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I have a sign in my office that says "Work Expands to Fill the Time Available". So true. I set up a schedule for myself with a deadline for each painting, a goal that I want to meet.
A one-person three-quarter-length painting with some kind of background typically takes me 100 hours of painting time. I keep track. That doesn't include photo shoots, planning the composition, client meetings, doing color studies etc, just actually doing the painting on the canvas. I can usually get one done a month, fitting easel time in around all the other stuff involved in "running a business" as a professional portrait artist (marketing, paperwork, etc.)
I know other artists who can get 20 to 30 portraits done in a year. One person in particular has a wife who is his full time assistant, though. He also may do more head and shoulders portraits than I do and he may do only very simple backgrounds.
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