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Welcome to Brushstrok.es!

Turn a treasured photographic memory or standard portrait into a unique artistic and beautiful painting that will make you and its viewers go WOW!!!

At Brushstrokes we breathe incredible life and beauty into your most precious photographic memories and moments - even for photos that are old and tired and long forgotten. 

Don't miss our incredible special offer - right now we're doing all basic paintings for FREE!!!

That's right - join us on our facebook page, post your photo and I'll turn it into an amazing painting for free! [check out the examples].

Need a gift idea?! A Brushstrokes digital painting makes an amazing gift for the person who already has everything. Find out about everything we do and how we can turn your photos into amazing paintings with a real "wow" factor.

Saturday
Jun122010

Stephen Fry has a new Job

DateSaturday, June 12, 2010 at 12:46AM


Don't panic, he hasn't left the country to go and run Apple, but he has taken a sabbatical to become Pope for a day.

Pope Innocent the 10th that is - anything else would be marginally ridiculous.

Steven tweeted in the morning that he was sitting for a portrait painting to be done by a reformed forger - and attached a picture of him prepared in his robes, sitting, waiting (and presumably tweeting) in a courtyard.

For a bit of fun, I decided I'd have a go at recreating Valasquez's portrait of Pope Innocent using the picture Stephen posted. This was created with oils with an impasto effect, using a pallete to match the original painting. 

Visit the gallery if you'd like to buy a high resolution download or print of this image. 

AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment |
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Saturday
May012010

Can beautiful painting help with body image?

DateSaturday, May 1, 2010 at 12:41AM

Traditional Portraiture with implied nude

Surveys suggest the vast proportion of the population (especially women) have something they dislike about their body. In a way this is quite heart-breaking, because really, everyone is beautiful.

 There's a growing interest in "boudoir" photography and the way it empowers women to see their bodies in a new light and love themselves all the more. "Boudoir" consists of tasteful intimate portraiture that captures and shows-off personal beauty.

The growth in this type of portraiture is therefore not surprising with its ability to help people re-invent their body image. 

 

More-abstract portraiture (e.g. Matisse)

 

At brushstrok.es however, I think we can take it one step further.
With a painting we have the license to go beyond the image captured by the camera.
While many photographers will process their photos with soft focus and smoothed-skin effects, ultimately if these techniques are taken too far, the image no longer looks photographic or as realistic as one might expect.
 

These boundaries do not exist for paintings.

Indeed, a Brushstrokes painting *starts* from those very photos and takes them into the realms of your dreams and imagination. Texture, tones, shapes and lighting are all up for grabs. Realistic or impressionistic or abstract? Whatever your taste!
But either way, you are guaranteed to look utterly stunning and magical.
Why not try it now - send us your boudoir photo and we'll create a free sample painting for you that will take your breath away.
AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
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Sunday
Mar282010

A Welcome to all iWearYourShirt.com visitors!

DateSunday, March 28, 2010 at 8:25PM

Welcome and thanks for visiting. You've come to the right place to get your photos turned into amazing paintings! Not only that - but you can get them done for free. And not only that, but as a special offer to IWYS visitors, I'm giving away some fantastic discount vouchers which means you can get great money off any printed products you order, such as canvases, prints and acrylics.

So, how do you get your free stuff, see the steps below...

1) sign up and post your photo on my face book fan page

2) I'll paint your picture & post it to the fan page & my professional gallery at inpictur.es

3) view your painting and download a small version of it for free from facebook

4) if you'd like a hi-resolution version or a print made, order it directly from the inpictur.es facebook gallery

5) when you checkout - under the shipping options enter one of the following codes:

a) IWYS2010 <- there's 10 of these available, and they'll give you COST PRICE on any $ order over $15. That means can save you 50% or more! Must be used by 30th April 2010. Hurry - only 10 available

b) if you miss out on the above voucher, use IWYS15 <- there's an unlimited number of these available for 15% discount on any product, any order value! Expires 31st May 2010.

see you on the facebook page! :)

nik

AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
Mar242010

Get your free Brushstrokes Discount vouchers - things are changing!

DateWednesday, March 24, 2010 at 9:46PM
Dear Fan!

First of all the important stuff: thank you so much for your support of brushstrokes to date. I amazed that fans keep joining and posting pictures for me to work on! You're all great to work with. 


It's almost 6 months now since I launched and I've done many paintings in that time for many of you, covered many styles and built a large gallery to host paintings and make it possible to print them on professional papers and canvas over at inPictur.es 


My plan, of course, is to do more - more paintings, more styles- and to do that I'm going to adjust the way I work with facebook fans a little. 


The main change is that instead of uploading every single painting to the gallery, I'll only upload the very best. The very best are those where not only the original photo is good but of course where my artwork is of the highest possible standard. 


But don't worry - nothing else changes: I'll still be painting all the photos you post and anyone who wants prints will still be able to request them. 


