
Instapainting Turns Your Photos Into Hand-Painted Oil Paintings On The Cheap - cmulligan
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/14/instapainting-turns-your-photos-into-hand-painted-oil-paintings-on-the-cheap/
======
tommoor
If you are using over-seas artists as is suggested in the article it might be
nice to be very transparent about where the costs go, how much they get and
how it is (hopefully) supporting and not exploiting them :) It would make me
and probably others happier about using such a service.

Look at Everlane for an example of a startup that does a great job of this.

~~~
Casseres
I don't understand why people think that using inexpensive labor overseas is
"exploitation". If they are willing to take the job, that means it's paying
more than the other options they have available to them which includes not
having a job at all. As long as they aren't being held at gunpoint and aren't
actual slaves, how is this exploitation if they are happy to freely take the
job?

~~~
throwawaymsft
There's a spectrum between slavery and a happy, voluntary decision. Most of us
want the floor on how an employer treats its workers slightly above gunpoint.

~~~
Casseres
I'd rather the floor be much higher than just slightly above gunpoint. Like
you mentioned, there are some people who don't care, and that's sad. Chances
are that a voluntarily-working group of people have the floor much higher than
"slightly above gunpoint".

Also, you appear to be logged into a 4-day-old throwaway account. Is that
intentional?

~~~
coldtea
Hunger is not very different from "gunpoint".

You are working "voluntary" only if you have options.

~~~
qq66
Because humans cannot photosynthesize, hunger is a consequence of idleness in
a subsistence farming economy. A modern industrialized economy isn't too
different along that parameter.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _hunger is a consequence of idleness in a subsistence farming economy_ //

Yeah, 'cause famines and floods and other natural disasters never happen. No-
one ever has to sell all their produce to pay for medicine. No, nothing like
that; hunger==idleness for sure. /sarc

~~~
qq66
I didn't say that idleness is the only cause of hunger.

------
aleyan
I like the labor reducing (and cheapening) idea of printing on the canvas
first and then painting on top. This removes the sketching time and eliminates
the whole class of problems relating to proportion and perspective.

The idea of shipping canvas in tubes has me less enthused. Most people can't
stretch canvas over a frame on their own, so they have to get somebody to do
it for them. That person probably isn't very cheap in their locale. This step
is potentially done better at the factory.

Next the stretched canvas needs to be framed. Once I have my 12" by 12" canvas
stretched and then framed, I wouldn't be surprised that it cost me some
multiple of the $53 price. Besides a costing a bundle more than quoted, I had
to do some legwork in meatspace to get it wall ready.

The quality of the work has to be good too, otherwise the prestige of a
painting will be overshadowed by its gaudiness. Might as well hang the
original photograph then.

Overall, not an easy business to get right, but monetization is built in. I
hope you succeed.

~~~
lnanek2
Printing on canvas first seems to limit the artist, though. Not doing that
would let them make a dogs head bigger to make the dog's expression the main
part of the piece, for example, if you were getting a painting made of a
favorite pet and wanted that - or whatever the goal is. The goal of art isn't
to look as much like a photo as possible, so printing the photo first doesn't
seem a good thing.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _The goal of art isn 't to look as much like a photo as possible_ //

Arguably Instapainting's "artists" aren't making art for Instapainting's
customers, they're making photo-style reproduction in paint.

Some artists work to create photorealism; I'd say it's fine to still call it
art (but not art that does anything for me besides illicit awe as to the skill
involved) despite it being perhaps better described as craft.

------
chrischen
Hey guys, if you check it out, I would really love feedback. This was my YC
W'11 company Like.fm, now pivoted into this.

~~~
ericras
Looks really cool, I'll probably order, although more cool samples on
[https://instapainting.com/gallery](https://instapainting.com/gallery) would
make it more enticing to me.

The two on the top look great, the dogs look meh and the baby looks
frightening. The dog on your Instagram looks awesome as well.

~~~
chrischen
Yea those were early orders where we were still isolating the price-quality
ratio. In any case, if you don't like what you get, we'll refund you or ship
you another one.

~~~
hamburglar
My reaction to the examples was "it seems like they don't actually want me to
be able to see what the results look like." The pictures are very badly-taken:
weird angles, bizarrely limited depth-of-field so most of it is out of focus,
too close to see much of the picture, etc.

~~~
chrischen
We placed it at the angles so you can see a closeup and also notice the
texture in the brush strokes and paint. If you receive a painting and it's not
what you expect, we'll refund you 100% plus the return shipping, or send you
another painting.

~~~
hamburglar
that makes sense, but the way it's presented looks more like someone just
doesn't know how to take a picture. Including full shots of each and calling
the closeups out as detail views would help a lot.

------
malandrew
It would be much more interesting if this became a market to those artists
abroad instead of a interface that obfuscates which artist made your painting.
The reason here is taste and style. It would be great if I could look over the
work of those that do this kind of work, but introduce their own personal
style into the process, that way you can get your painting converted, but also
have it done in a style that you like.

~~~
samstave
Your painting was masterfully crafted by @child_laborer_29871!

~~~
Casseres
Somehow painting doesn't seem like a dangerous job where one can lose limbs or
life like working in a factory. The ability to have a job and put food on the
table for the family is probably a better option for everyone than starving or
begging. (To be fair, I've never been to China, so I could be mistaken.)

~~~
sunnybythesea
Oil paints and solvents can be pretty toxic! So it can be dangerous if the
working conditions are bad.

------
sytelus
This is good idea. I can imagine this becoming go to website for my lot of
gifts. Few suggestions...

1\. You probably want to advertise more clearly and strongly on what is the
turn around time because "insta" is bit misleading. Right now it is in grey
font tucked away in between.

2\. Your site can become a contact point between artists and customers who
want to commission a portraits. Artists can upload their pricing and portfolio
and customers can choose the one to commission.

3\. It would great to have option for painting on a greeting card. Hand
painted greeting cards would be very special.

