Graduation, Athlete and Milestone Portrait Paintings

We paint graduation, athlete and milestone portraits by hand, from your photo, in our studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. Every piece is painted to order in acrylic on canvas. Oil is available on request. There is no minimum order, so one cap and gown portrait is a normal order and so is a set of twenty for a senior class. Painting takes 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces and 10 to 15 business days for 6 to 20 pieces. We photograph every finished canvas and send you the photos, and nothing leaves the studio until you approve it. Standard sizes run from 24 by 20 inches up to 80 by 60 inches, and any other size is painted to your measurements at the same rate.

Work backward from the date on the calendar

Nobody orders a milestone portrait in a quiet week. It is ordered because a date is coming: graduation in April, May or June, senior night, signing day, a championship, a coach retiring, a baptism, a first communion, a confirmation, a quinceanera, a bar or bat mitzvah, a twenty-year retirement, a homecoming, a department anniversary. The date does not move, so plan the order around it.

Here is the honest math. One piece takes 7 to 10 business days to paint. Express shipping by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days. Add a day or two for you to look at the approval photos and reply. That is about four weeks door to door, so leave five weeks for a single portrait. A set of 6 to 20 pieces takes 10 to 15 business days to paint, so leave seven weeks. A set of 21 to 50 takes 15 to 20 business days to paint, so leave nine weeks and get the photos to us before the season ends.

What goes into a milestone portrait

We paint lettering onto the canvas too. A name, a graduation year, a jersey number, a date, a school or a unit can be painted along the bottom, in a corner, or worked into the background. Send the exact wording at quote stage, spelled the way you want it and with any accents marked, and tell us roughly where you want it to sit. Text is part of the composition, so it is easier to plan before the first brush goes down than to squeeze in later.

We can combine several photos into one painting. That matters more here than on any other kind of commission. A grandparent who could not fly in for the ceremony, a father who has passed, a sibling in a different photo, all of them can sit in one composition. Tell us who goes where and send every reference you have.

The photo you send us decides most of the result

A painter can only work with what is in the reference. A sharp, well lit face in the photo becomes a sharp face in the paint. A dark phone snap taken from thirty rows up in a gym does not.

• Send the largest file you have, straight from the phone or camera, not a screenshot and not a version pulled off social media.
• Daylight or good indoor light, with the face not in shadow under a cap brim.
• One clear face photo plus the action or ceremony shot works better than one photo alone.
• Send a separate photo of the jersey, the gown, the dress or the uniform if the color matters.
• Say what you want changed: a closed mouth, glasses off, a different background, braces edited out.

We also paint from artwork, a digital file, an AI-generated image, a render, a Pinterest board, a paint chip or a fabric sample. If you want the background in the exact school green, send the code or the fabric and we mix it, photograph the mixed color under daylight and send you that photo before we start painting.

Sizes for a bedroom wall, a family hallway and a hall of honor

Most single milestone portraits land in one of three places, and each one has a size that works.

• A graduate’s own room or first apartment. 24 by 20 inches or 30 by 24 inches. Big enough to be a real painting, small enough to move in a car.
• A family hallway, stairwell or above a console table. 30 by 40 inches vertical. A standing figure in a gown reads well tall.
• Above the living room sofa, the piece the family will keep. 36 by 48 inches. This is the size people regret not ordering.
• A booster club or team set. One matched size across the whole senior class, usually 24 by 20 inches, so the frames line up and the shipping stays sane.
• A department hall of honor or union hall. 30 by 40 inches vertical, matched size and matched frame color across every portrait you add over the years.

Standard sizes start at 24 by 20 inches. Need a different size? Send the measurements and we paint to them at the same rate. Larger single canvases beyond 80 by 60 inches are quoted case by case. Sets of two and three are available if you want a triptych of the same graduate or one panel each for three siblings.

Team sets, senior classes and department orders

A set is a different job from a single portrait, and the thing that makes it work is consistency. Same size, same crop, same background treatment, same frame, same brush hand across every canvas. Send all the photos at once and we plan the batch together so the last painting matches the first.

The rate improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together, so a senior class of 14 seniors and 3 coaches is one order of 17. Rolled canvas in a tube is the cheapest way to ship more than about 20 pieces, and a local framer can stretch and frame them on arrival. If the pieces are being handed out at a ceremony and nobody will frame them, order them stretched on solid wood bars instead.

For a first order or a large project we paint a sample first so you can see the hand before you commit the class. The sample cost is credited back on any order of 10 pieces or more. Schools and departments that do this once usually repeat it every year. Tell us the size, frame color and background you used last time and we match it.

Buying a painting from a studio in Shenzhen you have never met

This is the fair question, so here is the plain answer. We are a hand-painting studio in Dafen Art Village, Longgang District, Shenzhen, China. We say that up front because a common complaint about portrait sites is that buyers only find out where the painting was made after something goes wrong.

Three things protect you. First, we photograph every finished canvas and send you the photos, and nothing ships until you say yes. If the likeness is off, tell us before it is packed and we go back to the canvas. Any change to price or timeline is confirmed with you first. Second, if a piece has a defect that is our fault, we repaint it at our cost. Third, payment is normally a 50 percent deposit with the balance due before the goods are released, by wire transfer, PayPal or card, so you are not paying the full amount to a name you do not know yet.

On duty, paintings executed entirely by hand fall under HTS 9701, which carries a free base rate of duty into the United States. Other China-origin measures can apply, so confirm with a customs broker. Our terms are EXW our Shenzhen studio and freight is quoted separately at cost. We do not add anything on top of the freight figure. WhatsApp replies are usually immediate; email replies usually arrive within 12 hours.

Photographer permission, mascots and logos

Two legal points come up constantly on this kind of order, and getting them wrong is the buyer’s problem, not ours, so we would rather say it early.

School names, mascots and wordmarks are trademarks. An official booster club often already has permission from the district; a parent ordering alone usually does not. We will happily paint a jersey in your school colors with the player’s number on it, because a number on a uniform is not a logo. Ask your district’s branding office before you ask us to paint the mascot. We do not paint pro league or college marks, and we do not copy another company’s design.

Good fit, not a fit

How an order runs

1. Send the photos and the date. Tell us the occasion, the deadline, the size, and whether you want it rolled, stretched or framed.
2. WhatsApp replies are usually immediate; email replies usually arrive within 12 hours. You get a quote, a realistic finish date and any question we have about the reference before money moves.
3. Deposit. Usually 50 percent, by wire transfer, PayPal or card. Terms are confirmed on the invoice.
4. We paint. For commissions we send progress photos while the piece is on the easel, so you see it take shape.
5. You approve. We photograph the finished canvas and send you the photos. If the likeness is off, tell us before it is packed and we go back to the canvas. Any change to price or timeline is confirmed with you first.
6. Balance and shipping. The balance is due before the goods are released, then it ships by FedEx, DHL, air freight or sea freight, packed in a tube, stretched, framed or crated.

Where to look next

If you are still deciding how the portrait should look, the impressionist style collection shows the loose, brushy handling that suits a gown or a jersey, because it keeps the face warm rather than stiff. Our custom art hub covers commissions of every kind, including photo-to-painting work, group compositions and color matching. Everyday questions about canvas, frames, packing and payment are answered on the FAQ page. When you are ready, send the photo and the date and we will come back with a quote and a finish date.