Blake Gopnik
 

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I think that it's odious because it is made to fool people to make them believe that they are buying real paintings which they are not.

I would not trust any company that so obviously fiddle with the evidence.
I have never seen a copy of anything that would reflect the light exactly the same way as the original ! Look at the four examples of the girl in front of the field of red flowers and check out any point. It's the same photo used for the reference and "painting" -- it's phony !

They think they are smart, but I don't think so.
I don't know how they do, but I could come up with a lot of suggestions. These days you can print anything on a surface, with an Ink Laser printer, even upon a "brushstrokes" textured canvas and ad some luscious, genuine, handmade small brushstrokes ( that would not disturb anything ;) )
Sorry, almost forgot, a handwritten signature. :santa:

There'll always be someone who cares, one in a million, like it use to be.
How many percent settles usually with a handheld, shaken, flash photo of their loved ones anyway ?
Maybe they are smart after-all ?

We could pool some funds and put them to the test and world scrutiny here! Anyone have a good guinea pig photo.

These are nothing more than digitally manipulated photographs with texture added.

Alan,

I do not think many would. However many people are far more adept at taking pictures now, the cameras are so user friendly. We have relatives who take pictures of their loved ones and have calenders made. A good friend of ours takes beautiful Christmas card pictures of her children every year, everyone of them could be a painting and she is a medical secretary. People could have photographs that have been professionally taken, ie. weddings, proms, school pictures etc. and have them made into paintings for $250. They need not be amateur or bad photos at all. The site gives recommendations for the pictures.

Sharon,
good or bad photos are still photos and turning them into paintings, that look like photos, don't add anything.
Most of us knows that the force of a good painting is the footsteps of the dancing brush.
No photograph can ever mimic that or provide you with that sort of energy. A good painting is the result of a selection process, the artists will. Photos can be used for reference, but very, very rarely be used as is, in my opinion.
How can people, who don't know the slightest about painting, produce a usefully reference that can stand on its own ?

Hmmm......Actually the painting in the catalogue is quite lovely, and they do say that it is an oil by a hand selected master.

I WAS thinking of having a Summer Special, 20% off my already low prices. I would take the pictures, and have them painted by this company, and mark them up. Then I could take the summer off while they are being painted in China. I could add a few Knettell flourishes, whatever that is and make quite a good living very easily. If it went well I could extend the special.

Okay, Sharon, this devil's advocate tact is FREAKING me out! LOL.

Kinkade makes a good living from prints and he signs them personally.

Making prints of a photo on a canvas or something similar, like Allan so nicely explained, is quite simple. Adding a few brush strokes or a lot of brush strokes in specific places is what they do. I know of such paintings that hang in US embassies, as we speak.

I would consider and worry that the camera can do it better that is if I was making picture perfect copies but since we learn form life we know that the camera hasn't a chance. So, if one can refrain from picture perfect copies and learn from life, for only nature can be the true teacher, then be assured that no amount of tech can compare with what you as a true artist produce.

Here is a example. If you go to your local flower shop. Pick out a red rose and examine it. It looks picture perfect to the naked eye but the one that knows a nature grown rose can tell you at once whether this what you hold is a picture copy or the real thing. All the senses must be satisfied.

People that truly know their art will have no problem deciding what it is they are looking for. So, learn your craft well for as you can see the competition for picture perfect is nipping at ones heals. Then again one mite wish to make a fast $ and mite say who cares I got what I came for. How one thinks is evident by ones actions and words. As the saying goes a good try produces good fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nether can a bad tree produce good fruit.

[QUOTE=Sharon Knettell

So many people are illiterate when it comes to the arts, especially painting. Generally a person, even an intelligent one, thinks they are giving you a compliment when they say, 'it looks just like a photograph'![/QUOTE]


These are like the reality TV shows. They exist because there will always be a market. (is this where I have to apologize to those who watch reality shows?)
( at $245 per portrait, I wonder how much the artist gets...)