Most families don't have one good photo of everyone.
Someone's blinking. Someone was at work that day. The one year everybody was in the same place, the photo was taken on a phone from too far away.
You don't need a single perfect photograph. Send me several and I'll build one painting out of them — in oil, on canvas, by hand.
What you end up with is the family portrait you would have taken, if everyone had been standing still, in good light, at the same time.
Recent family commissions
You don't need one photo with everyone in it.
This is the thing most people don't realise is possible.
Send me a photo of each person — different years, different places, different cameras. I'll compose them into a single scene, match the light so it reads as one moment, and paint it.
A son who was deployed. A daughter who moved abroad. A grandparent who can't travel any more. A sibling who has never once been home at the same time as everyone else.
One client told me afterward that people who saw the finished painting assumed it had been posed for. It hadn't. Those people had never been in a room together.
Read more about composite portraits →
Painting someone who's no longer here.
A good number of these include someone who has died — usually a parent or a grandparent.
Send whatever photo you have of them, even if it's old, small, or scanned from a print. I've worked from far worse than you'd expect. If the only picture is from thirty years ago and everyone else in the painting is present-day, I can still make it read as one family, in one moment.
Tell me who they are and anything you want me to get right — a particular expression, the way they held their hands, a piece of jewellery they always wore. Those details are usually what people are actually asking for.
These take longer and I don't rush them.
Children change. That's rather the point.
Parents commission these at thresholds — the year before school, the last year everyone lived at home, a fifth wedding anniversary with two children who didn't exist at the wedding.
The photo is a record of what they looked like. The painting is a decision that this year mattered.
If you want the whole family including pets, that's normal and I do it often — the dog is family and belongs in the picture.
Sizes and pricing
- 8 × 10 in — from $265
- 12 × 16 in — from $400
- 16 × 20 in — from $575
- 24 × 30 in — from $708
Pricing goes up per subject, and I can paint up to 20 people or pets in one composition. Five frame styles, or unframed. Custom sizes priced by canvas area. Free U.S. shipping.
Size matters more here than in a single portrait. For three or four people, 16 × 20 in works. For five or more, or for a painting meant to hang above a fireplace or a stairway, go to 24 × 30 in or a custom size — faces need room, and a crowded canvas loses the likeness that made you commission it.
When to order
Most portraits ship about four weeks after you approve the mockup, and I guarantee within five.
Family portraits often need an extra round of back-and-forth simply because there are more faces to get right, so give it six weeks if it's tied to a date.
Christmas fills up from October onward. If it's a gift for a parent or grandparent, that's the deadline to plan around.
You order first and I email you a link for photos afterward — which is useful when you're quietly collecting pictures from relatives without saying why.
From families I've painted for
"So true to life, looks like they posed for it."
— Pat, Dec 2025
"Derek's treatment of light, the capture of movement, all against a cloudy backdrop was well done. He truly listened to my edits, and spent considerable time back and forth with me."
— Bene, Apr 2025
"It can be scary to trust that an item you're paying a significant amount of money for will arrive as advertised, but WOW, if there was a higher rating than 10/10 I would give that to this artist."
— Courtney, Oct 2025
Family portrait questions
Can you combine photos of people taken years apart?
Yes. Different years, different cameras, different lighting — I match it in the composition so it reads as a single moment.
Can you include someone who has passed away?
Yes, and I do it often. An old or low-resolution photo is usually enough.
How many people can be in one painting?
Up to 20 subjects, people and pets together. Past six or seven I'd strongly recommend 24 × 30 in or a custom size.
Can you change the background or what people are wearing?
Yes. Indoors to outdoors, a cluttered room to an open field, mismatched clothing unified into something that works together. Tell me at the start and you'll see it in the mockup.
Our only group photo is old and blurry. Is that a problem?
Usually not, especially if you can also send clearer individual photos of each face. I'll use the group shot for the arrangement and the individual photos for the likeness.
What if one person doesn't look right?
Tell me and I'll fix it. You approve a mockup before I start, and after the painting is finished I send photos and revise until it's right — before it ships.
Get everyone in one picture.
Order first. No photo needed yet — I'll email you a link.