Sharon, I find this really intriguing and attractive.
These days, painting a pretty accomplished portrait from a photo can be had quite inexpensively from literally thousands of artists in China and other countries. And the work from many of these artists approaches what we see here from pros in this country.
Now, there are serious questions of quality of materials in these works for sure, but the skill to copy a photo, and even to make it better are evident and progressing. And they have been reaching into our marketspace for more than a year now.
I attended the Decor show in Baltimore two years ago. There were canvases stacked 4 feet high - thousands of original oils, copies of masters, copies of contemporary artists..most of it mediocre, but some of it startlingly good and the most you paid for any of those canvases was around $125.
So how will we distinguish ourselves as artists and portraitists in this upcoming explosion of "art by the yard"?
I think the ability to create a portrait that "approaches life" by painting it from life is one way to distinguish ones self. And, it is frankly how we all should be doing it, or able to do it, IMO, because then we are not just "Technicians", but true "Artists".
Get to your Life Drawing classes people!
