Image of The Month
Oil Painting, Bride & Groom, 2008
© Brian Davies
In order to constantly better their
photographic skills and stay up to date with the industry, each year Brian and Wendy take time out
of their busy schedules to continue their education and study with the top
wedding & portrait photographers in the country.
Brian created this beautiful oil painting from a wedding portrait he created at the Montdale Country Club--after about 4 years of practicing techniques that were taught to him by Rod Evans. Rod owns and Operates an exclusive, very high-end studio in Sioux Falls, SD, where he now specializes in paintings that he creates from his photography. Rod's paintings range in price from his "entry level", 16"x20" senior portrait for $1,600.00, to about $6,000.00 for a much larger family portrait. Wow. Some of his affluent clients travel 100 miles or more for his paintings and he is becoming one of the highest regarded portrait "painters" in the country who uses these techniques.
It took Brian FOUR YEARS of studying the works of other painters, and of practicing and refining this technique before he thought he was ready to put his name on it and offer it to his clients here in NEPA.
A little known fact is that many well known, late 19th and 20th century oil painters used photographs as "under-sketches" and sort of "traced" over them and filled them in with paint to create their paintings. One of our best known painters of "Americana", Norman Rockwell, was one of the painters who used that very technique!
Well, here he goes again, giving away his secrets! But Brian would like all of his clients to know all that actually goes into creating his paintings, that it isn't some sort of, "one click" trick in Photoshop, and that this is not a task that he can hand over to an employee to complete--Brian creates his paintings himself from start to finish. But if anyone can find such a one click trick to create paintings of this quality and aesthetic appeal, he says he'd gladly pay big bucks for that secret so that he can mass-produce them in minutes instead of the weeks it takes to create just one!
Brian's painting technique is very similar to the one painters like Norman Rockwell used, except just as photography has gone from film to digital, so have the same tools for painting. Using Adobe Photoshop to first retouch then to prepare the file for painting, he then uses the photograph as an "under-sketch" to "trace" over with his brush strokes to create the painting. To do so, he uses very high-end painting software, along with the highest quality, pressure-sensitive Wacom graphics tablet available to artists. The painting software breaks down the photograph into a palette of about 256 colors for Brian to use when painting, and also lets him choose from hundreds of different artist's brushes. Brian mostly uses an array of medium to small brushes, and usually uses short brush strokes to keep the painting a bit on the "photo-realistic" side without loosing the "painted" look, since he likes it to retain the features of a true oil painting. (Rod Evans's paintings are extremely photo-realistic, but Brian chose a more "artsy" style without getting anywhere near the "abstract" style of painting.)
So when you see Brian's paintings, realize that he applies every stroke after "dipping his digital brush" into the color of his choosing, and puts every stroke onto his "digital canvas" himself, stroke by stroke, using the graphics tablet and brush. When the painting is finally complete, he then "reduces the opacity" of his paint strokes over certain areas so that the detail of the original photograph "shows through" a bit more in that area. This allows him to retain more of the details from the original photograph in those certain areas while still keeping some "brush stroke" over them, so that in a portrait like the one above, the face or faces still remain recognizable, but still appear to be painted.
The final images is then professionally printed just like a photograph, but that's not where it ends. The emulsion layer (the layer with the actual image on it) of the print is then carefully peeled way from the print's paper backing. Then, using heat and a lot of pressure, the image is permanently bonded to artist's canvas. The canvas is then tightly mounted to a stretcher-board frame. The last step is to again apply clear brush strokes (this time not the digital variety but genuine, clear acrylic paint) over the entire painting so that the painting takes on the same, deep, three dimensional characteristics of a true oil painting!
It's the best of both worlds--photography and oil painting, combined into an original piece of art that is definitely worthy of proudly displaying as wall decor in your home! And the best part? Brian's paintings are nowhere NEAR as pricey as Rod Evan's are, the artist/photographer in Sioux Falls, ND who taught him the technique!
Better yet, Brian can also slightly "customize" YOUR painting to better suit your taste or your current decor. Although the changes will be subtle, he can use longer brush strokes and he can also use more vivid colors or use more subdued colors. Or, as he likes it best, you can just let his creativity and vision run free to create your very own, one of a kind, Brian Davies oil painting.
To see a few more examples of Brian's paintings, click HERE.