One of the coolest things that I have had done with my photographs was to have it hand-painted as an oil painting! I've had the above painting on my wall for a while now (what you are looking at is the "proof" that was sent to me to approve the final version), and it gets a lot of compliments. I thought that it was about time that I wrote up a quick post about it here on the blog.
Disclosure: I received this painting free from Pixelist.
A while back, someone from Pixelist reached out to see if I would try out one of their products, a hand-painted oil painting created from one of my photos. When I went to their website I have to say I was intrigued! What a unique way to "print" a photograph. So I said yes, and sent them a photo I took of my dog, Kodak.
The final version (this is the proof they emailed me to check the work before shipping).
In about three weeks I received an email from them saying that the painting was finished. They included a photo of it and asked if there was anything that needed to be changed or adjusted. It looked good, so they put it in the mail and sent it to me in Portland. They ship from China, and they estimated about two weeks delivery time.
When I got it, I was floored. It looked almost identical to my photograph, but as a painting! This is definitely an impressive way to present photography, and could make a very unique gift, too. I'm actually looking forward to having some more of my work turned into paintings. A landscape photo or even a food image would make for an interesting subject, I only wish I had more wall-space to accommodate.
In terms of pricing, for what you get it's actually quite reasonable. With their current pricing, the small version (12'x12′) starts at $149, and they go up to $739 for a 30'x40′, and they are delivered as stretched gallery wraps (ready to hang). They also do custom sizes, you can contact them for a quote. The prices do get expensive for the larger prints, but you have to keep in mind that these paintings are literally hand-painted; there are no machines doing this work!