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From your phone photos
Hand-painted or AI? What you get for the money.
A hand-painted portrait from a photo is real paint on canvas and usually costs $90 to $240 or more, with a two-to-four-week wait. An AI portrait is ready in minutes for a fraction of that. Here's an honest comparison so you can pick the right one.
- Hand-painted: real brushwork, weeks, $90+
- Portraitly: minutes, free preview, from $6.99
- Our canvases are printed reproductions, not paint
| Hand-painted service | Etsy digital illustrator | Portraitly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical price (one portrait) | $90–$240+, more per extra person | $15–$75 digital | $6.99 digital; canvas from $119 |
| Time | 7–23 days plus shipping | 1 day to 2 weeks | About a minute; prints in about a week |
| See it before paying | No: deposit or full payment first | Rarely: pay, then proof | Yes: free watermarked previews |
| People and pets from separate photos | Often, at extra cost | Common | Yes, up to 5 people and 4 pets |
| Changes | Usually unlimited before shipping | Usually 1–2 rounds | 3 free repaints if it doesn't look like them |
| What's on the wall | Real paint on canvas | A print of a digital illustration | A print of a digital portrait |
Typical prices seen on hand-painted portrait services and Etsy listings, October 2026. Individual sellers vary.
- When is hand-painted the better choice?
- If you want a physical painting with real brush texture made by a person, and you have a few weeks and a bigger budget, a hand-painted service is the right call. Some people also use our free preview to settle on a composition before commissioning a painter.
- Is your canvas a painting?
- No. It is a high-resolution print of your portrait on gallery canvas, made by a professional print lab. We say so plainly.
- How faithful are the faces?
- The model is instructed to reproduce each face with photographic fidelity: face shape, eyes, skin tone, hairstyle, even tattoos. Style applies to the painting, never to identity.
- What do I get?
- Your first watermarked preview is free. Unlocking gives you a clean 2K file, and wall-art formats include a 4K version for printing.