Archives for May 2016

Paint Your Life – How to Turn a Photo into a Painting

05.22.2016 by Emily // 5 Comments

PYL both

Have you ever wondered about getting one of your treasured photos turned into a real painting, but had no idea how to go about doing it? I recently stumbled across a really cool website that makes it super easy. Before finding this site I had NO idea that such a thing existed. I knew that some artists specialize in commissioned paintings, but never imagined there was a website out there with an entire team to make the process simple AND affordable. It’s called Paint Your Life, and in this post I’m going to take a look at the company and how they turn your photos into paintings.

What is Paint Your Life?

Paint Your Life was established in 2006, with the objective of offering hand-made custom paintings using customers’ photos. The company began with just a few artists and steadily grew based on the high demand for their work. In their own words, “The mission of the owners was and is, to make quality art available to everyone, a masterpiece of their own choosing at an affordable price.”

How Does it Work?

They make the process really easy, which is one of the reasons I like the site so much. You start by uploading your image onto their site. You can choose what type of painting you’d like (oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc.), which artist you’d like to paint it, and include any notes or special requests you may have regarding your photo. Once the artist is halfway done with the painting, they send you a photo so you can see how it is coming along. When it is finished, you are given another opportunity to either approve it or make further revisions. Once the painting has dried, it is framed (you can choose to order it framed or unframed) and shipped to you. Shipping is free, and they offer a 100% money back guarantee if you aren’t completely satisfied.

What Sort of Paintings Can You Order?

Paint Your Life offers paintings in oil, acrylic, and watercolor. They also offer pastel drawings, as well as drawings in pencil and charcoal. You can order paintings of people, portraits of pets, or landscapes. Landscapes might include things such as houses or other buildings, vehicles, planes, boats, etc. They have a vast gallery of examples on their website so you can browse through those to get some ideas.

paint your life landscape

paint your life lake

What is the Pricing Like?

The pricing structure is very straightforward, AND, as an artist I can tell you, surprisingly low. It is based on the medium (whether it’s an oil painting, a pencil drawing, etc), the subject matter, and the size. If it’s a portrait painting, the price goes up with each additional person in the photo. The same principle applies to pet portraits, and landscapes are in their own category. The final price will also depend on if you order the painting rolled, stretched onto gallery stretcher bars, or framed. You pay 20% at the beginning of the process and the remaining balance is paid after painting approval.

Prices start and $159 and go up from there. Here’s a partial look at their pricing chart:

Paint your life pricing

How Long Does it Take?

The turnaround time depends on three factors. The medium, the size, and whether or not you order the express service. On the shortest end of the spectrum, a small pencil drawing using express service would take 10 days. On the longest end of the spectrum, a large oil painting using the regular service would take 29 days.

PYL cat

What are the Reviews Like?

Curious as to what people were saying about Paint Your Life, I did a Google search and ended up at a review website called Trust Pilot. The reviews there are outstanding. People seem to be genuinely excited about the work that they do and happy with the overall experience. They have a 9.5 out of 10 rating, from 144 reviews. There are very few bad reviews. I read through them all, and each negative review was responded to in a considerate way by a customer service representative at Paint Your Life. Also, almost all of the negative reviews have something to do with the fact that their painting took “almost a month” to arrive…

That is how long it is supposed to take, people. Good grief.

Under any other circumstances, a custom hand made painting would certainly take considerably longer than three weeks to a month to complete, even if it was the only order an artist was working on. And here we are talking about a company that has orders coming in by the truckloads. The fact that they’re able to complete all of their orders within a month is frankly quite shocking in an of itself. So the criticism of orders taking a month to arrive holds no merit for me. It’s actually more of an amazing accomplishment.

If you want a photo printed onto canvas, you can for sure have that done within a few days. But if you want to send a photo in to have a real live person sit and paint it from life, then I recommend you don’t have any unrealistic expectations about how long something like that will take.

paint your life dog

Would I Personally Order From Paint Your Life?

Possibly. On the one hand, I’m a painter myself, so if I wanted to turn a photo into a painting I would probably just do it myself. On the other hand, I don’t do realistic portraits of people. Because they’re hard. Drawings of people? Sure. But paintings? Pass. There’s a high level of difficulty that goes along with that and it’s just something I never really got into. My style is a lot different than the style of the artists at Paint Your Life. Their work is very technical, representational, and straightforward. Mine is more loose and open to interpretation. There’s nothing wrong with either one. They’re just different things.

