Would you let your work be turned into hand-painted oil paintings?

chrischen · Jun 19, 2014

I'm new here, and I'm just here to get general feedback and the general opinion on my service, anonymously. I'm not here to advertise so I will not reveal the name of the service.

Imagine a service that produces hand-painted oil paintings with 16"x16" ones retailing for under $100 to the consumer. Please assume the paintings are decent quality. You trust the service (some major society6-like or 500px-like site). These are also physical oil paintings on canvas, not digital. So think like selling prints, but something much fancier.

Would you sell your photography as reproduced oil-paintings and receive a commission?

What is a fair commission?

How compelling is this and would you signup to do this by adding links to your website?

If no, what are the terms you would do this by?

Thanks!

sscarmack · Jun 19, 2014

Yes, 20%.

KmH · Jun 19, 2014

No.

It's not compelling at all to me, and I think the product would dilute my brand.

Life · Jun 19, 2014

chrischen said:
I'm new here, and I'm just here to get general feedback and the general opinion on my service, anonymously. I'm not here to advertise so I will not reveal the name of the service.

Imagine a service that produces hand-painted oil paintings with 16"x16" ones retailing for under $100 to the consumer.

Would you license your photography to be turned into oil-paintings and receive a commission?

What is a fair commission?

How compelling is this and would you signup to do this by adding links to your website?

Thanks!

I certainly would ^^

Designer · Jun 19, 2014

How good could it be for only $100? (less photographer's cut)

tirediron · Jun 19, 2014

I know almost zero about any type of fine art painting, but what little I do know says that making a 16x16 print for $80 can not happen... is there a secret proces that would allow someone to produce the painting in <15 minutes?

sm4him · Jun 19, 2014

A HAND-PAINTED oil painting of my photo, for less than $100? No thank you. My guess is that I could produce a "simulated" oil painting version of my photo, if I so chose, that would look as decent and realistic as something someone HAND painted that wasn't even worth $100.

Disregarding the fact that sub-$100, 16x16 oil paintings just SCREAMS of low-quality awfulnessI probably wouldn't be interested in doing this even for good quality, on a commission basis. I'd be more likely to be willing to license the use of my photo for someone to create a limited run of paintings based on that photo. You pay me a set amount for the use of my photo, with the understanding that you create no more than X number of paintings based on said photo, then you sell your painting for whatever you want to. That way, MY income doesn't depend on whether anyone likes YOUR painting enough to buy it.

Designer · Jun 19, 2014

BTW: This reminds me of how (some) photographers used to make portraits. The photographer used B&W film, and made a print. Then he painted the correct colors on using the clothing that was worn in the portrait. I remember this because I had to hand over my Scout uniform for him to get the colors right.

Life · Jun 19, 2014

Guys, you can't just assume the worst. If you think under $100 and 16x16 would be bad, then just ask for a sample or something.. But just simply saying that it would be horrible, as if it were a fact isn't very polite... My 2 cents...

And not to forget there are some very good painters out there..

chrischen · Jun 19, 2014

Life said:
Guys, you can't just assume the worst. If you think under $100 and 16x16 would be bad, then just ask for a sample or something.. But just simply saying that it would be horrible, as if it were a fact isn't very polite... My 2 cents...

And not to forget there are some very good painters out there..

Thanks for the support. Short answer: they're painted in China. But we have over 70% net promoter score so the quality perception must be there.

Long answer: existing painting services are operating a price fixing ring, or at least such a ring has threatened us revealing they are price fixing. They mostly paint in China as well, but they do huge markups because people perceive art as inherently expensive. Truth is, there are lots of technical artists, especially in China, who make a living not necessarily doing "art" but practicing painting as a technical skill, which isn't that expensive.

I would kindly ask everyone just assume that the paintings are very good quality, and give feedback based on that assumption.

limr · Jun 19, 2014

Life said:
Guys, you can't just assume the worst. If you think under $100 and 16x16 would be bad, then just ask for a sample or something.. But just simply saying that it would be horrible, as if it were a fact isn't very polite... My 2 cents...

You do have a point. BUT...think of the costs that would go into a quality painting (art supplies aren't cheap and good art supplies really aren't cheap), PLUS the time and work of the person painting it. Selling that painting for less than $100 likely means using either lower quality materials, paying less money to the artist (thus devaluing the time and skill of the painter), or not making much of a profit, especially after giving a cut to the photographer. 16x16 is pretty big and to ensure good and consistent quality for less than $100 would be really hard.

limr · Jun 19, 2014

Regardless of quality, I would not be interested in the service.

Life · Jun 19, 2014

limr said:
Life said:

Guys, you can't just assume the worst. If you think under $100 and 16x16 would be bad, then just ask for a sample or something.. But just simply saying that it would be horrible, as if it were a fact isn't very polite... My 2 cents...

Click to expand...

You do have a point. BUT...think of the costs that would go into a quality painting (art supplies aren't cheap and good art supplies really aren't cheap), PLUS the time and work of the person painting it. Selling that painting for less than $100 likely means using either lower quality materials, paying less money to the artist (thus devaluing the time and skill of the painter), or not making much of a profit, especially after giving a cut to the photographer. 16x16 is pretty big and to ensure good and consistent quality for less than $100 would be really hard.

Yes. Point well taken. The OP just posted that they are being done in China. Now while I can't stand how (walmart as example) has every pos from china. BUT the Paintings there are also from china, and from all the other ones i've sen, they do look actually very good. I dunno anything about quality, i'm not a painter. However as i'm sure we both know the Chinese do work for super cheap, thus making it possible to sell them for under $100. That's my thought on this anyways. I would personally go for it, under the rules that I get a certain %, AND my name is on the painting. So people know at least whos original picture it was. Heck, even if 0 sell, it might still be another 500 people who see my name. It's all personal preferences I guess ^^ So chrichen, if you are interested in something like this, you can pm me or I can pm you, and maybe we can talk a bit more about it

D7K · Jun 19, 2014

It's a question of preference certainly - I would not - unless it was a known trusted artist allow this, as has been mentioned for 100 bucks a quality issue is certainly brought in to play. For some people seeing their work in such a form may be a great idea and / or a preference / marketing opportunity. As I don't get paid for my pictures, as I said I would allow only a trusted artist to maybe recreate something for a personal thing / project and I would want the vito on whether or not it would be an avenue to progress..