Because some pictures at inPictures will be removed, I'm now offering all fans a discount voucher to use to buy prints/canvases with 15% discount. This will be valid until March 31st Midnight. If you've had a painting done and want a print, now is the time to get it! 


My other plan is to start offering more abstract art as an option. To date most of my paintings have had quite a conservative, recognisable style of general appeal. But some of you ask for more abstract and adventurous work and I want to satisfy that request also. So when you post, expect to be asked what type of artwork you want. Let's push the boundaries of original art.


Finally, please continue to encourage your family and friends to become fans and post pictures - there are so many treasured photos out that that need releasing into the wild!


Once again,

Many thanks

nik

ps. Don't forget your voucher code to use anywhere at inPictures - Enter FBMar10 

for help on using it see the FAQ

AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
Mar032010

Finding Your Perfect Photography Niche

DateWednesday, March 3, 2010 at 11:21PM

To find your niche in photography, you must look at what in life you enjoy and how you enjoy doing it.  For example, you may really like wildlife photographs but may not be into a three hour hike in misty rain up the side of a mountain to then sit rather motionless and quiet for an undetermined amount of time to get maybe a chance to shoot the elusive fox you think might be in the area.  If on the other hand you enjoy interacting with people and being in a social environment, event photography / wedding receptions could be just right for you.  Choosing a niche in something you are a fan of can also have added side affects.

Some of the more specialized niches in photographer are:

  • Weddings
  • Portraits (high school, corporate, family)
  • Landscapes
  • Photojournalism
  • Macro
  • Music / concert
  • Fashion
  • Editorial
  • Fine art
  • Children / babies
  • Events
  • Motorsports
  • Extreme sports
  • Sports
  • Birding
  • … + much more

You’ll notice I split up Motorsports, Extreme and regular sports, and I did this for a reason.  Each one has sub-sections that vary wildly.  A photographer who shoots Nascar events probably doesn’t have the knowledge or the right lenses to shoot skateboard photography and probably doesn’t want to deal with the cold of snowboard photography or sand of surf photography.

[read more at lightstalking]

AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
Monday
Feb222010

preparing for iWearYourShirt day

DateMonday, February 22, 2010 at 10:28PM

Have you seen iWearYourShirt.com?

I discovered it when it first ran in 2009 and was inspired by the simple creativity of the scheme that Jason had come up with: wear a promotional shirt every day and broadcast it on social media - and charge the advtertisers $1 extra for every day of the year ($1 on January 1st, $2 on January 2nd etc.). 

 

It sounds like such a simple plan that it would go unnoticed, but it caught the attention of the media and advertisers because it was original (much like the million-dollar homepage).

 

Thankfully Jason decided to run the scheme again for 2010 - this time with two shirts per day, along with blogs, tweets and live videos and plenty of exposure.

 

I thought that advertising like this would be a great hookup for brushstrokes - not only to support these entrepreneurs (as I like to do) but obviously because t-shirts are a natural extension of the brushstrokes brand. 

 

My "day" will go out towards the end of March, but in advance of that I've had to create my t-shirt designs to choose from. I was so pleased with the main design, I've decided to use it as my profile picture on twitter and facebook. :-) 

 

 

AuthorNik Sargent | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
Feb042010

Brushstrokes cards & gifts now available on Zazzle

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 5:34PM

At last! I finally got round to creating some products at zazzle.

Zazzle allows images to be printed on cards, clothes, gifts and all manner of objects! (cups, bags, mousemats and so on). Inspired by friends who are making a success of products on zazzle

As well as all the new brushstrok.es images I am creating I have quite a large back catalogue of photos that I wish to publish - many of Scottish landscapes but also some art and abstract shots (see the stack of M&M's below for an example) 

So - I thought I would give it a go too! Watch this space for more products.

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Sunday
Jan242010

How Art Affects the Brain

DateSunday, January 24, 2010 at 4:39PM

What do you make of this? Do you agree? From the wall street journal.

At an exhibit opening this weekend at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, visitors will be asked to wear 3-D glasses and walk around with clipboards and pencils while looking at images of sculptures.

"Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics," enlists the public as participants in a Johns Hopkins University study that looks at why the human brain is attracted to artwork.

Museum-goers will look at 3-D printouts of altered versions of sculptures by abstract artist Jean Arp. One of his works, "The Woman of Delos" (1959), will also be on display at the Walters. While looking at computer-altered versions of the sculptures—some skinnier, others more rotund—participants will be asked which they are most attracted to, and which they like the least.

Organizers say they hope to shed a scientific light on some of the ideas that philosophers have discussed for centuries. One of those is that there's a unique way that the brain activates when we view compelling artwork, something philosophers have called the "aesthetic emotion," says Gary Vikan, director of the Walters and curator of the show.

A related hypothesis is that successful artists are like magicians who have learned to exploit the edges of the brain's perception with sleight-of-hand trickery: They have an innate sense of what tickles the parts of the brain that process visual cues. "The artist is intuitively a neuroscientist," says Mr. Vikan.

follow the reference link for more.. 

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