Oil Portraits From Your Photos — San Carlos.
Start your commissionA small selection of commissions.
Every painting on this page started life as a customer’s photograph. Each was painted by hand on archival cotton canvas.
Four steps, about a fortnight.
From the photo on your camera roll to the painting on your wall.
Send the photo
Natural light works best. We’ll guide you on which photo will paint up best.
Choose & pay
Pick your size, artist tier and delivery. Pay 50% now, the rest on approval.
We paint & preview
Your assigned artist begins. You’ll see a high‑res preview before final brushstrokes.
Approve & ship
Once dry, we ship by courier. Free worldwide. Typical total: ~14 days.
What customers tell us.
Hand‑painted oil portraits, delivered to San Carlos.
San Carlos, California – home to ~30,000 residents in the Pacific Coast region of the United States. We deliver authentic oil paintings, hand-painted on canvas by trained artists, to every San Carlos address. Free shipping, money-back guarantee, never AI.
Local artistic heritage
California is home to LACMA, the Hammer Museum, the Norton Simon, the Getty, SFMOMA and the de Young, sustaining one of the most vibrant portraiture cultures in the United States. Our customers in San Carlos commission portraits to mark anniversaries, milestone birthdays, weddings, retirements, and to keep the memory of loved ones close.
How we paint your San Carlos portrait
- You upload your photo.
From the comfort of your San Carlos home, you upload one to five reference photos via our six-step commission flow. We accept JPG, PNG and HEIC files. Additional reference shots help with details – hair texture, jewellery, skin tone in different light.
- We assign a trained oil painter.
Within 24 hours we match your commission to one of three artist tiers – Junior, Up-and-coming, or Experienced – based on the package you have chosen. Every artist on our roster is classically trained in oil portraiture.
- Sketching, underpainting and the first colour pass.
Your artist begins with a charcoal sketch on a primed canvas, then lays down a tonal underpainting in burnt sienna or raw umber. The first colour layers establish the structure of the face and the overall composition.
- Refinement and detail work.
Subsequent layers build up the likeness – bone structure, expression in the eyes, fabric texture, hair, hands. This is the longest stage and the one that separates a competent likeness from a portrait that genuinely captures who someone is.
- Preview, varnish and delivery to San Carlos.
Before the painting is varnished and shipped, we send you a high-resolution preview by email. You can request small adjustments at no charge. Once approved, your portrait is varnished, dried, gallery-wrapped, and dispatched to your San Carlos address by tracked, fully insured courier.
Pricing & sizes for San Carlos customers
Our pricing is transparent and tier-based – the size you choose, multiplied by the artist tier, plus optional VIP express delivery. The most-ordered size in California is the 16 inch by 20 inch canvas. San Carlos customers commissioning for formal living rooms or grand entrances often choose 24 by 30 or larger.
Venues, occasions and gifts in San Carlos
Over the past few years we have delivered portraits to San Carlos customers commissioning for an extraordinary range of occasions. Locally, anniversaries and milestone birthdays drive the bulk of our work – but we have also painted university graduates, generations of family for country club walls, posthumous tributes to grandparents, and corporate retirement gifts for executives across the wider California area. Increasingly, we are commissioned for newborns and pets – rates of dog and cat portrait commissions in California have more than doubled in the last two years.
Recent San Carlos commissions
“Commissioned an oil portrait of my husband for our tenth anniversary, painted from a holiday photo. He has barely stopped looking at it.”
— Timothy M., San Carlos
“Ordered a small 11 by 14 portrait as a gift. Free worldwide shipping, 100% money-back guarantee, and a real human painter. Easy decision.”
— Stephanie J., San Carlos
Photo tips for San Carlos customers
The single biggest factor in a beautiful portrait is the source photograph. Here is what we have learnt from thousands of commissions across California and the rest of the United States:
- Use natural light. Photographs taken outdoors on an overcast day, or beside a north-facing window, give the artist the most workable detail.
- Higher resolution is better. Shoot at the highest quality your camera or phone allows. We can work from older photos, but more pixels gives us more detail to translate into oil.
- The subject should fill the frame. A close, well-composed photograph of a face will always paint better than a distant snapshot, however charming.
- Don’t worry about the background. Our artists routinely re-paint or replace backgrounds.
- Multiple photos help with composites. If you are commissioning a portrait of multiple people who were not photographed together, send up to five separate photos and we will build the composition.
Delivery to San Carlos
Standard delivery to San Carlos takes roughly 23 days from the moment you complete your commission. We ship via fully tracked, fully insured courier – typically FedEx or UPS – with signature required on delivery. Each painting is varnished, dried for 72 hours, then packed in a custom protective sleeve with corner guards and a rigid outer box. There is no shipping charge to California, or anywhere in the United States. VIP express delivery – an additional $199 – typically reduces total turnaround to around nine days from order to San Carlos doorstep.
Care & display in San Carlos
California’s dry climate is exceptionally kind to oil paintings — humidity-related craquelure is rare and natural light is plentiful. For best results, hang your portrait away from direct sunlight, avoid kitchens and bathrooms where airborne moisture and grease can dull the surface, and dust gently with a soft, dry cloth no more than once a month. Should you ever notice an issue, our 100% money-back guarantee covers you for 60 days from delivery.
We also serve nearby
If you are commissioning for someone in San Carlos or the wider California area, here are the nearest cities we also serve.
Frequently asked questions for San Carlos customers
How long does delivery to San Carlos take?
Standard delivery to San Carlos takes roughly 23 days from the moment you complete your commission. VIP express delivery brings that down to around nine days for an additional $199. All shipping is fully tracked and insured.
Do you ship to every San Carlos address?
Yes – we ship free of charge to every postal address in San Carlos and the surrounding California area, including Folsom, Rocklin, Davis. There is no minimum order value.
Can I commission a portrait from an old photograph?
Absolutely. Most of our San Carlos commissions come from photos taken years (sometimes decades) earlier – wedding photographs, family snaps, holiday memories, posthumous tributes. Our artists are skilled at restoring detail from imperfect originals.
What’s the most popular size in California?
The 16 inch by 20 inch canvas is the most-ordered size across California – substantial enough to anchor a wall, manageable enough to ship cleanly. San Carlos customers commissioning for formal living rooms often size up to 24 by 30.
Do you offer rush delivery for San Carlos weddings or anniversaries?
Yes – VIP express delivery cuts roughly two weeks off the standard turnaround for an additional $199. Standard San Carlos delivery is typically 23 days; VIP brings that closer to 9 days.
What is the full process for commissioning a portrait?
Six steps. Upload your photo, choose how many people are in the painting, pick your artist tier, choose your canvas size, choose standard or VIP delivery, and pay securely via Stripe. From there, your assigned artist starts work, and you will receive a high-resolution preview by email before final brushstrokes.
Will I see the painting before it is shipped to San Carlos?
Yes. Before any portrait is varnished and dispatched, we send a high-resolution preview by email. San Carlos customers can request small adjustments at no charge.
What if I do not love my finished portrait?
Every commission is covered by our 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not delighted with your portrait, return it within 60 days of delivery for a full refund. Our refund rate is below 0.5%.
Do you frame the portrait, or does it arrive unframed?
Every portrait arrives gallery-wrapped on stretched canvas, ready to hang directly out of the box – no frame required. San Carlos customers who prefer a traditional framed look typically use a local framer.
Is the portrait painted by a real artist, or is this AI?
Every portrait we deliver is painted by hand, in oils, on stretched canvas, by a trained human artist. We do not use AI.
A photograph,
painted in oils.
Six steps. About fifteen minutes. From $129.
Start now