So while I probably wouldn’t order something for myself, if I wanted to give a realistic style portrait painting as a gift, I would consider using their services to save myself the time and trouble.

Paint Your Life kid

What I Like About Paint Your Life

They allow you to choose the artist you want to paint your photo. I like this a lot because I think it gives you the best chance of being satisfied with the finished product. If you go to the “Paintings Gallery” section of their website, you can browse through many, MANY examples of previous work. If you see a painting you think is particularly well done, hover your cursor over it. You will see a link called “more paintings” that allows you to see more work by that artist. You can also view the original photo that it was painted from. When you decide on the artist you like the best overall, you can click on a button that says, “I want this artist to paint my photo!” I think this is important because every artist has strengths and weaknesses. Some specialize in pet portraiture, some in landscape, etc. This way you can choose the artist you feel will work best with your particular photo.
They offer unlimited revisions and online proofing. When the artist is halfway done with the work, you are sent a proof, to which you can request changes. I think this is an important step and I like that they offer it because it can be really hard to imagine what a painted version of your photo is going to look like. This way, if there’s something about the way it’s coming along that you don’t like, you can get it changed. Say, for example, you’re getting a photo painted of a group of people and someone is wearing a shirt with distracting imagery. You can ask the artist to remove the element, or even have the person wear a different shirt altogether. Everything is custom done so you can get as specific as you want with your requests.
They can combine images from multiple photos into one painting. Like you could do with Photoshop, the artists are able to take things from different photos and turn them into one, cohesive painting. They do this an no additional charge, amazingly. Just send in all of your photos with very detailed instructions. Similarly, they could colorize a black and white photo, or vice versa. This is where the online proofing would really come in handy, since something like this would be especially hard to visualize.
They offer an artist consultation service. If you have multiple photos you are considering and are unsure which one will work the best, or you’re not sure what kind of painting you should order, or how you should order it (rolled, stretched, framed?) they have experts on their staff that will help you figure out all of these questions. Paint Your Life has been around for a while and I think they’ve figured out that this type of business model requires thorough and excellent customer service to be successful. Take advantage of that.
They have a 100% money back guarantee, with no questions asked. Maybe you gave it a shot and it just didn’t work out. This is a possibility, and one that they are prepared for. Paint Your Life cares more about the satisfaction of their customers than losing a few sales here and there because that is what keeps their business going. It’s reassuring to know that you can try their service without having to lose a good chunk of change if you aren’t happy with the results.

Think you’d like to check out Paint Your Life for yourself? Here is a link to their website.

paint your life girls

Have any of you ordered from Paint Your Life before? Or do you know someone who has? I’d love to hear about your experience!

Emily

How to Flatten Wrinkled Paper – The Benefits of Dry Mounting.

05.19.2016 by Emily // 3 Comments

Paper is a finicky thing. Unless you take great care to store it neatly, it can be quite easily damaged. And so many of the important keepsakes in our lives are on paper. Photos, diplomas, art prints, special articles – there’s a long list of paper items we may be especially interested in preserving. So what happens when we go to frame something of this nature and we realize it’s in bad shape? Maybe water damage has caused rippling, or a lack of proper storage has caused dents and dings. Today I’ll discuss how to flatten wrinkled paper, and the benefits that can be achieved by something called dry mounting.

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What is Dry Mounting?

Dry mounting is a method that framers use to adhere paper down to a surface. Very simply, the five main elements involved are a dry mount press, a backing board, dry mount tissue, release paper, and of course, your artwork. It’s called dry mounting because it doesn’t involve any wet glues or liquid sprays. This is how it works:

Step One

The dry mount press is plugged in and turned on, causing it to heat up. Depending on the press, it takes about 10-15 minutes for it to reach the appropriate heat, which for most projects is a minimum of 150 degrees.

Step Two

A piece of foam core is laid out. It must be large enough to fit your artwork with room to spare.

Step Three

Dry mounting tissue is rolled out onto the foam core. The artwork is place on top of the tissue, and then the tissue is trimmed with a blade to fit behind the artwork almost exactly, with very little excess tissue sticking out. Dry mounting tissue is soft and dry, but when heated acts as a strong adhesive.

Step Four

The artwork is tacked in place so that it will not slip out of alignment while being moved into the press. A tacking iron (with a small piece of release paper in between) can be used for this, but actually all I do is use a tiny piece of framing tape on two corners of the artwork to hold it in place. I cover only about 1/16″ of the art’s surface and then immediately remove the tape when it comes out of the press so that it leaves no residue behind. This is a method that I developed over the years and have found works the best.

drymount tissue

Step Five

The foam core with attached artwork is moved inside the press, in between sheets of release paper (which should already be in place from previous use) and the lid closed. Release paper is a thick, silicone-treated specialty paper that protects the artwork from the hot press. The time it takes inside the press depends on the type and thickness of the paper, but is generally 90 seconds – 5 minutes.

