The reason why American artists deride something like "photo to painting" (even though Tony Soprano from the Sopranos and others commission portraits all the ti

The reason why American artists deride something like "photo to painting" (even though Tony Soprano from the Sopranos and others commission portraits all the time), is that they don't see it as creating art. And that's mostly true. People are getting photos turned to art for the effect. Any deviation from the photo right now is due to artist error, and not creative interpretation. Adding technology to the mix means more accurate renditions, and I don't think people would care because they're getting it so that it doesn't look like a flat canvas print.