How it works
Four steps, and one of them is yours
The part that matters most is the step where you approve the composition before anyone picks up a brush. It is the difference between commissioning a painting and hoping for one.
Step one
Send the photo
Email it to hello@seekartgal.com, or use the enquiry form and paste a link to a cloud folder if the files are large. Two or three photographs are better than one.
Old, creased, faded or torn photographs are welcome. So is combining two photos into one composition — say so when you write, and we will tell you what is possible.
Nothing is charged at this stage. You will hear back from a person, usually within 24 hours, with a fixed price and an honest opinion on whether the photograph can carry the size you have in mind.
Step two
Approve the mock-up
Before any paint is mixed, we send you a digital mock-up showing the exact composition: the crop, where each subject sits, what the background will be, and how much of the frame each face occupies.
This is where you say move him left, lose the car in the background, or can we take it closer. Changes at this stage are free and unlimited, because they cost minutes rather than days.
Why this matters. Almost every disappointing portrait review you will read online — from any studio — comes down to a composition the customer never got to see until it was too late to change. This step exists to remove that risk entirely.
Step three
We paint, and you see it twice
Oil is slow on purpose. Layers need to cure before the next goes on, which is why a real painting takes 3–5 weeks and why a painting delivered in three days is a print with a texture filter.
You receive two progress photographs during the work — roughly at the underpainting and at the half-way point. If something is going the wrong way, we would far rather hear it in week two than in week five.
Step four
Approve, varnish, ship
When the painting is finished we photograph the actual canvas in daylight and send it to you. You get one free round of adjustments at this point. If something is genuinely off once it has been approved, we repaint it.
Then the canvas is varnished with an archival gloss, signed, recorded, and rolled into a rigid, moisture-protected tube. Shipping is tracked, insured, and free anywhere in the world.
Rolled rather than stretched, on purpose: a stretched canvas crossing the world needs a wooden crate and costs three to five times as much to move, and it arrives damaged far more often. A local framer will stretch it onto bars for the price of a takeaway meal, and we send the exact finished dimensions with your certificate.
Timeline
What actually happens, and when
| Day 0 | You send a photo The moment it arrives |
| Within 24 hours | You get a fixed price and a date From a person, not an autoresponder |
| Day 1–2 | You approve the digital mock-up Nothing is painted until you say go |
| Week 1–4 | Painting, with two progress photos So there are no surprises later |
| Week 4–5 | You approve the finished canvas One free round of adjustments |
| Week 5–6 | Varnish, sign, pack, ship Tracked and insured, free worldwide |
Working backwards from a date: order five weeks before you need it, or six if it is a gift going abroad. Rush delivery (three weeks, painting included) is $90.
The difficult questions
What if it does not look right?
Then we fix it, and we would rather you told us early. In practice there are three moments where problems are caught:
- At the mock-up. Composition, crop and background are agreed before painting begins — free and unlimited changes.
- At the progress photos. If the likeness or the light is drifting, we correct it mid-painting.
- At the finished photograph. One free round of adjustments before the canvas is varnished and shipped.
If a finished, approved commission does not match what you agreed, we repaint it at our cost or refund it. Commissions are made specifically for one person, so once a painting has been approved and dispatched it cannot be returned for a change of mind — the full policy is on shipping and returns.
Ready when you are
Send the photograph. The next thing you get back is a price, a date, and an honest opinion.