Commissioned Works

Commissioned Work

Portraits in Oil

This painting of Cindy took about eight sittings.

The traditional way to paint a portrait is the way the old masters did it: in oil from live sittings. That's how I did these portraits of Cindy and Doreen.

This one of Doreen took about six sittings.

Pricing

Standard head & shoulders in oil: $2,500 plus $200 per sitting (and travel expenses, if applicable)

Oil portrait from photo: $1,500

Vignette in oil: $1,500 plus $100 per sitting

Portraits in Pastel

As with oil, I would say the best pastel portrait is the one done from live sittings. For pricing purposes, the self portrait at left is a 'vignette' in pastel, from life.

Standard head & shoulders in pastel: $1,750 plus $175 per sitting (and travel expenses, if applicable)

Pastel portrait from photo: $1,000

Vignette in pastel: $1000 plus $75 per sitting

More examples of 'vignettes' in pastel:

for further examples of portraits, see 'portraits' page

Special

Then there are the more complicated scenes people sometimes ask me to do. The following, entitled 'Cindy's Three Luvs', done in pastel, involved a number of photographs (provided to me by my customer). I did it for about $2,500:

The pastel below, entitled 'It's a Girl' was given to a gynecologist by his fiancee. Actually, it depicts the birth of my daughter Emilee, and my original reason for painting it was that my camera malfunctioned. All the slides I took during her birth came out completely black, and the only way to view them was through a loop with a very strong flashlight taped to the other side. I did the painting while viewing the slide in that manner. Talk about eye strain!

My fee for painting copies of old masters' work would vary, but start at $1,500.

Although I rarely do wildlife paintings per se, I've enjoyed painting animals on wooden slabs, mostly walnut ovals with the bark still on. I feel that wood works well...the painted animal just seems to fit comfortably into this natural setting. I've also done a number of pets this way. I work from photographs, and my standard fee is $500.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at jgmcgill@adelphia.net

For more examples, click here: Miscellaneous