How to Turn a Photo to Painting in Oil, Watercolor, Acrylic, Etc.
The history of turning photo to painting can be traced back to Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) who was a Dutch painter famous for interior scenes and portraits. Since his works are way better than most his predecessor artists in terms of perspective, many historians believe he had applied certain lens in projecting the real scenes or people's image onto canvas.
His peer Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-1669), famous for portraits as well, with masterpiece of Return of Prodigal Son, controversial masterpiece Night Watch that led to his down path in his career life, once was plagued by the negative opinions from his then customers mostly from noble families, on the non-resemblance of face features.
Nowadays, if you commission a portrait painting to a gallery, usually you would bring a hard copy photo to it. In digital era, you just bring a flash drive. Or since now everything is online, you can easily find E-commerce website to take your order online by uploading a photo or a few photos to paint into an oil painting.
When artist starts taking the task, currently there are two ways to accurately pinpoint the positions of facial features, outline of head, each part of body, or each line of a building, etc. with the assistance of a projector that is tailored for painting purpose. It is not cheap in a country like China where most commercial artists congregate but common. The price ranges from a few hundreds to a few thousands Chinese RMB. For a poor, or struggling artist, this signifies a big chunk of their income. The alternative is a magnifying ruler that uses a specially designed rulers that enable the artists to trace the photo and on the other extreme of ruler, it will enlarge into different sizes according to commissioned size from customers. This is a convenient way of accurately pinpointing positions but now most artists wouldn't bother to take time in such a primitive method of magnifying. A printer is the easiest way to reduce substantial load of work for artists.
There are upsides but also downside of printing on canvas. The most common problem is color compatibility. Sometimes oil paints are not compatible with the ink of printer. It will cause some color permeating problem. However, this problem can be solved in most cases when more and more artists resort to this easy method. Another significant downside of printing and painting on canvas is its lack of artistic flavor. When you behold a Rembrandt's painting, you feel the brush stroke and the mesmerizing charm of an oil painting different from photography that is usually realistic and flat. Nevertheless, when you look at a printed then painted oil painting, you will not be visually infected by the strong feeling of the artist who meant to convey a strong feeling from inside or an important message. Arts become a simple skill of color blending but not an expression of sentiments or messages. Apparently, the upside is its resemblance, which is revolutionary. Printer executes the order of artist or operator with high accuracy.
Some media or artistic forms are less prone to the inundation of printing technology, viz. watercolor, pencil, color pencil, etc. The good thing is, they are less contaminated with modern printing techniques. Hence more artistic in many people's eyes.
His peer Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-1669), famous for portraits as well, with masterpiece of Return of Prodigal Son, controversial masterpiece Night Watch that led to his down path in his career life, once was plagued by the negative opinions from his then customers mostly from noble families, on the non-resemblance of face features.
Nowadays, if you commission a portrait painting to a gallery, usually you would bring a hard copy photo to it. In digital era, you just bring a flash drive. Or since now everything is online, you can easily find E-commerce website to take your order online by uploading a photo or a few photos to paint into an oil painting.
When artist starts taking the task, currently there are two ways to accurately pinpoint the positions of facial features, outline of head, each part of body, or each line of a building, etc. with the assistance of a projector that is tailored for painting purpose. It is not cheap in a country like China where most commercial artists congregate but common. The price ranges from a few hundreds to a few thousands Chinese RMB. For a poor, or struggling artist, this signifies a big chunk of their income. The alternative is a magnifying ruler that uses a specially designed rulers that enable the artists to trace the photo and on the other extreme of ruler, it will enlarge into different sizes according to commissioned size from customers. This is a convenient way of accurately pinpointing positions but now most artists wouldn't bother to take time in such a primitive method of magnifying. A printer is the easiest way to reduce substantial load of work for artists.
There are upsides but also downside of printing on canvas. The most common problem is color compatibility. Sometimes oil paints are not compatible with the ink of printer. It will cause some color permeating problem. However, this problem can be solved in most cases when more and more artists resort to this easy method. Another significant downside of printing and painting on canvas is its lack of artistic flavor. When you behold a Rembrandt's painting, you feel the brush stroke and the mesmerizing charm of an oil painting different from photography that is usually realistic and flat. Nevertheless, when you look at a printed then painted oil painting, you will not be visually infected by the strong feeling of the artist who meant to convey a strong feeling from inside or an important message. Arts become a simple skill of color blending but not an expression of sentiments or messages. Apparently, the upside is its resemblance, which is revolutionary. Printer executes the order of artist or operator with high accuracy.
Some media or artistic forms are less prone to the inundation of printing technology, viz. watercolor, pencil, color pencil, etc. The good thing is, they are less contaminated with modern printing techniques. Hence more artistic in many people's eyes.
