Sourcing hand-painted portraits one at a time: what to ask a studio

You can sell hand-painted portraits under your own name without holding stock, without a minimum order, and without your customer ever seeing the supplier — if the studio offers trade pricing from one piece, unbranded shipping and a proof step. This guide walks through how that works for an Etsy or Shopify seller, an interior designer, or a frame shop: what to ask for, how the order runs, and where the margin comes from.

The model in one paragraph

Your customer orders a portrait from you and sends a photo. You forward the photo, the size and the delivery address to the studio. The studio paints the piece, sends you photographs of the finished painting as a proof, and — once you or your customer approve — ships it directly to your customer with your card in the box and nothing of the studio’s. You paid the trade price; your customer paid your retail price.

Five questions to ask any studio before you list

Question	The answer you need
What is the minimum order?	One piece, or the model does not work for custom products
Does anything of yours get branded over?	No studio branding on the painting, packing slip or box; your insert included
Will you ship to my customer?	Yes, blind, worldwide, with tracking sent to you
Is there a proof before shipping?	Photographs of the finished painting for approval, with changes made at that stage
Are prices published anywhere?	No — a published trade price destroys your margin the moment a customer searches

Our answers to all five are on the trade page.

Setting up the listing

Most trade buyers do four things before the first sale:

1. Order a sample of their own pet at the discounted sample rate, and photograph the finished piece in their own style. Those photographs, plus the studio’s process images, become the listing.
2. Choose a short menu. Two or three sizes and two detail levels — Painterly or Refined as the default, Hyperreal as a memorial upgrade — keep the choice simple and the quoting fast.
3. Set the retail price against the trade list. The list gives every size, subject count and detail level; your margin is the difference. Because the trade price is the same from the first piece, the margin exists on the first sale.
4. Write the processing time honestly. Ask the studio for the typical range on your default size and level, add your own handling buffer, and say “confirmed per order”. Never promise fixed days you do not control.

How an order runs, step by step

1. The customer orders and sends a photo. Check it against the photo guide — sharp eyes, even light, eye level — and ask for another if needed. This one step prevents most disappointments.
2. Forward the photo, size, detail level, any notes, and the delivery address to the studio. You receive a confirmation and a timeframe for that piece.
3. The studio paints. You are not involved.
4. Proof photographs arrive: straight on and under raking light. Forward them to the customer, collect approval or requested changes, and send them back in one message.
5. Once approved, the painting is varnished, packed and shipped to your customer. Tracking comes to you.

Rolled or framed

Unframed paintings ship rolled in a rigid tube, which is far cheaper to send internationally and safer in transit. Many sellers offer “rolled, ready for local framing” as the default and framed as an upgrade; frame shops always take rolled and frame in-house. Packing methods are on shipping and packaging.

For designers and frame shops specifically

Designers order one piece per project, usually to a custom size and with the background toned to a swatch, and have it shipped crated to the site. Frame shops take rolled canvas sized to their stock mouldings and sell the framing as their own work. Both are single-piece, trade-priced orders — see interior designers and frame shops.

Where the margin comes from

The trade price is possible because the studio has its own painters, spends nothing on advertising, has no retail layer and compares shipping on every order. Your margin is the value you add — the customer relationship, the listing, the framing, the design fee — and it is protected because the trade price is never published and the painting never carries the studio’s name.