What in the heck...?
 

A friend of mine showed me a $200 portrait that was done from a photo by an artist in Korea several years ago. It was pretty much photo-realistic, except for some strange areas of flatness in the lettering on the man's uniform, as though it were painted in a color straight from the tube. There is no visible paint texture, but there do appear to be areas that were brushed on somehow.

I took the piece off the wall and inspected the back. It appears to be some sort of transparent, synthetic material, stretched over wooden stretcher bars, but there was a piece of cardboard between the bars and the painting surface.

Could the image actually be printed on the cardboard? I'm just curious because I've never seen anything like this.

P.S. I haven't seen the original photo, so I can't compare them.