~~~
daveid
Regarding points 2 and 3, check out Artists&Clients [1] – it's exactly what
you're suggesting, and I (founder/dev) commission greeting cards on it myself
:)

[1]: [https://artistsnclients.com](https://artistsnclients.com)

------
ADanFromCanada
On the one hand, I applaud the creative business model here....

On the other hand, being practically married to a woman who is a classically
trained fine artist who already has a difficult enough time making a living
from her work, it saddens me that the consequence of this is further
diminishing her ability to make that living.

This causes a reduced perception of the skill involved in actually creating
original works. And it reduces the already small market for original artwork.

~~~
Crake
The horse buggy drivers felt that way too. I'm sure they managed to retrain
and find a new profession.

Historically, artists have always had to have a patron sponsor them in order
to pursue their artistic inclinations. While it's hard for male artists to
find this today, chances are that your wife already has access to guaranteed
patronage if she's not in the mood to learn a more economically relevant skill
set.

~~~
ADanFromCanada
I find your comparison to be ridiculous and frankly, quite ignorant.

You are right about patron sponsorship of artists though. And thankfully, she
has developed her skill to a point where she is not reliant on selling her
work exclusively for income (in fact, she is an entrepreneur who has opened
her own private studio for teaching).

The fact remains though; while I appreciate the low-cost nature of the
"product". I hope anyone who buys one of these realizes that it is not a real
work of art (outside of the virtue of the original photograph) and that there
is in fact real (and more) value and real (and much, much more) skill that
goes into making true original oil paintings.

~~~
qq66
I doubt that anyone who has their face painted into Dogs Playing Poker is
under the impression that they're purchasing "Fine Art."

------
ultimoo
This is an amazing idea and sounds pretty affordable at less than 50 bucks. I
wish it was posted on HN last month so I could have ordered something for
Valentine's day. :-)

Anyway, best of luck with this venture!

------
pgrote
I've used:

[http://www.chinaoilpainting.com/portrait.htm](http://www.chinaoilpainting.com/portrait.htm)

in the past with great success. They have the ability to take your photo and
incorporate it into other scenes.

The prices are about the same and shipping took about two weeks.

What is the shipping turnaround time on instapainting?

~~~
chrischen
Actually our prices are quite a bit lower...

We can also do 2 weeks, however due to uncertain demand, we aren't making that
guarantee yet.

------
collinjackson
I tried this service and was surprised with how well it turned out. The artist
even hand-delivered it to me, although I don't think they do that for
everyone.

------
tbirdz
Would it be legal to send a photo of a famous piece of art from hundreds of
years ago to one of these services. On one hand the painting would be in
public domain. But I wonder if some anti-forging laws would be an issue?

~~~
MartinCron
It would be forgery (fraud, whatever) if you mis-represented it as an
original, but if you wanted something that looked like a famous piece of art,
you should be in the clear.

------
arturadib
Killer business idea: Build one app for every top Photoshop plugin out there.

~~~
vezzy-fnord
This goes far beyond just applying a Photoshop filter.

------
MartinCron
This is fascinating and I would totally consider doing this. One thing that I
would like would be examples in the gallery that show the source image along
with the hand-painted output, so I can get real sense of how my picture will
look as a hand-painted image.

[https://github.com/blog/817-behold-image-view-
modes](https://github.com/blog/817-behold-image-view-modes)

------
monkeynotes
I like the idea, but something doesn't feel right. The paintings look _just_
like the photos, no emotion, no feeling, simply an output of the input. I
don't really see the point. You may as well apply a Photoshop filter to your
image and print it out on canvas. It would be a lot cheaper and have about as
much Art™ bound up in it.

~~~
rdl
They look better in person. You can fault them for the customer-provided
images, but the actual translation from image to painting looks good in
person.

------
ConceptJunkie
Chris:

This looks like an interesting business model. Good luck to you!

Perhaps you might want to consider providing an option to buy the printed, but
unpainted canvas for people who might want to try their hands at making their
own.

~~~
chrischen
That's a good idea. We don't have that at the moment because lots of places
already do prints. Perhaps a print with colors mixed for you to paint
yourself?

------
exit
i wonder what it would cost to replace the painters with robots

this is basically color-by-numbers, no?

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5pQnq...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5pQnq74JEGw)

------
frik
Interesting, but does this scale?

Could a robot (CNC machine) paint it faster and cheaper?

------
csmeder
The images on
[https://instapainting.com/market](https://instapainting.com/market) don't
load for me. FYI.

------
lifeisstillgood
twenty years ago I was looking into franchises and this came up - there was an
army of Chinese painters willing to take a photo and convert it into oils - a
couple of hundred pounds if I remember rightly - it was a big and
sophisticated operation then.

I said no as I had no idea who would work for me and no idea how to sell. or
scared of selling I guess.

but if I was a decent artist I guess a nice sit down job beats most options.

------
wehadfun
The "View more pictures " link is a little weird. You expect to be able to
click the box but you have to click like under...

~~~
chrischen
Fixed!

------
prairiedogg
Reminds me of pixelist: [http://www.pixeli.st/](http://www.pixeli.st/)

~~~
chrischen
We're basically the same, except we have a gallery of licensed art to choose
from as well, and we are much cheaper and faster.

------
JacobAldridge
Amazing that it took until YC '11 for someone to implement _Hackers and
Painters_.

------
brandonb
Congrats Chris!

------
nctalaviya
I look for something like this.... Thanks for sharing valuable post...

