It is our pleasure and privilege to paint lasting memories for our clients here at The Brown Brush. Each portrait that is entrusted to us is an emotional and very personal experience for us, as well as for our clients. We want to hear your story and vision for the painting, and we'll translate your ideas into a vivid and beautiful piece of art. If you do not have a specific photograph in mind, please see the Photography Tips page for helpful hints and tips for creating your own beautiful photographs. We also have a partnership with a local photographic studio, or we can work with your personal photographer to capture the perfect image to work from.
Kyle and I were both trained in, love and have worked for years exclusively with traditional art mediums. All of the pieces in the Fine Arts section of our portfolio are drawn or painted with traditional paints and media. We have recently added another, very powerful tool into our art studio, and have begun using this digital studio as part of our workflow. There are many benefits of digital tools in the creative process. This is a very specialized field of technology developed exclusively for and by artist/ photographers. It is widely used, commonly misunderstood by the public, and rarely discussed by artists. All of the pieces in the Portraiture section of our gallery were painted or drawn by hand with a digital stylus and pad and then rendered onto fine art paper or canvas. Please see the Before and After Gallery, or the Photo Restoration Portfolio for an idea of what can be done with these powerful digital tools. In our studio, the computer is only a tool and it will never replace easels and paints. We continue to produce art by traditional painting and drawing. Masterpiece portraiture is fully hand painted in traditional mediums. We guarantee that your finished portrait, whether it began life in our digital or actual easel, will exceed your expectations and reflect attention to detail and craftsmanship that are the watermarks of a professional artist.
Below are some of the questions that we are frequently asked about our digital studio and products. If you have additional questions, we would love to answer them for you. Please feel free to contact us.
Do you use Filters to produce a painted effect?
The past and future of a Giclée.
Why
Digital?
Classically trained painters have always sought ways to more
accurately capture scale, line and color. In
art, as in music, the instruments produce beautiful music only in the hands of a
practiced musician. The quality of the instrument only enhances the
performance of the artist. Not all digital art is created equal.
There are many self-proclaimed artists and painters using forms of
digital technology to produce ‘art’ in a range of quality.
Often, artists don’t reveal their use of technology with the intent of
appearing more authentic or talented. We
prefer to be honest about all of the mediums and tools we use, and feel that our
body of work, both digital and ‘natural’ can
speak for itself. Our digital studio enables us to not only get exact dimensions and colors, but also
gives us unlimited creative license and flexibility to create with traditional
styles of media including paints, pastels, etc.
The final product of digital art, the
giclée, as a springboard for
traditionally painted and finished artworks. The giclée
is a beautiful
archival print on fine art paper or canvas. It is with great enthusiasm
that we bring our classical training to this
field, as there are many benefits to the artist and the client.
A digital process allows the client and artist to work together closely
throughout the portrait process through the use of e-mailed sketches and
feedback. The client views prints
of the actual artwork during the approval stage.
We also love to work digitally as the file can be reproduced.
This allows families to share their commissioned artwork with family and
friends. We feature a high-end line of gift products that feature your
custom portrait or photographs, as well as high quality re-prints in our
store. Most importantly The Brown Brush and our lab retain an archived copy of your
portrait. We offer this 'insurance' in our Masterpiece line as well, as it
offers real peace of mind that your investment is available for reprint at any
time, especially in the case of natural disaster or fire. If
you’d like a more thorough explanation, or have any questions, please contact us.
What is
Digital Artwork?
We
work with a state of
the art digital studio consisting of a high resolution scanner, a fine art
inkjet printer that is specially designed to print on thick art papers and canvas
with thoroughly tested archival inks….and of course a really, really big
computer. Instead of a
paintbrush or pencil, we use a digital stylus and tablet to draw and paint.
The programs that we use (Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter) are
extremely powerful and allow for an almost infinite range of styles and design
possibilities. Once
we establish the composition from the original photograph, we begin the process of
hand-painting with the stylus in the selected medium. We
prefer to translate images in traditional mediums including oils, acrylics, pastels, pencils,
watercolors and oil pastels. Once
the portrait is approved by the client, a digital print, or Giclee' is produced
on heavy, fine-art paper or cotton canvas.
What is
Digital Media?
Digital media is a program’s interpretation of a real paint,
pastel, or pencil. It closely
mimics actual media in almost every way. We
actually smear, erase, smudge, brush, draw and mix just as with our real art
supplies.
Do you use
Filters to produce a painted effect?
No. Our software does include
‘artistic’ filters that can automatically manipulate the image with brushstrokes
and other mediums. We personally do
not use these, as the look they create is nothing like real art, and is often
very fuzzy, flat or muddied (as if you're viewing your photograph through one of
the old glass shower doors). When
we create a portrait digitally, we initially go about it in the same way that we
would when creating a traditional portrait. We prefer stick with very
authentic styles and mediums (oils, watercolors, pastels, etc.)
Each piece is created with a stylus and digital pad, marking stroke by
stroke just as we would use a pencil or brush.
Each completed work takes many, many hours.
What
is a Giclée?
giclée
(zhee-clay) n. 1. a type of digital fine-art print. 2. The final
product or print of a digitally produced photograph, painting, drawing or other
work of art. 3. Most often associated with reproductions; a giclée is
a print or exact copy of an original work of art that was created by
conventional means (painting, drawing, etc.) and then reproduced digitally. Return
to FAQs
The past and future of a Giclée. While lithography made reprints of artwork widely available in the 1850’s, fine art digital printing, called giclée, promised exceptional quality reproductions as early as the 1980’s. In the beginning, giclée printing was capable of surpassing all other known forms of reproduction in color, quality and accuracy. In the 80’s, the dye-based inks that were used for giclée printing were only rated to last for a few years before fading was evident. This severely limited the use of giclée printing, and pushed the industry to the fringes of the art world. Now with specially engineered pigment based inks that have been independently rated for longevity and quality, giclée printing has worldwide acceptance by artists, galleries and museums. Under comparable display conditions, a giclée will outlast most natural mediums! Return to FAQs
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