How to make a Picture look like a Painting - Acrylic Gel Medium - 2016 

Very professional and informative video, it has really helped me.. Thank you.

I think this turned out great! Last week I was searching everything I could think of to find how to make a digital canvas print look less cheap and new, and more like a real painting. This never came up, but then showed up randomly on my feed today.

I've used this technique a lot in the past on prints, many people have mistaken them for real paintings. I must admit I was surprised when he used a sponge. The secret is to paint the brush strokes in different directions as you would if you were painting the actual picture. I do like Golden gel mediums although they tend to be a bit expensive in the UK as most art products are that are manufactured in the US. There are a lot of videos from the US that say this or that product is cheap, well it maybe for them but not for us in the UK.

i watched a number of videos on YT but yours is the most salient and realistic as well as tenable. Thank you so much. I drew a lot in the past I’m a senior now but all I need now is getting those family pics on the walls but with the dream of having them look like they’ve been painted or looking faux painted. what you did was so therapeutic in my opinion even just watching you do it. I was thinking that perhaps i would not use a sponge to start with but just use an appropriate brush and brush the medium in strokes that really mimic painting with brush. Thank you again. I cant wait to do it. i have a family picture to experiment.

I found going over each spot only once is best. In my experience rebrushing the surface in the same spot while the medium is still wet in the same place will mess up the finish and leave a white surface. I apply a thin coat in the direction of the brush work one light stroke only and do not go over it repeatedly. If I miss a spot I do not worry about it, but when the first coat is completely dry I go over the spots I missed. You might try sanding down the background. Wipe it down to get off the dust and go over the surface again lightly one stroke at a time.

thanks for this! a before and after at the end would be satisfying

there is one major issue I've discovered is make sure you do this with a strong frame or on a art board not a cheap back framed print...the gel medium will shrink your canvas as it dries and will crumble cheap print on demand canvas back frames. I made a $3000 mistake doing this, by printing all my digital art and doing this and over a little time snap crackle pop ...there went all the ones i did this to. So now I have to take out all the wood back frames and now mount them all on panels of birch wood and because of the size I still have to make cross bars..

Fantastic! Your technique made a big difference in making this look like a real painting and I'm sure it will mine too! Thanks!

It looks amazing! Thanks so much, what a great informative video, so clear and helpful, just what I was looking for.

Can't wait to try this, thanks!

Well done 😊

Very nice video and information. I am excited about trying this with my prints. Thank you. Wonderful work. Hi from Sandpoint, Idaho USA

I just saw in another video on embellishing a giclee print (on canvas) that you shouldn't go back over a spot, but work top to bottom or left to right, but don't go back to something that's already started to set or you can get those white spots and/or a white haze. Instead, let the first pass dry completely, then go back and do a second - touching up anything you're not happy with. This would also be how you could build up more thickness in some of the areas, if that's something you're going for -- I saw someone do that on the petals of a flower (a huge 36x36 print) and it looked really cool.

Definitely going to try it. Hope i don't ruin an expensive canvas print! Thanks for the video

Thanks for the beautiful video.Can that medium be applied on fine art paper prints, too? Thanks 🙋‍♀️👏

Love this! Thank you!

This is Amazing!!!!

Love this. What vendor did you use to print and is that canvas you had it printed on? Great job

That's mad chace havnt seen that done before, gd though👍

Is this better than mod podge? Do you have update video? And better views of the finish sheen or overall matte effect/ shine effect you mentioned in the comments?

I love your idea.

Wow! Just what I was looking for! Great job. Does it matter the quality of print? Like a Giclee?

You are the best!

This is gorgeous!! What canvas material is this, matte, satin or gloss? Does it have a coating on the print? If so, is it matte or something else?

Ive tried touching up my print on canvas with acrylic paint. Each stroke is tooo shiny. Ive been researching what products to touch up with, to avoid the obvious shine of the acrylic paint... to no avail. Do you know? The print was made from Costco using Epson stylus pro Inc. thank you!

Can this be done also on paper prints? Or it´s only for Canvas prints? Thanks

What other gel can we use? Liquitex? Mod podge?

I’m doing this soon for a print I had mad but want to protect/make look fancy. I’m thinking of applying an even coating of the medium, then texturizing with sponge and brushstroke. Is my strategy a good or bad one?

I have a question... I did the gel process exactly as you described using Gloss Medium. Most of them dried clear but one (which is thicker) has been drying for over 25 hours (6 of those with a fan on it). It dried with a white base - it looks like Elmer's glue. Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening?

Thank you for the video. Can I paint with oil colors over the dried (Gel Medium) canvas picture?

Can i use this gel on picture from canon pro 4000 printer? Or just used with painting

Great video. Thank you

We can use any medium matte or gloss?

Dose it work on noraml pic too? Not canvas

do I understand correctly - you started with a simple printed canvas (print of a photo)?

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I've been looking at these videos on how to embellish a print on canvas, because I bought a really nice painting (a Native American warrior, with lots of color and bold strokes) from a local artist, but didn't find out until I showed up to get it that it was a digital print on canvas. I paid $100, which is OK I suppose, but he should have told me it was a digital print. I could have declined to buy it but he's a struggling artist and we're living in a pandemic, and I was using some of my pandemic government money, so I decided to keep it... I'd been very excited about those bold colors and slashes of paint - which turned out not to be paint. I kept thinking about how I could improve the print. I am an amateur artist, myself, though not experienced at all with oil paints - but I'm thinking of embellishing this painting myself. I'd like to enhance the colored brush strokes with highlights of real paint. I'm not sure, though, if I should first texturize the print like we see here and then go in and add touches of paint -- or vice versa.

Very cool great job

Any report on damage long term to the image/print. Longevity? archieval?

You didn't show anything about the picture itself. What material is it? Can it be done from a printer picture?

Thank you for this! I bought a few inexpensive wall prints and when they arrived the prints show brush strokes in them but the surface is completely smooth...it just doesn't look finished to me so I'm going to add those much needed brush strokes!

So this is how it's done? Thanks

Hello!, you have to Varnish the print first?

So my X wife did take modeling up lol..