We paint portraits from your photographs
You only pay if you are satisfied
No deposit for standard orders
Based on a photo taken by Ad Kooiman
Product

Hand-drawn charcoal portrait from photograph. So far it's the only product we make.

technique
With brushes our artists apply black graphite powder to water color paper. The portraitist uses a wide variety of brushes from very fine to coarse. A portrait painter needs about 3 to 4 hours per head. We are often asked if we use the computer to draw, especially when the likeness is striking. We do not use any computer for drawing.
We do use computers however. If the likeness is not optimal we scan the portrait and compare it with the photograph. We do that on screen. That is all the artists use the computer for every now and then. The management uses the computer often for comparing photos with drawings and in that way to comment on the work of the painters. On our new site, still under construction , we have a page that shows 7 phases of a charcoal portrait.

size and paper
Our standard size is 40x30cm (15.75x11.81inch). For larger sizes ask for a quote. You can order smaller sizes though the minimum size is 18x24cm.
The paper we use is water color paper of 150grams/m2.

style
Since the likeness is the most important factor for the customer to approve a portrait, we work with a high level of detail. We make it as much as possible look like the photograph. It means there is hardly any room for an artistic interpretation. It does not mean all drawings are the same. For us it is in most of the cases easy to see who made the drawing. But since the samples on our websites are the base for your decision to order from us, we have to take care that the differences in style are minimal.

finishing and packing
Once the scan of the portrait is approved by the customer we finish the painting with a mat fixative to prevent smudging.
The portrait is sent to you in a shipping tube. We do not frame anything. You just get the drawing.



In short

Portraits International was founded in the Philippines by a Dutchman in 1993.
more about us


All-in price: $ 139 per head, person, pet or object. For more than one head on the same portrait, there is an additional charge of $ 89 per head/unit. Payment by Paypal (+/+ 4%) or bank transfer. For normal orders no deposit has to be paid. You only pay if you are satisfied.
more about pricing    more about deposits


Product: hand-drawn portrait.
Black graphite powder with paint brushes applied to water color paper.
more about the product


Delivery time: 3 to 4 weeks. We can send you a high resolution scan within 4 working days.
We do accept rush orders that we send by courier.
more about delivery times
The All-in price is $ 139 per head, person, pet or object.
For more than one head on the same portrait, there is an additional charge of $ 89 per head/unit.
Prices include costs for shipping and packing.

For special requirements additional costs can be charged. In such a case we will send you an email with a quotation for the extra work before we take the order in production.


For rush orders we charge $ 40 extra. We take your order in production right away.
Courier service from Manila to your door costs $ 75.
More about delivery times.


You only pay if you like the portrait.
More about the 100% guarantee.


We can give you a real discount
if you do not need the portrait on a short term.

We give 40% off for orders that we will deliver within 4 month time. So you send us your order and we will deliver within 4 month. Can be after 4 weeks, can be after 3 and a half months.

We give 20% off for orders that will be delivered within 2 month time. So you send us your order and we will deliver within 2 month. Can be within 3 weeks, can be after 1 month and 3 weeks.

We use these orders to smoothen the production, to eliminate dips in the workload.

Except for the delivery time, the conditions are the same as for normal orders:

- you only pay if you like the portrait
- for normal orders no deposit is needed.

There are special forms available to order portraits with discount.
delivery time:

3-4 weeks for normal orders with regular registered mail.

2-4 working days for a printable high resolution scan if you ask for a rush order. 2 weeks later you receive the real drawing.

6-8 working days for a rush order with courier service.
guarantee

We think our portraits are too expensive to pay for if the likeness or the quality is not what you expected based on our samples on this site.
Therefore we send you a scan of the drawing. You can then approve it or ask for adjustments.
If we do not manage to make a portrait that satisfies you, you can cancel the order. If we did not ask you upfront for a deposit, you do not pay any costs when canceling.

If you paid a deposit you lose it when you cancel the order.

We may ask a deposit of 15% for:
- orders above $200,
- more than two persons on 1 sheet,
- composed portraits (1 drawing from different pictures),
- portraits from poor pictures with little chance for success,
- large size portraits.
The procedure:  How it works.

In general we recieve your order through the order forms on this site.
You can sent us digital photographs with the form for digital orders or you can inform us that you will send us printed photographs by post.
If everything works well you will get a answer from a mail robot within a few minutes after you submitted the form. It tells you we received your order.
The next working day we will send you a confirmation of your order. It will also describe this procedure.

If you do not receive this confirmation than please contact us.

