1. Connect & Share Your Vision

Clients are invited to email info@karenhermans.com with their wishes and ideas, including Pinterest boards, photos, memories, and any favourite artworks from Karen’s portfolio. Please also consider and send through your budget. 

2. Select Style & Size

Clients choose their preferred medium (graphite, mixed media, or only oils), size, colour palette, and theme. Available sizes range from intimate A4 to large statement pieces.

3. Confirm & Book the Artwork

After discussing the brief, clients receive a final quote. A 50% non-refundable deposit secures the commission.

4. Creation Phase

Karen illustrates or paints for you. Progress shots are not usually shared.

5. Final Review & Delivery
Clients receive images of the finished piece and may request minor adjustments. Once approved, the remaining balance is paid, and the artwork is varnished and shipped. Optional add-on to include a digital file of your artwork for you to print should something ever had to happen to the original.

Karen aims for likeness in portraits, but please note these are not exact portraits – original artworks are Karen’s expressive interpretations.

Shipping: 
Free Shipping*  within the Western Cape for commissioned artworks for artworks over R3000 (e.g., A3 or larger for graphite).  *depends on exact location.
Deliveries in the rest of South Africa or Internationally: Shipping fees will be calculated separately for these orders, and will depend on the size and destination.

Prints: Karen offers prints of all original artworks, including commissioned pieces (usually abstract pieces). If exclusivity is preferred, the client must please request this upfront.

Framing is not included but can be arranged upon request.

Custom Orders: Any custom sizing or special requests will be quoted based on specific square inches and the complexity required.

Pricing art professionally can be complex as it depends on many factors: the artist’s experience, the complexity and detail, the size of the artwork, the market, audience, mediums and material costs and time spent.
Plus any shipping and handling.

Karen Hermans, like many professional artists, price commissioned work by Size / Surface Area — charging based on the square inch or square centimetre of the final artwork, which is a common and fair approach.

• Emerging artists may charge around $1 to $3 USD per square inch for fine art commissions.
  
  
• Mid-career artists typically charge $3 to $10 USD per square inch.

• Established, gallery-represented artists or specialists can command $10+ USD per square inch, sometimes significantly more depending on reputation.
  
  

Karen has priced her artwork at the lower end of this scale to remain accessible, but note that with inflation and rising costs this will require price adjustments in the future. Please also note that these costs are the base price and exclude any listing expenses, commissions or gallery markups.