PALETTEMOMENTO · HAND-PAINTED TO ORDER

Custom Car, Boat & Aircraft Portraits

Keep the details that make the vehicle yours: its lines, livery, registration and setting. Send the views and close-ups that matter before we plan the painting.

Discuss Your Painting on WhatsApp

Your reference · Your dimensions · Your destination

A real customer photograph turned into an oil painting. See the road-and-car commission →

A Hand-Painted Boat Scene from Our Studio

A real painting example shows how vessels can sit within a wider setting. For a portrait of your own boat, send the hull profile, rigging and identifying details you want preserved.

Hand-painted river scene with red and yellow sails against a monochrome landscape — **Bright sails against a quiet landscape.** A studio painting with visible brushwork and an atmospheric river setting.

Get the Identifying Details Right in Your Vehicle Portrait

Confirm the exact configuration

Specify year or model, body shape and modifications. A registration or model name alone may not explain the wheels, fittings or paintwork shown in your preferred photograph.

Choose the view that shows its character

A three-quarter angle shows depth; a side view reveals profile and livery. For boats and aircraft, include extra images of fittings hidden in the main view.

Separate identifiers from reflections

Label numbers, names and badges that must be readable. Tell us which reflections are incidental and which finish or material they should help convey.

You already have the photos. The build is finished, the name is on the transom, or the last flight is on the calendar. We turn those photos into a hand-painted canvas. We paint cars, trucks, motorcycles, sailboats, yachts and aircraft from the pictures you send. Every canvas is painted to order in our studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. Nothing is printed. There is no minimum order, so one painting is a normal order here. We photograph the finished canvas and send you the photos, and nothing ships until you say it looks right.

Vehicle Portraits Options

Nobody wakes up wanting a painting of a machine. Something happens first. The restoration is finally done. The boat or the plane is being sold, and people often order the week it leaves, so the wall keeps what the driveway loses. A pilot reaches the end of a career. There is a christening, a class trophy, a first solo, or a Father’s Day with a date on it.

Most of these have a deadline you cannot move, so work backward. Painting takes 7 to 10 business days for one to five pieces. Express shipping by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days. Allow about four weeks from your first message to the box arriving. If your date is closer, say so in the first message and we will tell you honestly whether it is possible.

What to Send for Your Vehicle Portraits

One good photo is enough to start. More photos help, because a single shot always hides something.

The hero angle. The shot you want the painting to look like. A three quarter view from a front corner flatters almost every car, bike and boat.
A straight side view. This is how a painter gets the proportions right, even when the painting is at another angle.
Close ups of the details. Badges, grille, wheels, hull name, sail number, the fuselage registration.
The paint in daylight. Metallic and pearl finishes look nothing alike under a garage light and under the sun.

Soft light beats bright noon sun, which makes hard black shadows and turns shiny paint into a mirror of the parking lot. If the vehicle is already sold and you cannot reshoot, we work with what exists.

We can combine several photos into one painting. A common request is the body from one shot, the wheels from another, the sky from a third, and the clutter from none of them.

The details owners actually check

An owner looks at a painting of their own vehicle in a set order. Shape, then color, then the small identifying marks. That last group has to be right.

Paint color

Send the factory paint code or a chip if you have one. We color match to a code or a sample and send you a photo of the mixed color in daylight for approval before painting starts.

Badges and trim

Badges, script, grille, wheel design and pinstripes are painted as part of the vehicle. Tell us what was changed on yours, so we paint your car and not the catalog version.

Hull name and sail number

Boat owners check the name on the transom first. Send a straight, close shot of the lettering so the spelling and letter shapes stay readable.

Tail number and livery

For aircraft we need the registration and any stripe or livery detail. A close shot keeps it legible even when the plane sits small in the frame.

Say up front how tight you want it. Some owners want every panel gap. Others want thick paint with visible knife marks, the handling you can see across our impressionist collection.

White sailboats on a blue sea impressionist in a living room — A boat under sail wants open water and wind. A boat at the dock wants reflections and a quiet harbor.

Keep the background or replace it

This is where a painting beats a photo. Most vehicle shots were taken wherever the vehicle happened to be: a driveway, a show field, a busy ramp.

