Sibling portraits
A portrait of siblings, from the photographs
Brothers and sisters on one canvas, where the age gap decides almost everything before the composition does.
A siblings portrait is usually commissioned by one sibling about the others, which makes it a different kind of job from a couple portrait. The person paying has a picture in their head, the others may not know it is happening, and the family photographs that exist were taken by a parent who was mostly trying to get everybody into the frame at once.
The first decision is which year. Siblings photographed now, as adults, is one painting; siblings photographed as children — often from three different school photographs taken in different years — is another. Both are legitimate and they ask for different things: the adult version is about who these people became, the childhood version is about a house that no longer exists. We will ask which one you mean before we ask for photographs.
The age gap decides the painting
A two-year gap is easy: there is usually one photograph of all of them, and the sizes are already right. A twelve-year gap is a different problem, because the eldest may have left home before the youngest was old enough to be photographed properly, and there may be no image of the group at all in the years you care about.
In that case the painting is built from separate portraits, each at the age you specify, with the heights and heads reconciled. It sounds artificial and it rarely looks it: what the family recognises is the faces at those ages, standing in the order they stood in. The composite is $60–$70 when the sources need rebuilding, the same as restoring a photograph.
The awkward case is the sibling who died young, or the one nobody has a good photograph of. We can paint from a small, soft image at a smaller head size, and we will say what is possible rather than produce a face that is nearly right, which is worse than an honest gap in the group.
Height, heads and who stands in the middle
Height is a measurement, not a mood. The tallest goes at the back, the shortest in front, and the heads step down in a way that lets every face be seen. What ruins these paintings is equalising: painting all the heads at the same size because it looks tidy, which turns a fifteen-year-old into a scaled-up eight-year-old and makes the eldest look like a parent.
Who stands in the middle is a real question and families have strong views. The youngest in the centre front is the convention, and it works because it puts the smallest head nearest the viewer. If the group is being painted as a gift for a parent, ask the parent — they will have an opinion about the arrangement, and it is usually the arrangement from a photograph that already exists.
Siblings stand with a hand on a shoulder or a hip shifted; painted as separate figures at even spacing they look like a queue, so the overlaps are built in the mock-up.
Resemblance, and the risk of painting clones
Siblings share eyes, a nose, sometimes a jaw, and the temptation for a painter is to use one drawing and vary the hair. The result looks like the same child at four ages. The differences are usually in the width of the face, the set of the ears, the shape of the mouth when it is not smiling, and the way each one holds their head — which is why we want a photograph of each separately as well as any group shot.
Age changes the resemblance in ways people forget. A brother at nine and the same brother at twenty-nine share a face but not a jawline, and a painting that mixes the two reads as neither. Decide the year first, then send photographs from as close to that year as possible, even if they are poorer quality than the recent ones.
One last thing, since it comes up: if the siblings do not get on, we can compose the group so that nobody is touching anybody, and it will still read as a family. What we cannot do is paint somebody who was not photographed at all.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
The first subject starts at $189 for 8 × 10 in, and each additional brother or sister adds a fixed amount on the published table. Four siblings at 20 × 24 in sits in the upper part of the range. Combining photographs taken in different years is $60–$70, and shipping is free.
Yes, and it is the usual way these are made. Decide the year you want first, then send the closest photographs to that year even if they are poorer quality. Heights, head sizes and light direction are reconciled in the mock-up, and you approve the arrangement before any paint is mixed.
Technically yes, and we would usually advise against it. Two versions of the same person on one canvas reads as a trick rather than a portrait, and it pulls attention from the rest of the group. Two separate canvases, hung as a pair, do the same job far better.
Yes, and we do not ask why. Removing a figure means rebuilding what is behind them, which is shown in the mock-up. We need either another photograph of the same scene or enough background to work from, and the composition is usually rearranged rather than simply closed up.
Three to five weeks of painting plus three to five business days in transit, with rush at three weeks for $90. Surprises work better than people expect: the mock-up goes only to the person organising, and the others never see it. What we cannot do is paint somebody who has not been told and has not sent a photograph.
Send one photograph per sibling
Tell us the year you want and who should stand where. We will build the group in a mock-up and quote it before anything is painted.