You probably know photographer David Hobby for his website, The Strobist, a great resource for learning about a whole heap of different flash photography techniques. For the past couple years, however, he has been working on a different kind of project, which has resulted in the launch of the Photographer’s Oil Collective.
The service allows you to upload a photo and have it turned into an actual oil painting done by a hand-selected artist Xiamen, China. Xiamen is a hub for some of the world’s best commercial oil painters and Hobby actually traveled to China in order to find the best artists for the gig. They also had a long learning process to make the flow between photograph and oil painting as smooth as possible.
The paintings start at $ 750 for a 16×20” piece and go up to $ 1,200 for a 36×48” piece. Sure, it’s quite a bit more than the commercially printed canvas you can get from Groupon, but it’s also a much different thing. If you’re familiar with the price of a well-done, custom oil painting, it’s actually quite reasonable and could certainly become an option for high-end photographers who want to offer their clients something unique. Official site