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While Nobilified strives to deliver original and interesting content to our clientele, we also realize that the art of replica and reproduction itsef has a long and, well, noble tradition. There are several good reasons to own a custom replica of a classic piece of art through our replica painting program:

• Hanging a replica on your wall at home doesn't mean you're trying to fool anyone into thinking you own an original Van Gogh. It simply means you have enough appreciation for the beauty of the image to want to own a version of it that uses the best possible materials and reproduces the artistry of the original as closely as possible.
• A well-made replica is the next best thing to owning an original in other ways, too. With a replica executed to high quality standards, it's possible to get a tactile, up-close impression of the techniques the artist used, right down to the individual brush-stroke. That's something you simply can't get from a print.
• A custom replica painting from Nobilified will far outlast a poster. No matter how well-made or printed, posters will rip, fade and age visibly over a relatively short span of time. On the other hand, a well-made reproduction using canvas and oil paints will last much longer, possibly long enough to become a family heirloom.

Once you've decided on purchasing a replica to decorate your home, the next step is to decide exactly what style of painting you want. This is a decision that ultimately only you can make, guided by your own taste and the needs of your home, but there are some excellent guides available online that help you track down the kind of imagery that will inspire you. The Art Story's Modern Movements and Styles guide provides astonishingly comprehensive coverage of modern and contemporary painting styles, for example, and you can find a large gallery of Renaissance art images in Artsy's Reinassance Art gallery online. A little time and Google-fu can guide you to many more visual riches besides.

If you've found the piece and artist you want, the process of commissioning your replica is simple. Just log on to Nobilified, go to our replica painting program page and enter the name of the work and the artist you're looking for. If you've been able to capture sample images for the artist, upload them, too. The gifted artists of Nobilified will do the rest.

Contact Nobilified today at support@nobilified.com to commission the replica painting that completes your art collection at home.

Nobilified gives clients a brush with greatness through our custom portaiture, and that greatness comes in all kinds of forms. Clients can upload selfies to be combined with images of everything from Vikings and Pirates to Kings and Emperors, from Pin-Up models to Queens of yore. But suppose you're looking for something a little different? Suppose, for example, you'd like to ride a dinosaur with a gun-wielding valkyrie in the style of the famously strange Kung Fury? Or suppose you'd prefer to have your face atop the awesome form of Conan the Barbarian? Maybe you'd like to walk in the footsteps of the iconic Captain Picard, or maybe you and a friend would like to make an appearance on a famous album cover.

If you find yourself yearning for something like this, there's good news in just how easy it is to customize the Nobilified experience. Thanks to the create your own masterpiece service, you're not limited to the selection of portraits you find in our galleries. You can conceive and create your very own Nobilified portrait from scratch in a few simple steps. It's a simple matter of uploading a picture of the character you want to become, uploading a picture of yourself -- and any other friends who'll be joining you in the painting -- uploading images of any other items you want added to the mix, and letting our talented artists do the rest.

You can check out our examples gallery to see some of the memorable creations our customers have put together using this feature. We'd also like to take this opportunity to provide a few links to image sites that can provide potential inspiration (only scratching the surface of what the Internet has to offer, of course, but they're a place to start):

• There's a wealth of vivid royalty-free stock images to be had on Pixabay, and interesting collections for genre content like fantasy and science fiction if they're your speed (although with those examples, you might have to dig around a bit for images with actual people in them).
• Pinterest hosts an amazing diversity of heroic fantasy art. So much so, in fact, that it's probably best to go there with a specific kind of image in mind; otherwise it can become one of those "rabbit-hole" sites that consume far more time than you planned to spend!
• You can find archives of classic pulp art on archive sites like the Amazing Stories archive (one good way to find these is to search for archives on Open Culture).

If you want more information on how Nobilified can help you realize the heroic portrait you've been dreaming of, contact us today at support@nobilified.com.

Art can have a complicated relationship with memory and our collective past. Sometimes, art is ephemeral, like performance art that doesn't exist in any particular space when it's not being acted out, or certain works of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely who created installations that were specifically built to self-destruct. This was art designed to preserved in memory; but another, more common kind of art, like the personalized portrait, has the purpose of preserving memory in art. Philippe Halsman described the mission of portraiture this way:

"A true portrait should, today and a hundred years from today, the Testimony of how this person looked and what kind of human being he was."

Both are valid ways to approach art, but it's the second kind of art that concerns us at Nobilified, and there's more than one way to deliver it.

Here at Nobilified, we're known for our whimsical take on art and greatness that lets everyday people insert their faces into classical images of knights, kings and heroes or into the glamorous iconography of pop culture; but it's not the only thing we do. Sometimes, you don't want a painting of yourself as Napoleon on the back of a rearing white charger. You simply want a quality piece of art that brings a moment or a memory to the canvas, a piece of art that will last for years.