Keep it. If the setting is part of the story, we keep it. Your garage, the family barn, the home marina.
Clean it up. Same place, minus the trash cans, cones, power lines and the stranger in the reflection.
Replace it. A mountain road, a coast road at dusk, a wet city street, open water, a runway at sunrise.
Change the weather. Golden light, rain on the road, a storm sky behind the sails. Weather does more for a vehicle portrait than anything else.

Crimson and amber Manhattan street canyon at sunset with yellow taxis on wet pavement, a palette-knife canvas above a greige sofa in a sunny living room — Wet pavement and low sun make a car look alive in paint.

Vehicle Portraits Sizes & Placement

Cars, boats and aircraft are long and low, so they almost always want a horizontal canvas. A motorcycle shot head on, or a plane climbing, can work square or vertical.

Size is really a proportion question. Measure the wall or the piece of furniture the painting will hang over, then pick a canvas that fills most of that width without crowding the edges. Here is where buyers usually land.

Over a sofa or a bar in a den: most buyers land around 40 to 48 inches wide, which covers a good part of the width of the furniture below.
Over a desk or console in a home office: a step narrower, since the console itself is narrower.
A garage, shop or hangar wall: go bigger than feels sensible. Those walls are tall and open, and a modest canvas simply disappears on them.
A narrow hall or stairway: smaller than most people guess, or turn the composition vertical so the wall carries 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. A long vehicle painted small loses the badges and lettering first. Fine lettering needs a larger canvas, so tell us if the hull name or tail number must be readable and we will recommend a size.

Painting of the Brooklyn Bridge over teal harbor water with a small white sailboat, hung above an oak console table in a stairway hall — Halls and stair walls take a smaller canvas than people expect.

How the commission runs

Send photos. Tell us the vehicle, the angle you want, the background, and your deadline.
WhatsApp replies are usually immediate; email replies usually arrive within 12 hours. A real person, Monday to Sunday. We quote the piece and the freight separately.
You approve and pay a deposit. Usually 50 percent, with the balance before the painting is released.
We paint and send progress photos. A wrong wheel or a wrong shade of red gets fixed on the canvas, not after shipping.
You approve the finished canvas. Nothing leaves the studio until you approve the photos.
We pack it your way. Rolled in a tube, stretched on wood bars, or framed. Freight is quoted at cost and we do not add to it.

Rolled, stretched or framed

Rolled in a tube ships cheapest, and a local framer stretches the canvas when it lands. Stretched on solid wood bars arrives ready to hang, which is easier when someone has to open it on the day. Framed comes in black, white, wood, silver or gold, and all five cost the same, so pick the color that suits the room. Heavy texture ships stretched or framed, because rolling thick paint is not recommended.

Medium	Acrylic on canvas as standard, oil on request
Sizes	24 by 20 inches to 80 by 60 inches, plus any size to your measurements
Painting time	7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces
Finish	Rolled, stretched on wood bars, or framed in black, white, wood, silver or gold
Approval	Photos of the finished canvas sent before anything ships
Delivery	Express by FedEx or DHL in 5 to 10 business days; Duties included (DDP) or paid on arrival.

Ordering from a studio you have never visited

Who is actually painting it? We are a hand-painting studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. Every canvas is painted by hand, to order, and you see progress photos while yours is on the easel.

What if it does not look like my vehicle? You tell us while it is still on the easel. If a finished piece has a defect that is our fault, we repaint it at our cost.

How do I check before I commit? For a first order or a large project we paint a sample. It is a separate single-piece order, and the larger order is quoted on its own. More about how we work is on our FAQ page.

Dealers, clubs, brokers and flying groups

Plenty of this work is not a single gift. It is a dealership giving a painting with each collector car it sells, a broker marking a closing, or a club making show awards for a season.

Trade pricing starts at one piece. The rate improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together, so six different cars count the same as six of one.
Production runs 10 to 15 business days for 6 to 20 pieces and 15 to 20 for 21 to 50.
Rolled canvas is the cheapest way to ship more than about 20 pieces, and a local framer stretches them on arrival.

Full terms are on our trade page, and the other things we paint from your own photos are on our custom art page.

Boats on a glowing golden sea impressionist in a moody living room — No idea what background to ask for? Ask for dawn or dusk light.

Vehicle Portraits Requests We Can Discuss

Popular starting points

You have decent photos of a specific vehicle and you know which angle you love.
You want visible brushwork and thick paint, not an airbrushed copy of a photograph.
You want a large canvas, and you have four weeks or more before the date.
You are ordering more than one, for a club, a dealership or a reunion.