*Note – if your artwork is larger than the press itself, it will need to be rotated and the process repeated until the entire surface is evenly adhered down.

drymount

And voila! The end result:

dry mount example

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What Things Can You Dry Mount?

In addition to paper, you can also dry mount all sorts of things including:

Photographs – Photographs should almost always be dry mounted when framing, especially large ones. It keeps them looking nice and flat and prevents any waves or ripples.
Posters – The same principle applies to posters as to photos. Unless the poster is valuable or rare, dry mounting is usually a good idea.
Newspaper – If you’re framing a newspaper article, dry mounting always makes it look a lot better. The paper is so thin it tends to look a bit crinkly otherwise. Make sure it is dry mounted onto black foam core though, not white. This prevents the writing on the opposite side from showing through.
Canvas – Yes, canvas can be dry mounted too! Although the proper way to display a canvas is to stretch it around wooden bars, there may be some situations where dry mounting is preferable. It may be a cost issue (dry mounting a canvas is significantly less expensive than stretching it) or it may be because the canvas is in such poor condition that stretching is no longer an option.
Fabric – Dry mounting fabric could work well for many kinds of crafty projects. Maybe making a fun bulletin board, or creating decorative fabric panels for your wall.
Puzzles – If you’re interested in framing a puzzle, there are products such as special glues and sprays that you can buy to do this yourself. Or, you can take it to a framer and get it professionally dry mounted. It’s a little more expensive than the glue but it’s by far the cleanest method.

What Things Should You NOT Dry Mount?

While dry mounting is a very useful technique for many things, it shouldn’t be used for everything. It does decrease the value of artwork, so if you have a valuable piece of art and you care about the resale value, you should definitely not dry mount it.

Original artwork and fine art prints (etchings, lithographs, screen prints, wood block prints, etc.) should typically NOT be dry mounted. I also do not normally dry mount diplomas, as most of them have an embossing or a seal that would lose its integrity in the press.

However, if your artwork is damaged, wrinkled, rippled, or any of the like, and you care more about it looking nice and flat than you do about the value of it, then dry mounting is always an option. There are no rules that you absolutely have to follow, just guidelines. Also, you can always ask the framer if they can try putting your wrinkled artwork into the press for a while to try to flatten (without the tissue, so as not to actually dry mount.)

Where Can I Get Something Dry Mounted?

You can get things dry mounted anywhere that does custom framing. If you don’t have access to a local framer, you can mail your artwork in to a company called Framebridge. As part of their framing process, they examine your artwork when you send it in and dry mount items that call for it. And if you know that you definitely want it done, you can make a note in the special instructions area when you send it in to be framed. To read more about Framebridge, check out an article I wrote about the company here.

I hope this has been helpful! Let me know if you have more questions about dry mounting – I’d be happy to help you out.

Emily

10 Ways to Decorate a Big Wall. Fill The Empty Space With Things You LOVE.

05.17.2016 by Emily // 3 Comments

In general, I haven’t had much difficulty filling the walls of my home. As an artist, I’m constantly swapping out one canvas for another too see how it looks from a distance. Every little wall space and nook in my home is pretty much occupied…except for one. My bedroom wall, the largest wall in my house, remains blank. Every morning I’m greeted by a big, blank space that I haven’t had the motivation to tackle yet. It’s not the easiest thing to do without some inspiration. So today I’m going to discuss ways to decorate a big wall space. There are a lot more possibilities than you may realize.

Let’s Take a Look at 10 Ideas

1. Series of Canvases

Whether they’re real paintings or prints, a series of canvases is a simple and effective way to decorate a large wall space. Unframed canvases are usually fairly lightweight, even at larger sizes, and can be hung anywhere with ease. You could use one image broken up into segments such as the picture shown above, or a series of separate compositions by the same artist, such as the one pictured below. And really, there is no rule that says the canvases all have to be by the same artist. So long as they work together as a group. They don’t even all have to be the same size! One common look is to have a really big canvas in the middle, flanked by two narrower canvases on either side. If you head over to Art.com here, and type in the search term “triptych,” you will see many examples of what I am talking about.

