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How To Showcase Your Pet With The Perfect Pet Portrait Painting

Pet portrait painting of cat on its back

If you’re a pet owner, then you are well acquainted with the issue of running out of storage on your phone with your camera roll chock full of pictures of your pets. Photos of your pet are great, but why not turn some of those adorable pics into a fun pet portrait painting?

Rather than being stuck on a phone, paintings can be hung on a wall to showcase your perfect pet to everyone. They’re also so much more whimsical, fun, and personal than a digital photo in a frame. If you’re not so confident in your painting ability, we offer amazing pet portrait services that can do it for you! Continue reading “How To Showcase Your Pet With The Perfect Pet Portrait Painting”

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What Is a Portrait Painting?

Instapainting wedding portrait painting.
There’s something unique about a painting because of the time, care, and talent put into the piece of art. Paintings add a sort of old-world charm to an increasingly modern age, while also showcasing the artistic taste of the owner. There are several different mediums for painting, including digital painting, spray painting, oil painting, and ink wash painting, to name a few. Continue reading “What Is a Portrait Painting?”

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Use DataLoader to Batch And Cache Arbitrary MongoDB Queries in GraphQL Resolvers

We implement arbitrary query caching and batching using DataLoader to allow greedy data fetching with automatic DB query optimization. You may see some minimal Typescript syntax to provide some context in the example code. Do not be alarmed.
GraphQL promises a lot of cool features like the ability to batch and cache queries, save on data transmission, query for data anywhere and only request exactly what you need from the server, and all sorts of optimizations. But it merely enables these features through its use of strong typing of the API schema—they do not come for free. It’s up to us to implement the optimizations by utilizing the metadata. Continue reading “Use DataLoader to Batch And Cache Arbitrary MongoDB Queries in GraphQL Resolvers”
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Give The Same Gift Every US President Receives When Leaving Office

Did you know that every US president has gotten a presidential portrait painting done for them upon leaving office? These paintings can take 1-2 years to complete and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Obamas’ portraits reportedly cost $500,000.

Don’t worry though, historically US presidents have stopped using tax-payer money to fund these paintings.

A satirical version of Barack Obama's presidential oil portrait.
A satirical version of Barack Obama’s presidential oil portrait.

Continue reading “Give The Same Gift Every US President Receives When Leaving Office”

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Get a Robert Ryman Blank White Painting Replica for $20

We’re offering the deal of a lifetime! Get a replica of Robert Ryman’s all-white-paint-on-canvas painting “Untitled” (1961) for just $20 for a 48″x48″ oil-on-canvas replica (after a gift card rebate). That’s a $19,999,980 savings from the latest auction price. You’ll be able to show off your wealth and art savvy without breaking the bank.

You can hang an original size oil-on-canvas replica of this on your wall and intrigue (or baffle) your guests!

How to get this deal:

  1. Place an order for 48″x48″ Mixed-Media (printed+painted) replica or a 48″x48″ 100% Oil Painting replica
  2. Contact us at support@instapainting.com after your order is shipped to receive a gift card for $154 if a Mixed Media replica, or $288 if a 100% Oil Painting replica. This will bring the total cost to $20 and $40 respectively. Rebate amount will be reduced accordingly (to bring down purchase price to $20 or $40) if ordered size is smaller than 48″x48″.

Limit one per customer. Order must be placed by end of day (US Pacific time) April 1, 2018.

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Dafen Oil Painting Village: The Secret Lives of China’s Art Factory Workers

A child plays outside near the factory

Hidden on the outskirts of the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen lies a warren of narrow buildings that once produced two thirds of the world’s oil paintings. The suburb of Dafen – now officially named Dafen Oil Painting Village – grew in the late 1980s after Huang Jiang, an enterprising master art copier from Hong Kong, relocated his team of artists to the impoverished fishing village to take advantage of cheap rents and it’s proximity to international clients in Hong Kong. Over the years, demand for his knock-offs skyrocketed and many struggling artists chose to take up blue-collar jobs as commercial artists while art students flocked to Dafen to train to specialise in copying specific styles such as the Impressionists, Renaissance or Picasso.

Continue reading “Dafen Oil Painting Village: The Secret Lives of China’s Art Factory Workers”

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Robo Painter 4-Axis Robotic Arm Test

We invited artist jeandrawstrings back to try out a new and improved robo painter powered by a 4 axis robotic arm. This video demonstrates the arm’s built in record and play functionality using its native firmware (a fork of Grbl) and the stock record and play functionality. Compared to our first robot (which ran on our spartan homemade firmware), it’s much quieter, sports analog feedback technology, and cosmetic enhancements.

Continue reading “Robo Painter 4-Axis Robotic Arm Test”

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How Do You Paint 10,000 Paintings a Month?

When Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo toiled for four years on his master work. Renoir spent six months painting Luncheon of the Boating Party—the painting featured in the film Amélie. Even Guernica, which Pablo Picasso painted quickly to publicize the bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica, took over a month to complete. Continue reading “How Do You Paint 10,000 Paintings a Month?”