Idea Volcano

read, share, suggest, and use cracking business ideas

1. Oli 06.21.07 / 11am

   I love it William!

   One twist could be if you marketed it as a ‘Caricature Service’. Text in a photo and get sent back the caricature. The result could be the oil painting you suggest and one option could be a digital picture to your mobile (possible screensaver) and to your email.

   To order, you’d text your photo and email address to a shortcode, and you’d pay for it by reverse-billed SMS.

   Have a few celebrity ones (George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Will Smith) done for show, then take out a small ad in Heat magazine…
2. Dan C 06.21.07 / 1pm

   What a great idea William. I’m surprised no one’s doing this already - I’m sure they will be as soon as they read your suggestion!

   The market for oil paintings of loved ones from favourite digital photographs must be quite considerable - I know I’d use it providing they got the price right, and I can’t imagine that would be too hard to achieve.
3. Liah 06.21.07 / 2pm

   hi
   i think it’s just taking the mick out of the artists who devote thier life to art. While you want to give it to some chinese person for them to do a fake copy. Plus not every chinese person is an artist. Also the real art industry will go down cause of some phonys. One word UNFAIR.
4. Chris 06.21.07 / 2pm

   Liah why is this unfair?
   No, not every Chinese person is an artist….not every English person is either. But the artists that are Chinese are generally cheaper than those that are English and can be ust as talented.
   Out sourcing is very commmon, and I don’t see how it can be a fake if its hand painted by somebody from a photograph… whether they are a Chnese artist or English one.
5. Melanie 06.21.07 / 5pm

   Liah - the issue here is cost, quality and speed. I prefer to use UK based people whenever possible, practical and profitable. If you think this is ‘unfair’ then perhaps you can suggest a UK artist that can copy a digital photograph at an acceptable price within a few days? I do agree with Chris, any copy of a digital photograph (person, place, holiday memory etc) is an original painting not a fake whoever paints it. I can see a huge market in this not only for portraits but also for holiday memories - imagine your favourite beach at sunset hung in your office …
6. Jake Coltman 06.21.07 / 5pm

   As much as it pains me to say, China is a nice cash cow right now, the services like this which they offer are almost unique, such a service in Britain would cost you an arm and a leg.

   I am really interested in getting this idea followed up, as I think it had massive potential. Could the author give any contact details for such an artist?

   Thank you

   Jake
7. william berry 06.21.07 / 6pm

   hey jake, i did some market research into this a couple of years ago and have the details of several painting studios in vietnam and china. I even set up a simple site to look into doing reproduction oil paintings instead of custom ones. Check here:
   http://www.reproduction-oil-paintings.co.uk/

   In the end i decided that i had other things that i wanted to focus on instead. Happy to have another look at this one through. You can get hold of me at www.williamberry.com.

   BTW I agree with Liah and Melanie about using cheap labour and if we did progress this then i would want to see it as a fair and ethical way to bring opportunity to the far east. At the moment there are some incredibly good artists earning virtually nothing and their talents are going to waste. This could be a great way to share their talents with the world in an open and transparent way. I would be happy for all profits to go to good causes.

   best.
8. Jake Coltman 06.21.07 / 6pm

   http://www.paintyourlife.com, a service which already offers a very similar service, and includes other mediums. This was the top result for a google search. The prices seem a little high, but then I don’t know how much it would cost to have them made.
9. Jake Coltman 06.21.07 / 6pm

   Sent you a contact email, awaiting reply eagerly. Thankfully I happen to have time off at the moment to waste, and it is perfect for something like this.

   Jake
10. van gogh 06.21.07 / 6pm

    been there done that, the volume and quality of competition dont make it worth the effort, ive chucked it
11. van gogh 06.21.07 / 6pm

    oh and if you dont believe me why not do a quick search on google and you’ll find your army of competitors
12. Geo 06.21.07 / 7pm

    Hello
    This idea was being practiced at least twenty years ago The artists were from abroad but not China. A door to door salesman introduced their business to me and later I saw ads for a similar service targeting animal owners. The ads did not say they were using foriegn artists though.

    This is not to say it is not a good idea. Remember to keep up with the times and notice that it is not what you do so much but the way that you do it.
13. Jake Coltman 06.21.07 / 9pm

    An army of competitors yes, and a public so unaware of this service as to be untrue. You might do well to remember that people rarely discover new things through google. A better way to advertise this is to target real people as a real business, not just as a website. Even if only locally, an advertising scheme would pay big dividends.
14. Graham 06.22.07 / 9pm

    Hi Each

    I recently wanted a watercolour of a house from architect elevation drawings and I found it difficult to fnd a source … I was thinking of India or China or somewhere cheap.

