Although owning an oil portrait from a photograph has become popular, there are only few companies on the market that offer ‘picture to art’ services.  Perhaps, this is because the most difficult type of painting to create is one from a photo. The artist that creates a painting from a photo must be highly skilled and have a lot of painting experience, for no other painting style requires so high a level of technique.  When customers send us a photo of their daughter, they expect to see her captured in the oil portrait exactly as she appears in the photo. A slight change in the facial features or a distortion of the proportions by the artist could change the whole appearance of the child. Since, any mistakes perceived in the painting may cause the customer to reject it,  the proportions must be correct if one is to create a successful painting. Thus, the artist must have the proper talent and tools to ensure that the proportions of the subject are correct.

Artists have various tools to help them create an exact replica of a photo in oil colours. It is possible to paint portraits without using tools and while the painting will have a more artistic appearance, it will also be less accurate, as the subject may not have been painted with the right proportions.

Listed below are some of the most popular tools an artist can use while turning a picture to art::

Roller: A roller is a special tool that enables the artist to draw the outer lines of the subject onto the canvas larger than the original photo while maintaining the same proportions. The roller is placed on the photo and on the canvas at the same time.  There is a pencil attached to the portion of the roller that touches the canvas which draws lines on the canvas as it moves. This tool is cheap, accurate and easy to use.

Carbon paper:  Some artists will print the photo onto a paper the same size as the canvas. The carbon paper is placed between the canvas and the printed image so that when they use a pencil to trace the printed image, ink is transferred onto the canvas. This tool is relatively expensive but it allows you to begin your painting with accurate proportions.

Printed canvases: This newly developed technique allows artists to capture every fine detail and colour of the original photo in their painting because the image is printed directly onto the canvas for the artist to paint over. The quality of the painting is related to the number of paint layers that the artist applies to the canvas to cover the print ink.  Canvas printing is a tool that shows the artist the exact proportions and colours of the original photo. However, if the artist uses less than two layers of paint to cover the print, the painting may lack artistic feeling because the photo shows through. A lack of paint layers covering the print can also cause the oil colours to fade or break away from the canvas after a few years because the printing ink does not react well with oil-based paints.  Typically, a minimum of three to four layers of oil colour is used to secure the painting.  New types of printers and water-based inks are being developed to solve these problems. The longevity of an oil painting is determined by the quality of the canvas and oil paints, the thickness of the layer of printing ink and the number of oil colour layers used.

Projector: This tool is preferred by many artists. The artist places the photo inside a special type of projector which projects the photo directly onto the canvas. The image appears on the canvas exactly like the photo, only larger, which allows the artist to outline important details of the subject directly onto the canvas with a pencil, and with correct proportions.