PaintYourLife.com creates paintings from any photo you give them. Their motto is "you capture it, our artists will paint it," and that’s precisely what they do--and for very little money. Possible subjects include portraits of anyone from loved ones to celebrities (you can have stock photos reproduced in paint) along with landscapes or homes, and even your favorite vehicle or pet. The paintings are handmade, but they certainly don’t qualify as original. The finished product has zero personality.

When we’re young, our faces are smooth: it’s only as we live and grow that we accumulate details. Painting a child's portrait is difficult specifically because of this lack of detail, and that's why I started my career by looking at older faces.Details are the crucial difference between an older person’s face and a child’s.

There are as many proposed definitions for art as there are artists and art-lovers in the world, but I can’t help but feel that they all refer to the one core meaning. To my mind, art is always about causing change--big or small, personal or global. That’s its value, its reason, its purpose, and its complete definition. Of course, not everyone agrees with me. Here are some other definitions of art and why I think they all point back to revolution. 1. Art is a profound human exercise or experience.

A camera is every kind of artist's best friend. I may not be a photographer, but I still like having my camera handy. I've found that taking photos is an excellent way for me to train myself to notice details as well as practice designing compositions, both skills that I need for painting.

Or, I mean, it is my portrait, but I’m not the subject. I painted it. When someone talks about their portrait it’s usually of them and not by them. Who has more right to feel possessive a portrait? The artist who is its author, or the subject who is, in a sense, its other author?