Do you have a list of the failed ideas? How many actually did you get to the stage of having a web page for?
Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
121–130 of 277 posts
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever seen an oil painting up close? There was an article awhile ago about using a 3d printer and scanner to make a "copy" of an oil painting. http://www.designboom.com/art/oce-3d-printer-creates-identic... Until Photoshop filters output STL files and color 3d printers come down in price, humans win.
Given that he already has the robot which can paint, wouldn't it be easy (well, doable at least :) to really paint the picture instead of printing it? There is no reason why this kind of painting should be any different from the manually produced.
I imagine that in the short term, robot-painted pictures would be more expensive than human-painted versions.
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#123Ug, is it just me, or does that he took money before actually having anyone to paint the pictures seem unethical? Would people have ordered if they had of known there were no artists as yet, or for that matter the artist were going to be friends of the website owner?
How exactly do you think he could have actually hired the artist to do the work if he didn't take orders? Don't constrain yourself unnecessarily. It only would have been unethical if he held the money beyond the promised time to do the work or never delivered the work.
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#124Congrats on the success. Do you have concerns that posting details publicly, including showing internal financial numbers, for a business that has virtually no barrier to entry will invite competition? From the other comments I'm seeing here it looks as though people are already making their plans and running back of the envelope calculations. I would expect at least 5 new competitors to pop up as a result of this post.
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, never. I just asked about it because I heard the term once a long time ago, but to be honest I'm note even sure what an oil painting is. Is it like the same thing they put in engines to make them run smoothly? This was actually a question for the OP, since he has experience in it, but I'll bite. If you use high quality paper and printing, you can make extremely high quality prints that imitate all kinds of effect…
Oil [0] (and acrylic) paintings aren't just flat things like you get off of your high quality printer. They have a 3D texture which you can visibly discern and run your fingers over (but probably shouldn't) and feel the brush or palette knife strokes laid by the artist. You really should get yourself to some decent art galleries; you'll then, I hope, discover there's no comparison between a hand painted or drawn pict…
Does the Art Institute of Chicago, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art qualify?
In fact, the existence of products like, say this: http://www.artinstituteshop.org/item.aspx?productId=931
would seem to indicate that there actually is a pretty decent market for oil painting reproductions that are [GASP] the product of a high quality printer and that you are wrong.
In other words, don't assume that just because you are an art snob who was educated at the Sorbonne and obsesses over the textures that you can run your fingers over that the entire market (or even a majority of it) is like you.
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#126I can answer any questions, whether about how to get a great Christmas present, or questions about the article!
What were your favorite resources for learning SEO?
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oil [0] (and acrylic) paintings aren't just flat things like you get off of your high quality printer. They have a 3D texture which you can visibly discern and run your fingers over (but probably shouldn't) and feel the brush or palette knife strokes laid by the artist. You really should get yourself to some decent art galleries; you'll then, I hope, discover there's no comparison between a hand painted or drawn pict…
Does the Art Institute of Chicago, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art qualify? In fact, the existence of products like, say this: http://www.artinstituteshop.org/item.aspx?productId=931 would seem to indicate that there actually is a pretty decent market for oil painting reproductions that are [GASP] the product of a high quality printer and that you are wrong. In other words, don't assume that just because you are an…
One man's poster is another man's oil painting reproduction, eh?
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
The connected economy does have aspects that can be concerning: * Many see bartering as a grey business. Profiting from a disparity in pricing between buyers and sellers is always a touchy subject. The usual justification is the service of connecting sellers and buyers. One can honestly wonders if buyers and sellers really would not have found each other otherwise. * How much is the match-making worth. One person doe…
> the profit appears to be un-earned The ability to make profit off of investment is fundamental to capitalism. Do you think that it's unethical for your 401k to accumulate compound interest? Should you have to do some work for the companies your 401k holds shares in, in order for your fund to make a trade? So far Chris Chen has put in a ton of work and only now is realizing the gains from it. His risk and work are o…
THIS
"I wrote this blob of text because I naturally want to defend developers who expose details about their businesses to HN. I don't want stories of how they built their businesses to be suppressed or discouraged. Especially since I see nothing unethical in this product; on the contrary, Chris Chen is giving these artists opportunity. They don't have to spend unpaid hours on Etsy or eBay, they can just focus on their work. Customers also get the opportunity to get a hand-painted portrait."
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#129Do you think people know they are paying for cheap Chinese labor when they purchase? If not, do you think they would care? When I read something like,"100% free-hand painted onto a canvas by a master artist," my impression isn't, "we outsource the painting to cheap Chinese labor." My impression is clearly wrong. I suspect others have this impression though. I think the concept is cool, but I'm not sure people would b…
This is crazy. The GDP per capita in China is totally different than the US and Europe. You're accusing Chen of exploiting these people, but it's more plausible he's providing them with opportunities they're grateful for. The idea that he's running a virtual sweatshop has more to do with your own biases and preconceived notions than reality.
I have a more general question, but is this what the "gig" economy looks like in China? Would Instapainting and the work it produces for the folks doing the paintings count as "gigs"?
Could this question (Are you really paying them enough or just exploiting them?) be asked of anything like Uber?
Re: Instapainting – From $4k in debt to $32k/mo in passive revenue with no employees
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever seen an oil painting up close? There was an article awhile ago about using a 3d printer and scanner to make a "copy" of an oil painting. http://www.designboom.com/art/oce-3d-printer-creates-identic... Until Photoshop filters output STL files and color 3d printers come down in price, humans win.
No, never. I just asked about it because I heard the term once a long time ago, but to be honest I'm note even sure what an oil painting is. Is it like the same thing they put in engines to make them run smoothly? This was actually a question for the OP, since he has experience in it, but I'll bite. If you use high quality paper and printing, you can make extremely high quality prints that imitate all kinds of effect…
Really worth getting yourself to a gallery.
Painting is applying pigment to a page using a liquid which then dries after it has been applied. This liquid could be water (for watercolours), an acrylic polymer compound (for acrylic paints) or linseed oil (for oil paints).
The liquid used has its own properties which mean you can achieve different styles and textures. For instance, water colours absorb into the paper and spread out.
Oil paints are very thick and slow drying. You can layer up the paint, and even crave back through it revealing different layers. It is common to use pallet knives and spatulas to work in oil aswell as brushes.
Some artists even create work where the paint is centimetres thick on the canvas - creating work which is more of a relief than a painting.
Because you have this texture, the light interacts with the paint differently to a printed photoshop filter. There will be highlights and shadows as the light hits the painting from an angle, as you move your perspective these will change too. You can even mix paint so that pigment is more dilute and the paint ends up slightly translucent or pearlescent, this can make parts of the canvas almost glow under the right light.
There is a lot more to oil paintings than just a photoshop filter.