    Anyone know of any such cheap sources in case I need one for again?

    I did get a few `daft quotes` from UK artists in the end … but they were many multiples of what I wanted to pay (which was up to £100).

    Thanks
    Graham.
15. Rob F 06.28.07 / 9am

    Hi,

    I have been quietly interested in this idea for a few days now. I’m in the IT industry and have all the experience to set up a website with Shopping Basket and credit card facilities.

    Jake - perhaps we could get togethor and thrash this out between us?

    Rob F
16. william berry 06.28.07 / 9am

    Hi Rob and Jake, Great to see the enthusiasm. Please feel free to run with the idea, i dont require any money or shares - although i do ask that you credit the original idea to myself and ideavolcano. Good luck with it and if you do launch something then please keep us updated here - we may be able to help you with your pr. Best:-)
17. lyf 01.21.08 / 3pm

    hi,everyone! I am Chinese. I find this article by google.
    I can list some statistic to prove it is a really good idea.
    In China, There are over 1million artists, about 500000 are art school students. Price of an 24 *36 inch oil paintings portrait is less than $50! in U.N, the price is about $250. I am familary with china artist market, but I am not sure about US market, What’s the market size for custom oil portraits?
    my Email: lyf202605@yahoo.com.cn;
    xqs1010@163.com
    so anyone is interested in this business,please contact me
    maybe we can work together to get this business.
    by the way, if i build a website which gather thousands of artists, How to sell their products to US markt?
    How to promote?
18. Hunter 02.24.08 / 9pm

    lyf

    DO you get the copy right of these artist? Now there are many reproduction.
19. Zhongbo Xie 04.11.08 / 9pm

    GOLD APPLE ART created in 1999, is a set wholesale and export of hand painted oil painting production-oriented enterprises. We are a professional hand painted oil paintings manufacturer from China.We wholesale all kinds of handpainted oil paintings reproductions,wholesale hand painted original oil paintings, wholesales hand painted oil paintings portrait and the other hand painted oil paintings types.These hand painted oil paintings were made purely by hand by our outstanding painter.So our paintings color and language is very strong. Our traditional areas requested by the production of various types of high-quality customer exquisite hand painted oil paintings, the handpainted oil paintings are pure products from hand-painted. We will in the international emerging markets to further develop high-quality,development low-cost hand painted oil painting. “Changes products, the same quality,” that is we will pursue the goal. Our own ability to create confidence in the future.
    Quality : we are in pursuit of overall quality, depending on the overall quality of corporate lifeline. This requires that every company and every employee can be good at a collective understanding, prediction, or even exceed customer wishes. We have a complete set of strict management system products, and services will produce the entire process of continuous improvement and improved. Our history gives us in the market, in the production process, in the practice of management, products and services in general must be a breakthrough concept, it should be better.

    Hand painted oil painting wholesale types:oil painting reproductions,original oil painting,canvas oil painting duplicating,hand painted oil paintings,photos into oil painting,Canvas replica,craft canvas portrait,handcraft oil painting replication.
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    GOLD APPLE ART CO.,LTD
20. Kathryn Young 04.15.08 / 1pm

    There are many qualified artists trying to work in the UK, who will paint or draw a family portrait. My friend is one of them and samples of her work can be seen at
    http://www.pumpkinpie.net/christinemiller/index.html

    She does not charge ‘a fortune’, the job is well done and for a very reasonable fee for the hours of work involved. Sorry, ‘outsourcing’, and trying to pay Chinese wages for an item like this is just plain exploitative meanness. What are you willing to pay any ‘tradesman’ for a skilled job ?
    K
21. sandy 04.29.08 / 7pm

    hi,
    I’m impressed by the blog discussion here. I’m also interested in customized Chinese paintings.

    Can anyone please give me a list of such Chinese manufacturers of customized oil paintings? Thanks.
22. wholesale oil painting 10.04.08 / 6am

    good painting
23. oil painting 10.04.08 / 6am

    see painting at www.goldappleart.com

    www.oil-painting-china.com
24. china oil painting 10.08.08 / 7pm

    good
25. oil painting reproductions 10.18.08 / 6pm

    all kian

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