A family portrait in the Heirloom style
Warm ochre and umber, controlled brushwork and glowing highlights — the look of a portrait handed down for a century, made from one phone photo, from $49.
What Heirloom does with a family portrait. The face is kept exactly as photographed and painted in warm, blended tones with no smoothing; the boldest strokes go into hair, cloth and the lit cheek. It is the style people choose for a portrait that has to hang beside the grandparents'.
The photo. Everyone roughly the same distance from the camera, every face clear, taken in daylight. A horizontal photo turns the sizes on their side — 36×24 over a sideboard.
The size. 24×36 or larger, so each face reads from across the room. For four or more people, 32×48.
How to start. Upload one photo and see it painted in Heirloom free, in about 20 seconds. Your first three paintings are free; leave an email for as many more as you like, and change up to five details free. A person checks the full-resolution proof, and you see it before anything prints; if it isn't right, we repaint it until it is.