6 Awesome Ways to Turn Photos Into Paintings
The world of digital photography has gotten more and more advanced throughout history. We’re now at a point where people can capture any moment they feel like just with a tap of their hands. Even then, there’s something to be said about the beauty of a handmade painting.
If you’re looking to give someone a present, or you’re just looking to spice your own place up a bit but don’t want to just put up photos, you’ll probably want to read on. We’re going to talk about six ways today in which you can turn your average photo into a painting.
These methods range from expensive to cheap, and from time consuming to nearly instant, but they’ll get the job done.
Online Services
If you’re looking to turn your photo into a painting for cheap, but you don’t want to compromise too much on the quality, consider hiring a service like Instapainting to do it for you. This way, you’ll be able to choose between a number of different styles and mediums and have the end result delivered to you.
This kind of service is great for cheap but high-quality paintings, and most can easily customize the backgrounds of even parts of the photo themselves to make them look how you want them to. Pick a charcoal drawing or a colorful work of art, it’s all up to you. Then send them the photo with your instructions, and you’re good to go. Now you just sit back and relax.
Hire a Freelance Artist
If you want to hire an artist personally, you can go online and look for one whose art style you like. This is a great opportunity for you to support your favorite Instagram artists or to hire someone you already know. Alternatively, you can even hire someone from websites like Fiverr and Upwork.
It may be more expensive, and sometimes the artists you love just aren’t open to doing commissions. It can even be hard to find one that suits your needs and is in the same area, but is a popular choice for anyone who wants their photos turned into a painting.
Use an App
If you don’t want a physical painting to hang around the house, or if you’re looking for a way that’s free, look no further! Countless photo editing apps on the market can help you make your digital photos look like paintings, and there are even apps that are dedicated to this kind of thing.
These apps don’t always show the best results though, and you’ll find that paid versions of apps do a better job at making your photos look like paintings than their free versions do.
Use a Photo Editing Tool
Many photo editing tools like Photoshop provide you with options to turn your photos into a work of art. This may sound like a more complicated process, but it’s very different from running your photos through an editing app.
If you don’t want to spend money on a professional you can try following some basic steps for different apps and seeing if you like the results. Never edit the original photo, this is called destructive editing and it is usually frowned upon. Instead, make a copy and work with that instead.
Once you’re happy with the results, you can get your photo printed or use it however you like. This is an ideal option if you need to post an artistic painting on your Instagram feed or need a poster for whatever reason.
Learn How to Paint
If you’re looking to give someone a present and are short on cash, you can totally learn to paint yourself and try to recreate your desired photo. A tip is to choose a style that requires minimal shading and is mainly hard liens and solid colors. This way you won’t have to worry about complicated stuff and you can just focus on bringing precious moments to life.
For your convenience, here’s a list of supplies you’ll need to get started with simple acrylic paints
- A canvas
- Paint Brushes: Flat and rounded brushes for the details, a fan brush if you need to paint any trees, and a soft, rounded brush for blending different colors together on canvas.
- Retardant: This piece is optional, but acrylic paints have a habit of drying too fast for some people. If you want the paint to stay wet while you’re still working on your paintings, use retardant.
- Acrylic Paints: Talk to an artist friend of yours about what color paints you’ll need for the painting you have in mind. If you want to paint multiple, a standard set of paints with the basic colors will do.
- Varnish: You’ll need this once you’re done with your painting. Varnish helps make your paintings last long and keeps dust and other elements away from it. This is by far an easier option than getting a photo framed.
If this isn’t your cup of tea, we have another suggestion to make.
Hire an Expert
If you’re a perfectionist who doesn’t like to do things the easy way, and would rather pay a few extra bucks for a great result, hire an expert painter to make the painting for you. This way you’ll really get extraordinary results.
We have to warn you though! This is probably the most expensive option out of all the ones here, but that also means it’s the best suited for people who want to really have a majestic painting to show.
An expert painter will walk you through all the options, keep you updated about the progress of your piece, and will have no problem accommodating your alterations in the paintings. That said, this is the best option if you want the painting to have a different background than the photo, or want a painting that’s only loosely based on what you have.
Talking to experts to figure out what you need is great, but you should also have something in mind going into this. This way you won’t let anyone convince you that a particular style is great only for you to be unsatisfied with the end results.