10 things canvas series

2. Collage of Smaller Pieces

Another way to decorate a big wall is to hang several pieces together in a grouping to create a collage. This could consist of many different things. Often it is simply a grouping of framed photos, maybe family and personal photos that you’ve accumulated over the years. To keep the look unified, you could frame each piece similarly (i.e., a white mat and black frame on each one.) Another route is to create an eclectic collage of items. Maybe a mixture of photos and art pieces with different framing styles. The key here, regardless of what your collage consists of, is balance. In the example below, note how the two round mirrors are separated from each other and placed at different levels. This creates movement for the eye. The largest piece, the & sign, is placed in the center so as not to make one side heavier than the other. The smaller pieces are placed strategically throughout the rest of the area, making sure the similarly shaped items are spaced out appropriately. For more information on how to arrange a group of pictures on a wall, check out my full length article here.

10 things collage

3. Art Tapestry

My go to method for decorating during my twenties, the tapestry. Maybe not for everyone, but they now have a heck of a whole lot more options than just hippy mandalas. With all of the new print technology and services, you can order artwork printed onto many different surfaces, including a wall tapestry! Check out these examples here, available at Society6.com.

10 things tapestry2

4. Wall Letters

This is a trendy new fad that has been steadily gaining popularity over the last few years. There are several companies you can order custom letters from including Craft Cuts, Quote the Walls, and from MANY different sellers on Etsy. It’s extra popular for nurseries, but can also make a great addition to any room of the house. You can order hand painted letters which are typically made out of wood or some other lightweight material, or vinyl decals which can be adhered directly to the wall. Custom wall lettering can be a fun way to express your personality and add a unique touch to your home.

10 things letters

5. Mirrors

Mirrors are a great way to customize a large wall space. You could custom order a mirror to any size you want, and frame it in any frame you want at your local frame shop, which is what I recommend if you decide to go with a really extra large size, as shipping something of that sort could be risky. Or for a more economical alternative, try something like this part mirror/part metal wall art piece. Either way, you will need to install it with adequate hanging hardware, which will depend on the size and weight of your mirror. They can be more of an investment than other decor options, but mirrors have the major advantage of being gorgeous in and of themselves while also making the room appear even bigger.

10 things mirror

6. Stenciling

This option will require you to get crafty, but the end result is STUNNING. There are several different techniques. In its simplest form, you need to purchase the stencil and the rest of your supplies – paint, roller, stencil brush, paint tray, and cleaning tools. It is recommended that you practice on something first. A wall in the garage perhaps, or any kind of sample board/piece of cardboard will do. Then it’s just a matter of laying down the stencil, applying the paint, and peeling back the stencil to reveal the finished design. For more detailed instructions on how to stencil, check out this page here, and to see some really awesome stencil examples, click on the thumbnails below:

10 things stencil2

7. Chalkboard

A chalkboard as wall decor, what?! Yes! Probably not for a formal dining room, but maybe for an office, a kid’s bedroom, an eccentric kitchen, or any room that could use a bit of practical creativity. They now make products that easily allow you to turn a large wall area into a chalkboard. The two main ways you can do this are with chalkboard paint, and chalkboard contact paper. There are pros and cons to each product, which you can read about in detail here.

10 things chalkboard

8. Shelves

Sometimes the solution to a decorating dilemma might turn out to be a practical one. If you have a large wall space you’re having trouble figuring out what to do with, something to consider might be a setup of shelving that can be both practical and decorative. In addition to storing books, also considering displaying things like vases of flowers, easel back frames, potted plants, ceramics, or glassware.

9. Fabric Panels

This is something that is a new concept to me, and I have NO idea why I’ve never thought of it before now. It’s seriously genius. I’m complete crap at sewing, but I’ve always wished I was better at it because there are so many GORGEOUS fabrics out there. But I am very good at stretching canvases…why not combine the two? Instead of stretching canvas around stretcher bars, how about decorative fabric? Or, you could try another method, like this one from the Bella Dia Blog. She simply uses foam core and double sided tape to make her fabric panels. How clever is that?

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10. Oversize Wall Clock

And last but not least, my tenth idea for a way to decorate a big wall is with an extra large wall clock. Another design idea that is both decorative and practical, oversize wall clocks are very trendy right now. I’ve seen some where each number is actually a separate piece and they all hang independently from each other. It looks neat but would require a lot more work to hang properly. Myself, I would probably go with a clock that is sold as a complete piece, like this one available on Amazon and that you see pictured below. And of course you could browse Pinterest or Etsy for more style ideas.

I hope this list has been helpful, and as always, please leave your questions and comments below!