Turn your photo into an oil painting — painted stroke by stroke

What you get

A private link to a gift page. It opens with their name, then the oil painting from your photo appears stroke by stroke to its own song, followed by your letter and a certificate number. It works on any phone or computer, never expires, and arrives anywhere in the world the moment you send it.

How to order

1. Choose “Made from your photo” or an artmoovik from the gallery.
2. Attach the photo (for a custom painting), write their name and your letter.
3. Preview the gift page exactly as they will see it, then pay.
4. Get a private link and send it whenever you like — in a message at midnight or on the big screen at the party.

How the painting is made

1. Layers of brushes. The renderer paints with brush radii 24 → 12 → 6 → 3 px (after Aaron Hertzmann, Painterly Rendering with Curved Brush Strokes of Multiple Sizes, 1998). For each brush it blurs the photo to the brush's scale and only paints where the canvas still differs from that blurred reference by more than a threshold — so small brushes go only where detail is needed: eyes, lips, edges.
2. Curved strokes. A stroke starts at the point of largest error in a grid cell, takes the reference colour there, and walks along edges (perpendicular to the image gradient), one brush-radius per step, until the colour under it stops matching.
3. Bristles. Each stroke is drawn as a few thin parallel lines with slightly different colours, so it reads as a brush, not a felt-tip.
4. Impasto. Every stroke also adds “paint height” to a second, invisible canvas. Each frame the height map is lit from the top-left, which gives the ridges and small highlights you see on the paint.

No neural network, no image generation — a painter's method written as code. The full version of this painter (more layers, skin glazes, strokes timed to music) is what makes every artmoovik. The demo above runs on a sample photo by Aiony Haust on Unsplash; your own painting is made by us from the photo you attach to the order.

Questions

How do I turn my photo into an oil painting? Order a custom artmoovik, attach the photo and write the name and your letter. We paint it and email you a private link to the finished gift page.

Which photo works best? A clear face or scene in good light. Phone photos are fine; we do not need the original file.

How long does it take? A ready-made artmoovik is yours right after payment. A painting from your photo is usually ready within 1–2 days.

Can I send it to another country? Yes. The gift is a link, so nothing is shipped and it arrives instantly.

Is it a one-off? Yes. Each artmoovik carries its own certificate number and is made once.

Gift ideas: portrait from a photo · anniversary gift · birthday gift · Christmas gift · what is an artmoovik

Order from my photo · $25