How Hand-Painted Paintings Become Wallpapers
Every way of finishing an interior has its advantages and disadvantages. Today, we can choose from many wall-decoration techniques, and among this wealth of options there are also solutions that combine the benefits of different approaches. One such innovative and highly appealing idea—as seen in the Wall Art Arte collection—is transferring hand-painted artworks directly onto our wallpapers.
PEOPLE AND ART
People have decorated the spaces they inhabit for almost as long as they have existed. From the oldest known paintings discovered on cave walls, dating back more than 40,000 years, through all kinds of materials covered with colors, patterns, and scenes (such as tapestries and paintings), to decorative plasters, stucco, and finally wallpaper. Experiencing art seems to be a natural human need, much like the desire to surround ourselves with beautiful, refined objects. So why not combine art with our interiors in such a way that it would not merely be—as a painting is—a complementary element, but would become, just as cave paintings once did, and later the artworks in spacious palaces and cathedrals, an integral part of them?
STAGE ONE: THE IDEA AND THE PAINTING
What should be depicted in a painting so that, once transferred onto wallpaper, it not only retains its original message and energy but also works perfectly in a larger format and on a different medium? This is one of the questions an artist asks while standing before an easel and a still-empty canvas. Although a graphic artist also takes part in the process of transferring a painting onto wallpaper (see the following stages), everything begins with the vision in the mind of the painter (in our case, female painters and a female graphic artist). Of course, only once this fleeting artistic vision has fully matured and is ready to see the light of day is it transferred—naturally, not immediately—to canvas using acrylic or oil paints, although sometimes the works also take the form of watercolors or sketches. The creative process continues until the artist decides that the work is complete. It is then assessed by the graphic artist working with them, who determines whether the piece will work as wallpaper. If so, it moves on to the second stage.
STAGE TWO: THE PHOTO SESSION
Once the paintings prepared for a given season are complete, it is time to transfer them one by one into digital form, as this is the only way they can be used further with modern technologies. However, to capture every nuance—the brushstrokes, the subtleties of different painting techniques, and unique color combinations—it is not enough simply to photograph the painting. What is needed is an advanced photo session in a studio equipped for this type of work. Each painting, usually no larger than two square meters, is photographed in great detail, piece by piece, with as many as several dozen high-resolution photographs taken for a single work. After the session, the graphic artist evaluates every photographed section and either approves the session or orders it to be repeated, because every part and even the smallest detail must be reproduced perfectly on the wallpaper. At this stage, however, the photographic material is still not ready for use: before it can be used, the photographs of each painting must be combined into a whole and appropriately processed in a graphics program.
STAGE THREE: COMPOSITING AND GRAPHIC PROCESSING
Matching all the photographed sections is a task that requires time and patience, as the individual fragments partially overlap and are not identical. The differences are often subtle, but an experienced graphic artist can find and correct them. Once the painstaking process of joining the fragments is complete, we obtain a very large graphic file, which initially undergoes a whole series of treatments designed to remove any unwanted elements from the image. These may include dirt transferred by the brush, such as dust or cat hair, unwanted shadows created during the session, and even certain elements of the image whose presence would disrupt the composition when used as wallpaper. The colors are then optimized (sometimes different color versions are also created) to prevent tonal inaccuracies during printing. Various graphic filters are applied to further emphasize and bring out the work’s hand-painted character, and the graphic artist often makes subtle, manual modifications to the artwork using a tablet. This stage once again requires patience, as well as a steady hand and, of course, artistic sensitivity. Graphic work on a single painting can take anywhere from one to several days. This is, of course, only a very general outline of the process. It is worth adding that, in addition to high technical quality, the final version of the image must meet the highest artistic and aesthetic standards. Once all this has been completed, the image in digital form is finally ready to enter production.
STAGE FOUR: THE FINISHED WORK
At least several weeks have passed since the first line was drawn on the canvas, and at last we have a very high-resolution image file that can now be printed in a format much larger than the original and on various media: paper, non-woven fabric, vinyl, or mesh (in the case of large-format advertising). All the earlier graphic treatments were intended to prepare the image so that it could be displayed at multiple magnifications without any loss of quality. Before the image is finally approved for production, test prints are made on various materials to ensure that the finished work meets all quality requirements. Then, to show how the image captured on wallpaper looks in different spaces, visualizations are created using a variety of interiors. Only in this form does the new design premiere in the Wall Art store. From that moment on, anyone can order a chosen design/image, which is then sized and individually adapted to a specific interior. An additional attraction of the Wall Art Arte collection is the option of using specially dedicated textured wallpapers, especially brush (a brushstroke texture) and linen (a painter’s canvas texture), which further enhance the positive sensations that come from close contact with painted art.
PEOPLE AND BEAUTY
The philosophy behind the Wall Art Arte collection is to transfer traditionally created paintings as effectively as possible—using advanced wallpapering techniques—directly onto our walls. This makes it possible to achieve something more than a painting and far more than wallpaper: an extraordinary marriage of art and the latest technologies. All the small imperfections contained in the painting, characteristic of handmade work and defining the artist’s style and personality, the natural brushstrokes, the texture of the canvas, the one-of-a-kind combinations of colors and shapes, and advanced graphic technology come together to create original art wallpapers. By becoming part of our walls, they simultaneously become an integral part of our homes, our private spaces, and our emotions. A part of ourselves.
