Multi-Panel Paintings, Diptychs and Triptychs

A custom triptych painting is three hand-painted canvases made to hang together as one piece. A diptych is two. We paint both to order in our studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen, in oil or acrylic on canvas, sized to your wall. You can have one image carried across the panels, or a set of related paintings in one palette. Sets of two and three are on our standard size list, and any other panel size is painted to your measurements at the same rate. There is no minimum order. Every panel is painted by hand. Nothing is printed.

Two ways to paint a set

Sizing a set to your sofa or wall

Start with the total width, then work out the panels. A common design guideline is to make the whole set, gaps included, about 60 to 75 percent of the width of the furniture below it.

1. Measure the sofa, bed or console, or the open wall if nothing sits below.
2. Take 60 to 75 percent of that number. This is the total width of the set, gaps included.
3. Pick a gap. Most people use 2 to 3 inches between panels.
4. Subtract the gaps and divide what is left by the number of panels. That is each panel’s width.
5. Send us the panel width, height and gap on the quote form. We paint to those numbers.

A worked example: an 84 inch sofa gives a target set width of about 50 to 63 inches. Three panels 16 inches wide with 2 inch gaps come to 52 inches. Three panels 18 inches wide with 2.5 inch gaps come to 59 inches.

Our 60 standard sizes run from 24 by 20 inches up to 80 by 60 inches, and any panel size off that list is painted at the same rate. For a staggered set, or one wide center with two narrow sides, send the measurement of each panel and we quote it the same way. A single canvas over 80 by 60 inches is quoted case by case. See extra-large paintings.

Spacing, height and hanging order

These numbers are common design practice, not rules we invented.

• Leave 2 to 3 inches between panels, and keep the gap the same between every panel.
• Put the center of the set about 57 to 60 inches from the floor, which is eye level for most people.
• Above a sofa, leave roughly 6 to 12 inches between the sofa back and the bottom of the panels.

Hang the middle panel first at the height you want. Then line up the top edge of each side panel with the top edge of the center panel and check with a level. Paper templates taped to the wall let you test the layout before you make a hole.

How the panels are painted to line up

We do not print anything, so the joins have to be planned in paint. Before the first brushstroke, we lay the whole picture out across all the panels, gap included, so a horizon, a wave or a branch leaves one canvas at the same height it enters the next. The panels are then painted together as one set, so the colors and brushwork stay consistent.

For commissions we send progress photos while the painting is under way. When the set is finished, we photograph the panels laid out side by side in hanging order and send you the photos, so you can check every join before anything is packed. Nothing leaves the studio until you approve. If you want the studio side of that, how we paint shows who works on a canvas and in what order.

Start from a catalog design, your photo or an AI image

Any of our 286 catalog designs can be resized, recolored or split into a diptych or triptych. Tell us the product code and the panel sizes, and we plan the split so the main subject does not land in a gap.

• Your own photo or a panoramic shot. A wide photo is the easiest thing to turn into a triptych, and we can combine several photos into one composition. See photo to painting.
• An AI image, a render or a Pinterest board. We paint from digital files and mood boards.
• A paint chip or fabric sample. We mix the color, photograph it under daylight and send it for approval before painting. See color-matched paintings.

One honest limit. We paint to your brief and palette, but we do not copy living artists, recently deceased artists or other companies’ designs, even when they arrive as a Pinterest pin. We stay on the right side of copyright, which means we paint only work in the public domain. See reproductions.

Series for hotels, serviced apartments and staging

Forty rooms, same colors, not forty identical paintings. You give us the palette, the mood and the size. Our painters vary the composition from piece to piece, so each room gets its own painting and the whole floor reads as one scheme.

Trade pricing starts from one piece. The rate improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together. Every panel counts, so a set of three counts as three pieces, and forty rooms count as forty. For a first order or a large series we paint a sample, and the sample cost is credited back on any order of 10 pieces or more. Full terms are on the trade page.

How long a set takes to paint

Our production bands are 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces, 10 to 15 for 6 to 20, 15 to 20 for 21 to 50, and 20 to 30 for 51 to 100. Orders over 100 pieces are scheduled with you. A set of three is three pieces, so it falls in the first band, but plan on the top of that band, because each panel has to dry between layers. Heavy texture also sits at the top of its band, and it ships stretched or framed rather than rolled. See textured paintings.

Shipping a set, and what we repaint

A set can ship rolled in a tube, stretched on solid wood bars, or framed in black, white, wood, silver or gold. All five frame colors cost the same. Rolled canvas is the cheapest way to ship a set, and the saving grows on orders over about 20 pieces. Heavy texture ships stretched or framed, because rolling thick impasto is not recommended. One box or three depends on the finish and the panel sizes. Packing is by tube, stretched, framed or wooden crate, and we confirm the crate count with you before transport is booked.

Delivery is EXW our Shenzhen studio, with freight quoted separately at cost. Express by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days, sea freight 25 to 40 days, with air freight, CIF and DDP on request. Paintings executed entirely by hand fall under HTS 9701 with a free base rate of duty into the United States. Other China-origin measures can apply, so check with a customs broker.

If a panel has a defect that is our fault, we repaint that panel at our cost and match it to the approval photos of the set. Under EXW, transit risk sits with the carrier and your freight insurance. If we arrange the freight, we help with the claim.