We all know how the iconic Mr. Bean saved his friend’s career by turning a poster of Whistler’s Mother into a replica of the real thing, but how can it really be done? Well, good news is that none of the ways to do that in this article will involve you breaking into a museum armed with laxatives, but you might still have some work to do nonetheless.
From digital solutions like the right filters and editing apps to in person methods that will give you magnificent portraits to hand in your living room, there’s no end to what you can do with photographs thanks to modern technology. This includes being able to turn your photos into paintings either for free or for a very small price.
Keep reading to find out how.
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Brushstroke
This is one of the photo-to-painting solutions out there, and it’s one of the many apps that focuses on this kind of thing and not just helping people get their photos insta-ready.
Not only can you choose the medium your painting appears to be made in, but you can also choose the canvas type, and even the color pallete.
This means you have more freedom with what you want the end product to look like than most apps allow you, and you can even add your signature to the “paintings”.
The only catch here is that the app costs $4, but with the features and the functionality it offers, we feel that it’s worth the cost.
Instapainting
Services like Instapainting aren’t just editing your photos to look like paintings or digital art – no, they’re taking those photos and having actual artists use them as references for paintings in a medium and size of your choosing, and then mailing the art back to you.
You get to choose art styles, sizes, the mediums you want the painting in, and even request any sort of edits. Typically they’ll have the final product shipped to you in a very short time, and the service doesn’t cost a bucket load of cash either.
Portrait Painter
Most apps are best at turning photos of landscapes and inanimate objects, but the portrait painter is your friend if you have a photo of a person or an animal to turn into a portrait.
You can choose color palettes, canvas types, and even the brush type of your final painting. Once it’s done, you can download it and print it out to display in your home or office. If that’s not what you want, you can share it on social media instead.
This app, too, costs $4 but is a great option if you want to add some special effects to a photo of yours.
Commission a Digital Artist
Of course, all these editing apps have limitations and don’t allow the same freedom and control over the final product that having an artist create a portrait for you does. Lucky for you there are countless artists both on and off social media that can provide you with digital art, and most charge anywhere from a couple of bucks to a couple of hundred, depending on various factors like the size of the piece, the mediums, the background, number of items in the painting, and so on.