After you received our confirmation it goes on as follows:
- your order is sent to Manila
- one of our artists starts making your portrait
- once the portrait is finished the supervisor checks the portrait for likeness and quality
- if that is OK a scan of the portrait is made and sent to our office in the Netherlands
- again a check on likeness and quality is done
- if it is not OK the scan with comments is sent back to the studio in Manila
- if it is OK the scan is sent to you for approval.

If you are not content with the result you can tell us what you want to be changed. If we think we can adjust the portrait the way you want it, we will work on it to make it better. Within a few days you will have a second scan to evaluate. In high season it can take a week before you get the 2nd version.

If the second version is again not what you had in mind you can cancel the order without any costs if we did not ask you for a deposit. If you paid a deposit it will not be refunded once you reject the portrait we made.
more about deposits

If you inform us that the portrait is OK then it goes on as follows:
- the drawing is sent from Manila to the Netherlands per courier. Once a week all portraits are sent.
- if your payment is received the portrait will be sent to you by registered mail on the first working day after we received the portrait from Manila.
If your payment is not yet received you will be informed that the portrait is "waiting to be sent".

You can pay with Paypal or transfer the money to our bank account in the Netherlands:
65.35.57.701 (ING Bank)
ascription: Lebam Beheer B.V. Castricum, The Netherlands



No deposits for normal orders.

We can however ask a deposit in the following cases:

- non standard size portraits
- compositions, one portrait from different photographs
- orders of over $ 200
- photograph is of very poor quality and the chance for a good portrait is minimal
- rush orders
- orders of more than 2 faces or objects.

Deposits will of course be deducted from the total amount to be paid. But deposits are not refundable. In case you do not buy the portrait, the deposit will not be refunded.

Ordering is easy.

You can send us a digital image with the order forms. One image at a time.

For the USA, use this form.

For Canada, you can use this form.


You can also send us your photos through the mail.
Send it to:
BK-Art
Anna Paulownastraat 30
1901 BV Castricum.
The Netherlands.

Don't forget to state your name, address and email address if you send us your photo's.
About us

management
Portraits International was founded in 1993 by a Dutchman: Tom Klinkhamer.
Portraits International started as a Philippine company located in Quezon City, part of Metro Manila.
The studio is still in Bago Bantay, Quezon City. The company is Dutch now and settled in Zaandam.
Tom is still the owner/manager who runs the company from the Dutch office. The Manila operations were managed until May 6 2006 by Rick Javier. That day he died totally unexpected from a heart attack during the time-out of a basketball game.
He was with us from the first day in September 1993: he was our first employee.
A hard loss for all of us. Rillet Javier, his daughter, is now in charge. She is assisted by Gil Ramirez who is responsible for managing the artists.

product and distribution
In 1993 we started with pencil drawings. Not sold through the Internet but through printing and camera shops. Delivering consistent quality was a problem for pencil drawings so we changed to charcoal drawings which are made on a large and professional scale in Metro Manila.
We are a one product company: we only make charcoal portraits.

Our portraits are still sold through FotoQuelle, a big distributor in the Netherlands. However, selling straight to the consumer through the Internet is our main source of distribution. In 2003 we started a site in the Netherlands called De Portretspecialist. Two years later in 2005 we started selling in Germany through our site Portraits nach Fotovorlage. In June 2006 we launched a site for the UK: Portraits-Internationa.co.uk. After launching this site for international selling, soon sites will be launched for France, Spain and Italy.

future plans
portraits in colour
Customers ask us very often for coloured portraits: pastel, oil, acryl. Although many of our artists like to paint in oil we are not doing it yet. We cannot deliver the same quality in oil or acryl as in charcoal.
In the little area of charcoal portraits we belong to the top. In the market for coloured portraits the quality is very diverse. Much of what is offered does not meet our standards of likeness and craftsmanship.
Probably we will start building a "colour team" in 2008. It may take over half a year of selecting and testing artists before we will launch oil and/or acryl paintings.
virtual scale-models
Together with Jasper Klinkhamer, an architect and Tom's son, we are testing the possibilities of making 3-d drawings of buildings and objects for Dutch companies. The first tests are in progress now.



Contact

BK-Art
Anna Paulownastraat 30
1901 BV Castricum
The Netherlands

Registration Chamber of Commerce Zaandam
number: 37072487

VAT number (Netherlands):
NL8114.94.299.B01

Bank Account:
ING Bank
65.35.57.701


You can mail us at:
portretplaats, then add the well-known @, followed by gmail.com
About this site

This site is designed en developed by Tom Klinkhamer.

Copyrights of lay-out, text and images are held with Klinkhamer Portretten in Zaandam (the Netherlands).
Images can not be used without explicit permission of Klinkhamer Portretten.

If you have any remarks do not hesitate to contact us.
Thanks for your visit.
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