Let’s discuss the details

You want photorealism where every reflection matches. A specialist automotive photorealist is the better call.
You want a small desk piece. Our standard sizes start at 24 by 20 inches, and a vehicle painted much smaller loses the badges and lettering.
Comparing formats. This service is hand painting on canvas. Tell us which surface, finish and delivery requirements matter to your project.
You need it in hand in ten days from a standing start.

References and details to confirm

Identify the source of promotional or event photographs and permission available. Confirm any manufacturer marks, sponsor artwork and registration text that should appear in the commission. Related guidance: graduation and milestone portraits.

Vehicle Portraits Sizes & Quote Planning

Your dimensions, in cm or inches

Choose the angle before the canvas ratio. Long hulls and wings need space at the edges; close cockpit or front-end views can use a more compact format.

What changes this commission’s quote

Painting detail

Mechanical detail, livery, readable lettering and modifications.

Surface & presentation

Water, road or sky setting; additional vehicles and finish.

Delivery planning

Canvas length, protective packing and the owner’s delivery destination.

How we prepare your quote

Vehicle Portraits Questions Answered

Can you paint my vehicle in an earlier color scheme?

Yes, subject to the references. Supply photographs or a clear specification of the earlier scheme, and distinguish the original fittings from later modifications. Agree on lettering and registration details before painting.

Can the registration, boat name or aircraft number be changed?

Provide the exact replacement text and a clear placement reference. Letter size and legibility depend on the composition and canvas size, so flag these details as priorities at the quoting stage.

Can you paint my car from a phone photo?

Yes. A clear phone photo is enough to start. We ask for one hero angle plus a straight side view and close ups of the badges, wheels and any lettering. If the vehicle is already sold and you cannot reshoot it, we work from whatever exists. We can also combine several photos into one painting, taking the body from one shot and the background from another.

Oil or acrylic?

We paint in acrylic unless you ask for oil. Oil is available on request. Because oil dries slowly between layers, oil pieces take longer, so tell us early if your gift has a fixed date. Both are painted by hand on canvas and both can be built up thick with a knife. Acrylic is the safer choice when the deadline is tight.

Will the tail number or hull name be readable?

Yes, if you send a straight, close shot of the lettering and the canvas is big enough to carry it. Small canvases lose fine lettering first, so tell us that the hull name or tail number must be readable and we will recommend a size before you order. Then check the spelling in the progress photos, because that is the easiest thing to fix while the painting is still on the easel.

How long does a vehicle portrait take?

Painting takes 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces. Express shipping by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days. Add a few days for photos, quoting and approval, and about four weeks is realistic. Pieces 36 by 48 inches and larger, heavy texture and oil sit at the top of that band, because thick paint has to dry between layers.

Can you take the parking lot out and put the car somewhere else?

Yes. We remove clutter such as cones, trash cans, power lines and other vehicles, and we can replace the background completely. Describe the place you want or send a photo of it. A coast road at dusk, a wet city street, open water or a runway at sunrise are common requests. Tell us the time of day, because the light sets the mood.

What if the painting does not look like my vehicle?

Tell us during painting. We send progress photos on commissions, so a wrong wheel, badge or shade of red gets corrected on the canvas. We photograph the finished canvas and nothing leaves the studio until you approve. If a finished piece has a defect that is our fault, we repaint it at our cost. For a first order or a large project we paint a sample. It is a separate single-piece order, and the larger order is quoted on its own.

Do you paint military aircraft and squadron markings?

Identify the source of promotional or event photographs and permission available. Confirm any manufacturer marks, sponsor artwork and registration text that should appear in the commission.

What will shipping and duty cost?

Freight is quoted separately at cost and we do not add to it. Express, air freight and sea freight are all available. For most countries you can choose duties included in the delivery quote (DDP), or pay the duties yourself on arrival. Confirm the applicable requirements for your reference or destination before ordering. Other measures on China origin goods can still apply, so confirm with a customs broker.

Discuss Your Vehicle Portraits

Send the main vehicle photo, model and configuration, close-ups of identifiers, background preference, size and destination.

Discuss Your Painting on WhatsApp

WhatsApp: usually an immediate reply. Email: usually within 12 hours.

support@palettemomento.com

Send a written brief through the quote form