1. Do your research and always ask for examples or portfolio of other portrait commissions the artist has completed. This could be links to their website portfolio, an Instagram page or if they are represented by a gallery they can provide a portfolio of works. As what their process is, a confident artist will give you more detail than one who is not.

2. If they have a social media presence and have an engaged audience, ask if anyone else has purchased from them and ask for any reviews or feedback they may have.

3. Speak to the artist and reach an agreement on price, medium, what exactly will be delivered and when. Get these in writing even if it by email.

4. As the artist if they provide a review period where they will show you either progress being made and if they are ok to accept changes to be made before the final piece is delivered. 

Finally, train yourself so you know what to look for when you view a portrait so that at a minimum you know what makes one portrait better than another.

Many artists make the most basic of mistakes and a trained eye will pick up on them quickly.

Credit to The Principles of Design for the additional information provided. I recommend further reading if you are interested in knowing more about art appreciation. Your local library and online resources are filled with this information.

The sad fact about selecting a portrait to commission is that a lot of the stuff on sale is just a waste of your money.

No matter how much an artist or seller talks up their work – 80% is not worth the money. 

A trained eye and anyone who knows about art can tell you in the first 5 seconds if the work is any good.

Hopefully with these tips you will be part of the 20% who can spot a good artist and are able to commission a portrait that you will be happy to hang.

What to look for

When buying an original drawing or painting, take a look at how the subject – the main person or object is composed.

Balance – A balanced artwork leaves the viewer feeling visually comfortable. On the other hand, a work that is not balanced creates a sense of visual stress.

The work should be balanced and the subject should not be located in one part of the page or canvas without some sort of counter-balance.

This counter-balance can either be another object or series of objects, a block of colour in the background – this is called Informal Balance.

Sometimes if there is no balance surrounding the central subject, then you will find that the main part of the subject i.e the face is actually centred on the page.

Another example of balance  the subject is centred

Many artworks I see can claim to be balanced, but each time I look at them, they have that ‘not quite right’ look to them. The first two are fine examples of something not being quite right. Try the mirror test out on them after and tell me what you think.

They are also an example of a traced photo and then smudging used to fill in areas where the artist lacked the skill to do proper shading. The same problems are seen in paintings as well as pencil portraits.

This last portrait above was created badly on purpose but there are many delusional artists out there passing off similar works as portraits they are happy to sell.

Important: The Mirror Test

There’s a simple test you can run on an art work to see if its balanced – and this is my all time favourite test as all you need is a simple mirror, any kind of mirror.

What you need to do is look at the artwork using a mirror – and you can use it on art images on instagram or on art for sale on eBay, if the image obviously looks ‘not quite right’ in its mirror image, it’s pretty much a given that it’s not quite right.

This test also works with Proportion.

Try the mirror test on the examples I found and you will see how unbalanced they are

I won’t name the artists, but in each example you can clearly see how unbalanced they are and if you can’t, try the mirror test and see for yourself!

As an artist, you should mirror test your works all the time – I do to track my progress, no matter how good you are, sometimes you do get the smallest part wrong and the mirror helps you correct your mistake.

I still cringe at some of the earlier commissions I completed that now hang on walls in houses all over the world that didn’t pass the mirror test but were given away as gifts, I now destroy any work that wont pass this test rather than have it hung up on a wall.

Taking into consideration the explanation above, take a look to see if the artwork being sold has all its bits in the right place at the right length.

What you want to ensure is that if someone is not purposely trying to draw disproportionate features; that you check to see if:

1. an arm is too long for the body
2. a nose is much longer than on the photo shown for comparison
3. their eyes are not too wide apart
4. or one ear is not sitting on a forehead while the other is down low near the neck (I am not joking I have actually seen this).

The second item you should be looking at is

• Is the drawing or painting traced?
• Did the artist use a tricky computer program to scan your photo and then resample it as an artwork or drawing and then print it out.

When you look at a portrait you should also ask yourself, is the drawing or painting traced? 

I have seen so many examples of traced artworks being sold as either originals or as part of commissioned portraits. 

Where an artist has simply used tracing paper to draw an outline of your photo so the proportions are correct. The thing with traced portraits is, they will show up an artists lack of skill when it comes down to the finer details.

You will see in most traced works that yes they have the proportions correct, the image outline is to scale but when you look at the central items such as eyes, nose, lips and mostly the cheek and chin area.

They will try to pass the details off with shading that just doesn’t quite do it, in other words it doesnt look like the real person even though you can see their outline.

The other tell-tale sign is that you can clearly see a thicker outline of where the subject has been traced and all the other detail will be sketchy.

Using a computer program – On rare occasions I have seen this, the artist has scanned a photo and then used a program such as photoshop or adobe illustrator to convert a scanned image into a drawn one.

They will then try to print it off on a laser or inkjet printer and pass it off as an original artwork.

Some are even tricky enough to give it a once over with some pencils.

But the scam is discovered when you rub out some of the features and see the print which does not go away.

Wrap up!

I hope that this article has helped you to work out not only how much a portrait costs, but also what makes a good art work and what doesn’t. When armed with this information, you will appreciate the effort and skills involved with commissioned portraits.

Even after all these years of painting portraits and drawing portraits I am always learning and I hope other artists will not take offence at including their works on this guide, for that reason I have not named names etc.

If you have further questions regarding the cost to commission a portrait, copies, artworks in general – feel free to contact me and I will try to assist to the best of my abilities.

Joseph Colella

Joseph Colella (Joe Colella) is an Editor and Writer at WastedTalentInc. As a frustrated artist with over 40 years experience making art (who moonlights as a certified Business Analyst with over 20 years of experience in tech). While Joseph holds a Diploma in Information Technology, in true wasted talent fashion he spent years applying for various Art degrees; from the Accademia di Belle Arti (Napoli), to failing to get into the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) at the University of Western Sydney. While he jokes about his failures at gaining formal art qualifications, as a self-taught artist he has had a fruitful career in business, technology and the arts. His goal is to attend the Julian Ashton School of Art at The Rocks Sydney when he retires from full time work. Joseph’s art has been sold to private collectors all over the world from the USA, Europe and Australasia. He is a trusted source for reliable art advice and tutorials to copyright/fair use advice and is committed to helping his readers make informed decisions about making them a better artist.
He also loves all things watches (ok it’s an addiction) so show him some love and visit his other website https://expertdivewatch.com