Shopping Basket: 0 itemsFAQ’s
F.A.Q’s on the portrait process
F.A.Q’s on frames
F.A.Q’s on black and white portraits
F.A.Q’s on highlights portraits
F.A.Q’s on color portraits
F.A.Q’s on pet portraits
F.A.Q’s on post
F.A.Q’s on payment
F.A.Q’s on contact
F.A.Q’s on returns policy
Questions on the Portrait Process:
How do I go about getting my portrait made?
Please choose and purchase the portrait of your choice from our selections on offer. (We offer portraits in a range of colours and subjects.) Once you have chosen your portrait please send us your image or photo using our upload page click here. Once your photo has been approved our artists will get to work turning your image into a portrait. After our artist has near completed the portrait we will send you a photo of the unfinished product giving you the chance to ask for alterations or corrections. Our artist will then complete the piece and our packing office will have it dispatched to you via signed-for-delivery. And that’s it – enjoy!
What do you mean when you mention ’subject’?
A ’subject’ is the person, animal or main focus in the portrait. If you have asked for a portrait of a family member that is a single subject portrait. If you have asked for a portrait of say two family members and a favoured dog that is a three subject portrait.
What sort of photo do I need to send you in order to get my portrait?
Our artists need a good quality digital photo to work from. We prefer to work with photos that are 1600 x 1200 pixels in size although we will accept the smaller size of 1024 x 768. (Both of these are common sizes found on your digitial camera) Please remember that we will copy the photo image exactly in order to reproduce your portrait so do be sure to send us a photo that you are happy with!
Can I have my portrait done in a landscape layout?
For those that don’t know a ‘portrait layout’ and a ‘landscape layout’ describes the orientation of a rectangular canvas. A ‘portrait layout’ is a canvas that is arranged vertically and a ‘landscape layout’ is a canvas that has been arranged horizontally. Most of our portraits are done on a ‘portrait layout’ however as a rule of thumb we do work from your photo. If you have sent us a landscape photo we’ll work to that angle or vice versa for a portrait layout. However if you want to dictate how you would like the portrait to be arranged please send us a note with your photo.
How long will it take to finish my portrait?
As we are sure you can gather from the level of detail involved a huge amount of time goes into producing each portrait. Some of the large portraits can take up to 80 plus hours while the XX-large oil paintings can take up to 120 hours! However on average our turnaround time for most portraits is 10 days. Once finished the portrait will be carefully packaged and dispatched within 3 working days. (All but our largest and most detailed portraits should reach you, the customer, within 14 working days and will be sent via signed-for-delivery.)
We kindly ask our customers to remember that these portraits involve an incredible amount of man hours to produce and not to be confused with an ‘off the rack’ product.
I don’t see an option that matches what I am looking for, can you do larger portraits or take on unique commissions?
We have kept our range of portrait choices to a certain limited selection in order to best meet our customer’s demand however if you do wish to approach us with something special then please do get in touch so we can liase with our artists on how best to meet your needs.
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Questions on Frames
Can I get my portrait framed?
We currently do not offer framed portraits as a checkout option due to the extra cost and difficulty involved in post and packaging. However if you feel that you cannot get your portrait framed easily at home or would like to insist on us sending you your portrait framed please drop us an email with your request. We can offer a range beautiful, organic and unusual frames to help highlight your portrait.
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Questions on Black and White Portraits:
The black and white portraits look like photos, how do your artists do that?
Firstly please let us reassure you that everything is done by hand and no photoshop techniques are used! Our artists use charcoals and pencils to produce the darker tones on our portraits and the highlights are achieved through the use of putty rubbers. It is this mix of light and dark tones that produces such great results!
Why don’t your artists put as much attention on the background? My portrait looks great but the background wasn’t exactly similar to the photo I gave you, what happened?
Our artists pay more attention to the subjects rather than the background for the simple reason that it draws attention away from the main focus. They would rather put their time and effort into the main subject to produce an exceptional portrait rather than handing over a piece that is swallowed by an over detailed background. Please take our word on this, our artists really do know what they are doing and how best to produce a balanced piece of art.
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Questions on Highlight Portraits:
How do you decide which part of my portrait to highlight with color?
For the highlight portraits either send us a note with your photo indicating which part of the portrait you would like highlighted with color or if you would prefer you can allow our artists to make a decision on how best to produce the portrait. You are the customer so whatever suits you best!
What paints do you use on the highlight portraits?
The black and white is achieved with charcoal, pencil and putty rubber techniques, the color is added with pastels.
How long will my highlight portrait take?
We aim to have all our portraits finished and dispatched to our customers within 14 days.
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Questions on Color Portraits:
What paints do you use on the color portraits?
Our artists use oil paints on canvas
How long will the colors last?
Good question…but we’re not sure, this is one of those subjects that is difficult to put a definite figure to. One of our older artists still has a 42 year old portrait and the colours are great! We do use the best quality oil paints we can find and would hope that they last for a long, long time. At the least we hope to give you a portrait that will last for decades, hopefully generations. (as for whether or not it will last for centuries we just don’t know!)
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Questions on Pet Portraits:
I guess you can do horses and dogs but what if I’ve got a unique or rare pet, can you cope?
Sure, we can deal with any pet or animal!
Why does my black and white pet portrait cost more than a normal portrait?
Animal are suprisingly harder to paint than people and as we have a reduced number of artists available for this difficult and somewhat specialised subject we had to balance our prices to match our continued high level of demand. (Pet portraits are one of our greatest sellers.)
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Questions on Post:
How will you post my portrait?
Once you portrait has been completed our packing office will parcel it in a protective cardboard container and send it signed-for-delivery.
How long will it take to post to Europe, Asia or the U.S?
We can get your portrait sent to most worldwide destinations within 3 to 5 working days.
Is there anywhere you won’t arrange post to?
We post to the United States, Great Britain, Europe and Hong Kong. Due to post restrictions we generally do not post outside of these destinations however should you desire your portrait sent to any other destination please do not hesitate to get in touch and we will do our very best to accomodate you.
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Questions on Payment Options
What payment options do you accept?
We offer two choices at the end of the checkout process, PayPal or Direct Bank Transfer
PayPal
We prefer to use PayPal for simplicity and security. If you do not have an account with PayPal you can still make a safe and secure payment using their system without signing up.
How do I contact you?
You can either contact us by using our contact form click here or email us direct at contact [insert 'at' sign] portraitsforgifts [dot] com. Alternatively you can reach us by postal mail at:
Portraits for Gifts (Returns)
Building 67 Lateward Rd,
Brentford,
TW8 0PL
United Kingdom
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Do you accept returns?
Yes we do and we are always keen to accomodate our customers should they be unhappy with our product. However due to the incredible amount of man hours gone into producing your portrait we will only be able to refund 45% of sale price minus the cost of postage. Commissioned artwork is an unusual service and due to the labour involved cannot reside in normal product return legislation however please let us take this chance to reassure you that all of our customers are invariably impressed once they see in person the quality of detail and skill that has been applied in producing their portrait.
Returns are processed once your portrait has been returned to our head office:
Portraits for Gifts (Returns)
Building 67 Lateward Rd,
Brentford,
TW8 0PL
United Kingdom
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