IRISH PORTRAIT PAINTER UPDATE

Of course, this will depend on size and complexity of the portrait commission, but I will try to give you some helpful information below and indeed some guide prices. However, this would mean dropping it back to me and collecting it, so if you live further afield, you’d have to seek out some obliging artist, framer or handyman you trust to carry out this specialist task. Or indeed, if it’s a gift then be sure to let the recipient know it’s a service I’ll happily provide at no extra cost.

This can be done, for you always have the option of getting the painting back to me at a later date and I’d be happy to varnish it for you. Now what if you need the painting quickly, but you also want your painting protected and enhanced by a nice varnish? Some artists don’t mind this, but for me a painting always looks at its best when the varnish goes on, so ideally we’d be planning well ahead of time. Otherwise oil paintings have this pesky tendency to dry a bit patchy and uneven as the oil sinks into the layers below. Well the varnish serves a few significant roles with an oil painting: Firstly it provides a protective coating to keep your painting safe, and secondly it evens out all the tones and colours with a general gloss. Why is it important to varnish an oil painting? Before we get to that we have another issue to cover. More on what adds to a portrait’s complexity and ideas for keeping it simple later. As things start getting larger or more complicated we’d have to start adding weeks. This would be for let’s say something around a 30x30cm canvas and a simple single head and shoulders portrait. The quick answer is that for small and simple back and white or colour portraits we would be talking 3 to 4 weeks unvarnished or 8 to 12 weeks varnished. Portrait of Bruce Springsteen, 40x40cm oil on linenĪnother common question relates to time, and how long will a commission likely take? Generally though, people email me photos of loved ones, friends or family members they would like me to paint, although because I’ve painted quite a few famous faces I’m often asked to paint Bruce Springsteen or Leonard Cohen or the like, who are also loved ones of a sort. Next, I generally work from photos rather than from life, although I am open to discussing the option of the subject of the portrait sitting for me in person. The first thing is that I work in solely in oil on canvas. Ok then, I’m sure you’ll have a number of questions if you are considering getting a portrait done, so I’ll try my best to anticipate and answer a few of them here.

I have some samples of my portrait work below if you want to scroll down the page, or indeed you can view my range of my previous famous face portraits by clicking on the Artwork menu above. And needless to say I'm open to discussing larger more ambitious projects too. Thanks! Vincent Keeling - for thinking of me in terms of commissioning a portrait. The gist of is that I'm pitching things more towards simple head and shoulder portraits, preferably black and white or small colour ones, with minimal complications this will keep things flowing for me with less days on each piece, lots of variety but also crucially for you, it will keep things more affordable. That's the idea anyway, so happy to hear from you if you've an idea in mind. I've just spent the week updating this portrait page with lots of new info on times and a new pricing structure, and hopefully most questions answered for you below.

These include both commissions of Famous Faces and more personal portraits.

IRISH PORTRAIT PAINTER UPDATE

Hi all, just a quick update to say that I'm back accepting portrait commissions at the moment. Home › Commission a Portrait Painting, by Vincent Keeling

Irish portrait painter