Birthdays are the one commission with a date that cannot move. Most anniversaries can be celebrated a week late; a fiftieth birthday cannot. This guide works backwards from the day itself: what to order, who should be in it, what it costs per person when the family splits it, and the exact week you need to start so the canvas is on the wall and not in a courier van.
The first question is not the size. It is the photograph.
Almost every birthday commission fails or succeeds at this step, weeks before anyone mixes paint. Ask yourself one question: do I have a photograph where the person looks like themselves, on a day they were not posing? Birthday photographs are usually the wrong reference, because a photograph taken at a party is taken under bad light at the end of the evening.
- The good sources are ordinary ones: a phone photo in a kitchen, a holiday snapshot, a wedding guest shot, a work portrait that happens to be lit well.
- Faces need roughly 600 pixels across in the file to keep eyelashes and lip line. Below about 400 pixels we are guessing, and it shows.
- Light one way, ideally one direction. Flat flash washes out the planes of an older face at the very moment a portrait needs them.
- A single figure is fine. Two people, if it is a couple, but a portrait with four faces at 12 × 16 in is a photograph in oil, not a portrait.
The reference photo guide sets out the resolution limits in detail. One useful habit: send two options and ask which one carries the likeness better. It is frequently not the one you prefer.
Three shapes a birthday painting takes
1. The solo portrait
A single face, one canvas, one household. This is the most common birthday order and the easiest to get right. A 12 × 16 in canvas with one subject is $289; 16 × 20 in is $389, which is the size most people settle on and the size at which a head reads across a room. Anything larger starts to feel like a monument rather than a gift.
2. The shared family painting
Several people, one canvas, given to one person — typically the mother or the grandmother, whose birthday otherwise produces seventeen small unrelated objects. Two subjects at 16 × 20 in is $499; four subjects at 20 × 24 in is $1,029. The arithmetic in the next section explains why this is often the cheaper and better gift.
3. The small original painting
Not a commission at all. If the recipient would rather have somebody else’s work than a portrait of themselves, the original paintings page lists finished canvases by a working artist, priced individually and shipped framed-ready. It is the right answer for the person who genuinely will not hang a portrait of their own face.
The per-head arithmetic that ends the argument
Birthday gifts from a family group usually go wrong on division, not on taste. One person buys a $150 object; four siblings split it four ways and each feels slightly cheap. A commission divides differently, because price scales with faces and canvas, not with effort. The table below is the entire cost of a standard size and number of subjects, so you can see the per-person number before anybody commits.
| Canvas | Subjects | Price | Per person, 4-way | Per person, 6-way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 × 16 in | 1 | $289 | $72 | $48 |
| 16 × 20 in | 2 | $499 | $125 | $83 |
| 20 × 24 in | 3 | $849 | $212 | $142 |
| 20 × 24 in | 4+ | $1,029 | $257 | $172 |
| 24 × 36 in | 1 | $789 | $197 | $132 |
Read the second column against the third. Two parents on a 16 × 20 in canvas costs $499 — roughly $125 each for four siblings, less than most concert tickets. The same money spent individually buys four $125 gift objects, which is exactly what the recipient does not need. The full price table sits on the custom portraits page.
One canvas, one person on it
If the group is splitting the bill, decide the owner before you order. It sounds obvious and it is regularly forgotten until delivery week.
- One order, one invoice, one organiser. Collect from the group yourself; four payments against one commission create confusion about who is owed which canvas.
- Agree the canvas, not the painting. The recipient chooses nothing after the mock-up. If they would rather choose the size and the frame themselves, a generous alternative is a single-subject canvas plus a note that they can swap it.
- Above $600 the payment can be halved: 50% to begin, 50% before dispatch. Useful if the money is being collected in stages.
- One shipping address. Shipping is tracked and free; one delivery means one person can inspect the canvas before it is handed over.
If the order is a gift from siblings or friends, the group gift guide covers the negotiations in full: splitting the cost, the input and the credit.
Working backwards from the date
Painting takes three to five weeks. Transit takes three to five business days. That is the spine of the schedule; everything else is buffer. Below is the arithmetic for the four dates that actually cause panic.
| Date you are aiming at | Order by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas, 25 December | 14 November | Six weeks: five of painting, one of buffer and transit |
| New Year, 1 January | 20 November | The busiest six weeks of the year for couriers |
| A birthday in March | Six weeks before it | No seasonal pressure; five weeks also works |
| A birthday in three weeks | Today | Rush painting is $90 and does not shorten transit |
Two smaller numbers are worth writing on the calendar. Framing, if you are doing it locally, adds three to seven days. And the mock-up stage — the digital proof showing crop, composition and background — needs a reply within 24 hours if you are close to the deadline; a three-day silence in week five is what turns a comfortable order into a rush fee.
If the birthday is two weeks away, do not order a painting. Order a print of a finished canvas for the day itself and commission the portrait for the following month. It is the honest version of the gift, and it is what we recommend to people who call us in a panic.
What the recipient actually says
Two things decide whether a birthday portrait stays on the wall. The first is scale: a 12 × 16 in canvas is a bedroom or hallway painting; a 16 × 20 in is a living-room painting; a 20 × 24 in can hold a main wall. Measure the wall before you choose, not after. The second is the background — a plain, low-contrast ground ages better than the garden it was photographed in.
- Where will it hang? Above a sofa it wants 16 × 20 in or larger, centred 57 to 60 inches from the floor.
- Will it be seen close or across a room? Close, and the background detail matters; across a room, contrast and silhouette matter more.
- Is it a surprise? Ask a family member for one good photograph rather than staging a photoshoot. Staged birthday photos are the worst reference we receive.
If it is a surprise, the safest structure is the usual one: pick the photograph, approve the mock-up yourself, and tell the recipient after delivery. We do not need to speak to them.
Framing, if you are giving it framed
A birthday canvas usually arrives rolled or stretched, and the difference matters for a gift. A gallery-wrapped canvas at $0–$60 extra hangs as it is, with no frame at all; it is the modern default and it photographs well. A float frame at $90–$220 per canvas makes a portrait feel like an heirloom, which is the right note for a seventieth. Frame the canvas yourself and you can choose the frame to match the room, at the cost of a week.
The framing and hanging guide works through hardware and heights. For a birthday, the only number that matters is this: if it is framed by you, order six weeks out rather than five.
Five mistakes to avoid
- Choosing the painting before the photograph. A great photograph makes a great painting. Nothing else does, and no budget rescues a blurred one.
- Putting everyone on one canvas to keep it fair. Six faces at 16 × 20 in are 2 inches high each. It looks like a group photo in oil, and nobody is flattered.
- Ordering for a date that cannot be met. Rush painting is $90; a missed birthday is not recoverable.
- Leaving the mock-up unanswered. Every day of silence at the proof stage is a day removed from the painting stage.
- Forgetting the wall. A canvas that is the wrong size for the wall ends up in a cupboard, and the painting was never the problem.
The short version
- Start with the photograph, not the size. 600 pixels across the face is the practical minimum.
- One subject at 16 × 20 in is $389 and is the birthday workhorse; a shared pair at $499 splits to $125 for four siblings.
- Order six weeks before the date. For Christmas that means mid-November.
- Decide who owns the canvas, and who holds the money, before anyone sends a photograph.
- Reply to the mock-up within a day, and choose the size against the wall it will hang on.
Send the photograph and the date to the quote page and you will get a fixed price, a recommended canvas and a straight answer on whether the date can be met — usually within 24 hours. The process page shows every step from photograph to hanging.