Category: From Paint to Photo

The process of restoring an old black and white photo, digitally transformed into color, differs significantly from the procedure followed for an old painting or pencil drawing depicting a human face. In the photo, the goal is to clean imperfections and signs of time, possibly colorize it. In contrast, in the painting, it’s about realistically reinterpreting a human face, often perceived as truthful but it is draw, not a photo. From the point of view of the peculiar truthfulness of a human face, it is something close to the early police identikit attempts.

A drawing, no matter how lifelike, can never replicate the biometric nuances and color details of a real photograph. Imagine a person on the street with the face of an oil painting: it would be a hybrid, a blend of a human, a cartoon, and a carnival mask.

For the “paint to photo” the process is extremely complex: Reworking and “humanizing” an old drawing or painting first requires empathy with the artist. Subsequently, once this empathy is established, a meticulous biometric-scientific analysis of essential features in the depicted face begins.

Understanding whether symmetries are only “academic” to the stylistic period, if the artist emphasized certain features or concealed others, and many other variables is crucial. Afterward, the results of this detailed study are transferred to dedicated 3D face modeling software. From 3 to 8 3D drafts are created, carefully compared and overlaid on the original until precise correspondence between the measurements of the original image and the 3D drafts is achieved.

Subsequently, once the essential biometric features produced by the 3D face are in harmony with the original painting or drawing, the 2D processing phase begins, often using software like Photoshop, of the 3D model created. This phase is the fundamental basis for initiating the production process of all “paint to photo” images published on this website. The entire reworking and restoration chain is crafted, leaving nothing to chance.

The work in 2D will be meticulously shaped to achieve a highly photorealistic end result, capturing human expressions and color richness.