Custom Portrait From a Photo
A custom portrait made from a photograph you already have. Upload the picture, choose how it should be drawn, and see the whole portrait before paying anything — watermarked until you do. The difference from commissioning an artist is not only price — it is that you get to look at the result first, and change it, which is the part that usually costs extra.
How it works
- 1
Pick the photograph
One clear picture of each person. Daylight helps more than resolution does, and a face that is small in the frame is the single most common reason a portrait comes back looking like someone else. Crop to them before uploading.
- 2
Choose how it should be drawn
Five styles, from soft illustration to a bold inked look. The same photograph produces genuinely different portraits in each, and switching costs nothing before you pay.
- 3
Look at it, then decide
The whole portrait is shown, watermarked and softened. If the likeness is off, change the photo and run it again — there is no charge until you download.
Five styles
The same photo produces a different comic in each. Switching style costs nothing before you pay.
Dreamy anime
Manga
Heroic Comic
3D Animated
Classic comic
What "custom" is actually doing here
A custom portrait means the subject is a specific person rather than a stock figure, and the work that makes that true happens before any drawing starts: a written description is taken off your photograph — face shape, hair, build, colouring, what they are wearing — and every image is drawn against that description. That is the difference between a portrait of your father and a portrait of a man his age. It is also why photo quality matters more than any other input: the description can only record what is visible.
When to commission a human instead
There are cases where this is the wrong answer and it is worth saying so plainly. A memorial portrait that will hang in a family home for thirty years should be painted by a person, if the money exists. So should anything where the point is partly that someone spent their hours on it — that is a real part of the gift and no generator supplies it. What this does well is the middle of the market that was previously empty: too personal for a print off a shelf, not landmark enough to justify several hundred pounds and a six-week wait.
More than one person in the portrait
Up to six, and they do not need to have been photographed together. Each person is described from their own picture and then drawn into a single scene, which is the common case for a family spread across cities or a couple whose only shared photograph is from a wedding four years ago. Pets count towards the six and are described the same way.
Printing it
Paid downloads are a full-resolution PNG plus an A4 PDF laid out for printing. At roughly 1,200 pixels tall a portrait is sharp at A5 and holds up at A4, which covers a card, a frame on a desk, or something on a wall at arm’s length. It is not a canvas-sized file, and a portrait blown up to poster size will show it.
What makes a portrait come out badly
Three things, in order of how often they are the cause. A face that occupies a small part of the frame, because there is little detail to describe. Heavy backlighting, which turns a face into a silhouette and gives the description nothing to work from. And sunglasses or anything covering the features, which forces the drawing to invent the part everyone actually looks at. None of these are fixable after the fact; all of them are fixable by choosing a different photograph.
Commissioned, printed, or drawn from the photo you already have
A custom portrait can mean three quite different transactions, at three price points an order of magnitude apart. Worth knowing which one you are actually after before comparing them, because the cheapest is not always the worst answer and the dearest is not always the best.
| What differs | A commissioned artist | Cartoon It |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Typically £100–400 for a hand-painted portrait, more for oils or a large canvas. | $3.99 to $11.99, one payment. |
| Time | Two to six weeks is normal, and longer in December. | Minutes. Nothing ships, so there is no cut-off date. |
| Revisions | Usually one or two, negotiated, sometimes charged. | Regenerate as often as you like before paying anything. |
| What you are buying | A person’s hours and their eye. Genuinely worth the money when you want that. | A drawn scene from your photograph, seen watermarked before you decide. |
| Best when | It is a landmark — a wedding, a memorial, something that will hang for decades. | It is a gift, a card, a present for someone hard to buy for, or you want to see it before committing. |
Questions
How much does a custom portrait from a photo cost?
From $3.99 for a single portrait, up to $11.99 for a three-page story with a cover. One payment, no subscription and no account. Commissioning the same thing from an illustrator typically runs to several hundred, which buys you a person’s hours rather than a faster result.
Will it actually look like the person?
The likeness comes from a written description taken off your photograph — face, hair, build, colouring — which is reused for every image. Photo quality is the main variable: a well-lit picture where the face fills a reasonable part of the frame produces a far better portrait than a high-resolution one taken from across a room.
How long does it take?
Usually under two minutes from uploading the photo to a finished portrait on screen. Nothing is shipped and nothing is queued, so there is no delivery date and no cut-off — which is the practical reason people use this in the last week before an occasion.
Can I put more than one person in it?
Yes, up to six, each from a separate photograph taken at any time. They are drawn into one scene together, so a family that has never all been in the same room can still appear in a single portrait. Pets count towards the six.
Can I print it or frame it?
Yes. A paid download includes a full-resolution PNG and an A4 PDF. At around 1,200 pixels tall it prints cleanly at A5 and is usable at A4 — good for a card or a frame, not for a wall-sized canvas.
Is it free to try?
Generating and viewing the portrait is free and needs no account. The preview is watermarked and softened — enough to judge the composition and the likeness, not the fine detail. Paying removes the watermark and gives the full-resolution file, from $3.99.
Last updated . Prices and limits on this page are checked when it changes.
Pages it has made
Finished output, not mock-ups.
See yours before you pay
Generating and previewing costs nothing and needs no account. Downloads start at $3.99, one time.
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