It's never been easier to appear in a picture. The growing dominance of digital cameras and camera phones has made photography ubiquitous.

Logically this should be very bad news for painters, who turn out less accurate visual representations of the world at a comparatively sluggish pace and vastly higher price.

After all, the initial advance of photography in the mid-19th century just about killed off the art of miniature portrait painting. By the 1960s photography had firmly established itself among the chattering classes as the chosen form for preserving one's image on the sideboard or above the mantelpiece.

Painted portraiture simply fell out of fashion. Yet the art world is abuzz with a revival in this most traditional of art forms. The apparent surfeit of photography seems to be driving people to seek out something more exclusive and less commodified.

That's not to say it's untouched by commercial interests. The past 10 years have seen the sprouting of small businesses dedicated to portrait painting.

inflated ego

Sara Stewart, who runs Fine Art Commissions in London, has a roster of 60 artists and a steady stream of clients happy to pay upwards of £500 for a likeness.

She started the business in 1997 and turnover has been growing at 30% a year. Others in the same trade include the National Portrait Association and the longstanding Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

"Pre-War, portraiture was everything. It was a British tradition. But post-War there just wasn't the money and it became a luxury beyond the reach of many," says Ms Stewart.

Alongside photography, portraiture began to look ostentatious and pretentious - the ultimate manifestation of an inflated ego.

But, says art expert Philip Mould, the work of several leading contemporary British painters, such as David Hockney and Lucian Freud - who painted fashion icon Kate Moss - has inspired a wave of young artists such as Stuart Pearson Wright, Jonny Yeo and Howard Morgan.

Rolf's role

Unexpectedly, perhaps, Mr Mould credits celebrity magazines with helping the revival.

"Faces and people as a genre are more zeitgeist than they were before and this has something to do with photographs, through celebrity culture such as Hello!"

Every bit as mainstream is Rolf Harris who turned the spotlight on likenesses earlier this year with his BBC show Star Portraits - in which celebrities have their portrait painted by three artists before picking one to keep.

Also complicit in the celebrity portrait stakes is the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), where Harry Potter author JK Rowling this week unveiled a portrait of herself.

While attendance figures for the nearby National Gallery in Trafalgar Square have remained consistent over the past 10 years, the NPG has drawn almost 50% more visitors over the same time.

Its annual BP Portrait Award - which showcases young painters - drew a record number of submissions this year, pointing to a thriving pool of young talent. Sara Stewart says she gets about 30 inquiries a week from artists wanting to get on to her books.

element of craft

Sandy Nairne, director of the NPG, says the renewal of interest in the painted medium is a "resistance and reaction" to the dominance of photography and the ease with which digital images can be reproduced.

He also says the gallery has benefited from a growing desire among people to explore history "in an approachable way", through individuals.

"There is an intimacy and intricacy in painting for which people are prepared to pay," says Mr Nairne.

Artist Jonny Yeo - who has painted names such as diverse as Rupert Murdoch, Tony Blair and Minnie Driver - says people are yearning for "the element of craft".

To Philip Mould, there's more to a painted image than capturing a snapshot in time. "It's an artist turning their insight and technical skills to the presentation of a persona, a character, a presence. A portrait is an assimilation of views distilled into one image."

turning point

But if there is still one thing that continues to put ordinary people off posing for their portrait, apart from the cost, it's the belief that sitting in front of an artist for hours on end is an absurd act of vanity.

Arguably the most reluctant sitter of all is Prime Minister Tony Blair, who after eight years at No 10 has still managed to thwart any requests to sit for a portrait.

But with Mr Blair serving out his days in Downing Street, his stint in front of the easel may not be far off, at least given Jonny Yeo's theory about when people typically decide to submit.

"I find very often people do it to signal a turning point in their own life."