Portraits by Brushstokes

[Garth Herrick]

Here's some samples of my friend Russ' painting, which is purely digital and a manipulated photograph. I love what he does!

Garth

[Michele Rushworth]

While some of these might not be real "paintings" as we think of them, a lot of them really are.

The general feeling among the portrait people I've talked to is that this type of work will take a lot of the business at the very low end of the marketplace but will not affect the high end (we hope!) As I said to Gordon Wetmore at dinner at the PSA conference when we were discussing this very question, "Increased sales of Volkswagens won't affect sales of Mercedes Benzes!"

There is a value in having a personal relationship with an artist that can develop the concept and pose along with the client.

How many of the judges you've done, Garth, would go for this type of solution? My guess is none.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Garth Herrick

But, is the BrushStrokes portrait sample really paint or a digital creation?
Garth

It looks like this is a photo, printed on a canvas, that has been treated with brush and oil paint in the larger areas, leaving the small details almost untouched. Notice how the white background is painted around the shapes but never into the hair.

[Mischa Milosevic]

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.