In the arts, portrait painting the term portrait painting refers to an artistic creation that portrays the life and history of an individual or a group thereof. A portrait painting depicts the likeness of an individual, group of people, animal or just about any other thing that is depicted in an artwork. In some countries, such as the French and in the United States of America, the term portrait painting is commonly used to describe a painting that is done on an easel and is placed in the public in order to be appreciated by the public. The subject of an artist's portrait is called a "sitting subject", because historically people would often sit in front of an artist for his portrait to be drawn.

In the history of portrait paintings, several artists were commissioned by royalty to create portraits for them. The first portrait to be created by an artist was done by Queen Marie Antoinette, who had been married to King Louis XIV of France, and had been forced to take a veil due to being pregnant at the time. This is a good example of how a painting can be created through the use of painting. In fact, some of the best paintings that have ever been created were done while sitting in front of an artist and allowing him or her to paint on the canvas in front of them. Another famous example of this is the portrait of Christ, which was created by Michelangelo of Siena.

Portraits may also be produced through the use of photography. In the past, when a person had a portrait drawn in pencil, he or she often times had to have it painted afterwards, because this type of portrait painting was labor intensive. Today, however, many of the most popular artists are using digital art, because it is much easier to produce an exact replica of an original than it is to create an exact replica of an existing work of art. For example, some artists use Photoshop to create a portrait. Another way that digital artwork is being used to create beautiful portraits is through 3-D modeling software. In the case of portrait paintings of people, digital technology allows a portrait to be made so that every detail of the portrait can be printed onto a digital photo. In some cases, the digital photo is also used to create an original painting from an actual photograph.