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And there's really no comparison between the leather in a Rolls Royce Phantom and the leather in a Honda Accord, and yet somehow Honda moves hundreds of thousan

by dkrich 10y ago

And there's really no comparison between the leather in a Rolls Royce Phantom and the leather in a Honda Accord, and yet somehow Honda moves hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year. My question was not a refutation of the claim that original oil paintings are superior to prints. It was rather an honest attempt to understand the market opportunity of a business and whether the OP believes that a market for prints exists. However that attempt seemingly gave way to a forum for people here to show how much they know about art. Let me be clear- I have been to many, many world class art galleries. I actually live less than a half mile from one. I do not dispute that there is a difference between a Francis Bacon and a Photoshop reproduction of a vacation photo from my phone. My question was how the OP figured out that making clear that the picture was not a filter and was produced by a real person was an important feature of the service. I give up.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
Why are you so openly hostile to everyone being confused by your inability to differentiate between the output of a 2D printer and the 3D texture of an oil painting?
angus-prune 10y ago
I honestly can't tell when you're being sarcastic, when you're trolling and when you honestly aren't getting something. The market you seem to think doesn't exist absolutely does. It has been well served for well over a decade, in regional malls and more recently online. What the OP is offering is a service above and beyond what can be achieved with a quick photoshop filter and a large format printer. They are trying to communicate that his product is qualitatively different from this - a unique, handmade piece of art. That is their entire value proposition. This isn't about trying to produce a knock-off of a photoshop filter with cheap Chinese labour.
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  So, I assume this (dkrich) is what the OP is talking about, when he mentions difficulty explaining "it is a real painting!"
teh_klev 10y ago
So here you say: > Let me be clear- I have been to many, many world class art galleries. Yet you claimed: >No, never. I just asked about it because I heard the term once a long time ago, but to be honest I'm note even sure what an oil painting is. and asked: >Is it like the same thing they put in engines to make them run smoothly? Src: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12800067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12800067 How does claim to one visit "many, many world class art galleries" yet not know what an oil painting is? I think you're just trolling now.
- tempestn 10y ago
  I read the "No, never" and motor oil lines as sarcasm, especially considering the latter part of that post.
AJ007 10y ago
Here is a better analogy than the one you gave: compare a Honda Accord painted with a can of spray paint to a Honda Accord painted at the factory.
TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
One reason people buy paintings is because they're hand-made - and obviously so. A print is machine-made - and obviously so. It's reproducible, so it has no obvious uniqueness. Some people have tried making one-off prints. That never really works out, because one of the important elements in art objects is visible proof of unique human labour. A print can't supply that, even if it's a digital one-off. The labour may still be there, but it isn't visible in the way that the effort needed to cover a canvas is. Art is a social signal of disposable capital, aspiration to social status, and ability to command effort. Having an art object legitimises an image and a buyer in a way that a print can't. It also adds a sense of permanence, which some people like when they want to make memories more tangible. Instapainting capitalises on that by selling to people who want a painting but don't know much about art. I'd guess some of them like the idea of having a painting of a memory, while others like the idea of telling visitors that they had something painted specially. The bell curve wins again. This turns out to be a much bigger market than the one for people who want a painting and know something about art, and very much bigger [1] than the market for people who buy expensive paintings and know a lot about art. The idea isn't actually new, but it's possibly the first time it's been done on an industrial scale. Back in the 00s there were services in the UK selling stylised portraits for similar money. They were fairly successful, but limited by having a small pool of artists to draw from. Chinese labour has changed that and made a mass market possible. [1] But not necessarily more profitable.

by dkrich 10y ago

gm-conspiracy 10y ago

Why are you so openly hostile to everyone being confused by your inability to differentiate between the output of a 2D printer and the 3D texture of an oil painting?

angus-prune 10y ago

I honestly can't tell when you're being sarcastic, when you're trolling and when you honestly aren't getting something. The market you seem to think doesn't exist absolutely does. It has been well served for well over a decade, in regional malls and more recently online. What the OP is offering is a service above and beyond what can be achieved with a quick photoshop filter and a large format printer. They are trying to communicate that his product is qualitatively different from this - a unique, handmade piece of art. That is their entire value proposition. This isn't about trying to produce a knock-off of a photoshop filter with cheap Chinese labour.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
So, I assume this (dkrich) is what the OP is talking about, when he mentions difficulty explaining "it is a real painting!"

teh_klev 10y ago

So here you say: > Let me be clear- I have been to many, many world class art galleries. Yet you claimed: >No, never. I just asked about it because I heard the term once a long time ago, but to be honest I'm note even sure what an oil painting is. and asked: >Is it like the same thing they put in engines to make them run smoothly? Src: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12800067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12800067 How does claim to one visit "many, many world class art galleries" yet not know what an oil painting is? I think you're just trolling now.

tempestn 10y ago
I read the "No, never" and motor oil lines as sarcasm, especially considering the latter part of that post.

AJ007 10y ago

Here is a better analogy than the one you gave: compare a Honda Accord painted with a can of spray paint to a Honda Accord painted at the factory.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago

One reason people buy paintings is because they're hand-made - and obviously so. A print is machine-made - and obviously so. It's reproducible, so it has no obvious uniqueness. Some people have tried making one-off prints. That never really works out, because one of the important elements in art objects is visible proof of unique human labour. A print can't supply that, even if it's a digital one-off. The labour may still be there, but it isn't visible in the way that the effort needed to cover a canvas is. Art is a social signal of disposable capital, aspiration to social status, and ability to command effort. Having an art object legitimises an image and a buyer in a way that a print can't. It also adds a sense of permanence, which some people like when they want to make memories more tangible. Instapainting capitalises on that by selling to people who want a painting but don't know much about art. I'd guess some of them like the idea of having a painting of a memory, while others like the idea of telling visitors that they had something painted specially. The bell curve wins again. This turns out to be a much bigger market than the one for people who want a painting and know something about art, and very much bigger [1] than the market for people who buy expensive paintings and know a lot about art. The idea isn't actually new, but it's possibly the first time it's been done on an industrial scale. Back in the 00s there were services in the UK selling stylised portraits for similar money. They were fairly successful, but limited by having a small pool of artists to draw from. Chinese labour has changed that and made a mass market possible. [1] But not necessarily more profitable.