Guides, songs and portraits · Oil painting from a photo

An oil painting from a photo: which kind to choose, and which photo to send

“Oil painting from a photo” can mean a canvas a painter works on for weeks, a print with a filter, or a digital painting built stroke by stroke. They differ a lot in price, time and feel. Here is an honest comparison, then practical advice on choosing the photo.

Four ways to get there

A hand-painted commission. A painter copies your photo in real oil on canvas. It is a physical object you can hang, usually takes weeks, costs the most, and needs shipping. Look at the artist's past portraits before you order.
A canvas print with a painting effect. Your photo is filtered to look painted and printed on canvas. Quick and inexpensive, but up close it is still a photo.
Paint it yourself. Kits that turn your photo into a paint-by-numbers canvas exist, or you can take a class. Slow, imperfect and very personal.
A digital oil painting made by code. This is what Sendajoy does: a program paints your photo stroke by stroke, and the gift is watching it happen, to a song, on a private page.

How the code paints, in plain words

The program does not apply a filter or generate a new image. It works like a painter with a set of brushes. First it covers the canvas with big, loose strokes in the main colors. Then it switches to smaller brushes, and only where the picture still looks wrong: around the eyes, the lips, the edges of hair and clothes. Each stroke bends along the shapes in your photo and is drawn with several bristle lines, and the paint gets a slight raised texture that catches the light. Because every stroke is recorded, the finished film shows the painting appearing from a blank canvas.

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Choosing the photo

Light. Soft daylight from a window or an overcast sky works best. Hard flash flattens faces; strong sun leaves deep shadows that turn into dark patches of paint.
Faces visible. Eyes open, no sunglasses, nothing covering the mouth. Faces turned toward the camera paint better than profiles in shadow.
Size of the face. The bigger the face in the frame, the more detail the small brushes can give it. Crop out empty background if you can.
Resolution. A normal phone photo is enough. A tiny image saved from a chat app may be blurry; look for the original or a larger copy.
Sharpness. A slightly soft photo is fine, since the painting is not photographic. Motion blur across the eyes is harder.

Ask before you paint someone

If the photo shows people other than you and the person receiving the gift, it is polite, and sometimes necessary, to ask them first. This matters most for children who are not yours, for ex-partners in an old picture, and for anyone who keeps their life off the internet. The gift page is private, but the people in the picture still deserve a say.

What you receive

The result is a digital piece, not a canvas. It lives on a private gift page: the person's name, then the painting appearing to a new song, then your letter and a numbered certificate. The song's words and music are made with AI. Nothing is shipped. If you want something on the wall, save the final frame as an image and print it at home or at a print shop; ask the shop which paper and size suit the file before you order.

Order steps and price

Tell the story and choose the song. Who it is for, the occasion, a few details; then a mood and a voice (female, male, duet or no vocals), or your own lyrics.
Send the photo. The portrait from a photo is included in the price.
Approve the sketch. The first sketch of the final frame comes within 24 hours.
Get the link. The finished painting and song usually follow in 1–2 days. $25 in total.

If it does not work out

If the work is not made, you get a full refund. If the first sketch is not right, it is redone once. If you would rather not wait at all, the gallery has five ready-made artmooviks at $35, which are not portraits but are yours as soon as you pay.

Ready letters you can use

Paste one under the film as it is, or change every word — the letter appears at the end of the artmoovik, after the last stroke.

“This is the photo from our first holiday, the one where you are squinting at the sea and pretending not to notice the camera. I wanted to see it painted, slowly, the way I still look at you. Happy anniversary. Watch the eyes; they come last.”

“Dad, this is you at the wheel of the old green car. I have kept that photo on my desk for years. Now it is a painting, and it has its own song. Thank you for every drive, every lesson and every time you let me pick the music.”

“For my oldest friend. The photo is from the night we graduated, both of us in borrowed jackets. I wanted to turn it into something we could keep forever. Here's to twenty years, and to the next twenty.”

Questions

Can I get a real oil painting on canvas from my photo? Yes, from a portrait painter who takes commissions. Sendajoy does not make physical canvases; we make a digital oil painting that you can print yourself.

What photo works best for an oil painting? A clear photo with soft light and visible faces. Phone photos are fine; tiny images saved from chats may be too blurry.

Is this an AI filter? No. The painting is drawn by code that lays down brushstrokes one by one. The song's words and music, on the other hand, are made with AI.

Can I print the painting? Yes. Save the final frame as an image and take it to a print shop, or print it at home.

How do I pay for a painting from my photo? At present only USDT on Ethereum (ERC-20) is accepted.

Choose a ready-made artmoovik · $35 Order one made for you · $25