There are plenty of occasions that can prompt us to seek out a special quality of painted portrait. They can commemorate turning points like weddings and graduations, for example, or the birth of a baby. They can simply capture a special memory: an image of a family picture on a summer's day, a group of friends hanging out together, a cherished loved one seen in a peaceful moment. Sometimes, these are ephemeral moments that are easiest to capture with a camera, and that you might then want to translate into a more solid and permanent format.

This is where Nobilified's photo to painting process comes in. It's simple: all you need to do is upload a photo of one to four people, specify the size and framing of the painting you want, and add any additional notes about the style of painting you need. Nobilified's talented artists will do the rest, producing a custom portrait to your specifications that can decorate your walls at home and preserve those treasured memories for years.

If you're interested in turning a photo into a painting, contact Nobilified today at support@nobilified.com and find out how we can create the personalized painted portrait that's ideal for you.

It can be argued that there's maybe no age group that benefits more from early exposure to art--appreciating it, talking about it, being inspired to imagine the unfamiliar and to feel wonder, joy or laughter through looking at it--than children. As British artist Patrick Brill puts it in a recent editorial, "the whole world is an art school—we just need to engage with it in a creative way." Having that kind of creative engagement early can help prepare children for the world and foster skills and ways of thinking that they'll need growing up, as arts and textiles teacher Andria Zafirakou points out: "There are so many reports about the skills required for jobs of the future, in the age of technology, and there's not one report where I've not heard that creativity is the key skill employers are seeking."

One great way to get kids interested in art early is to get them involved directly, both in making art and in being made to feel a part of it: to see how it's relevant to them. This, we humbly submit, is exactly where Nobilified's custom oil portraits for children can come in. We hope it doesn't sound too grandiose to say it, but in our own small way, Nobilified hopes to be a part of your child's journey to art appreciation.

The Nobilified process is almost deceptively simple, but from the simplicity of the concept comes a rich source of personalized artistic gifts that children love. You can cast your child in one of many famous paintings of children by uploading a picture of them and letting us know which artistic classic you'd like them to "star" in. Better yet, if they're old enough, you can get them involved in making these choices and invested in the results. The talented artists of Nobilified will do the rest, creating a personalized painting that puts your children right in the frame in a way that's guaranteed to delight them.

Alternatively, if you'd rather have a direct photo to painting service that transforms an existing photograph of your child into a masterpiece on canvas, our artists can do that, too. In either case, the final product will be a high-quality painting that not only beautifies your home, but that also provides a starting-point for showing your child how art can touch and enrich their lives, to get them talking about and excited by it.

It's well worth doing, and we think you and your children will thoroughly enjoy the results. Contact Nobilified at support@nobilified.com today and find out how you can get started.

You can find the basic idea behind Nobilified explained in some surprising places. One of them is a classic book by political theorist Francis Fukuyama, who explained the paradoxical searchfor meaning when living in a prosperous, modern country this way:

" . . . the virtues and ambitions called forth by war are unlikely to find expression in liberal democracies. There will be plenty of metaphorical wars—corporate lawyers specializing in hostile takeovers who will think of themselves as sharks or gunslingers, and bond traders who imagine, as in Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, that they are "masters of the universe." . . . But as they sink into the soft leather of their BMWs, they will know somewhere in the back of their minds that there have been real gunslingers and masters in the world . . ."

According to Fukuyama, this would drive people to seek out discomfort and sacrifice, to risk themselves in life or death endeavors, in order to prove to each other that they were truly free. And we have to admit that's an idea that could really resonate in the modern workplace, often the cockpit of the many companies who come together to make the economy work, a place where great things are often collectively achieved but where life can get to feel, from time to time, a little bit routine.

It makes sense, then, that companies love booking gifts of custom oil portraits through Nobilified. At its core, Nobilified is all about bridging the gap between the sublime--the faraway world of heroes, emperors and mythology, the glamorous world of classic pin-ups or luminous classical nudes--together with everyday life. There's something about the idea of putting your face on the body of a mighty Maharaja or the goddess Aphrodite that touches our collective funny-bone while also giving us a greater appreciation of art and the unexpected possibilities it can offer. Bismarck once called politics "the art of the possible," but it's through art that we imagine what is possible, and that's an exercise that can take use to wonderfully unexpected places.

In the bigger picture, Nobilified is a way to satisfy our craving for the out-of-the-ordinary without actually going out and risking life and limb--after all, there's plenty to be said for the peaceful, stable life--and while getting your own signature piece of art into the bargain. For companies giving gifts to their employees, it's a way of bridging that gap that's also personalized, repeatable (no two Nobilified custom oil portraits are likely to be the same) and affordable. Ouremployee engagement program has provided gifts and gift bundles for dozens of corporate clients as a result.

If you're looking for the perfect gift-giving idea for your workplace, Nobilified is a great place to start. Contact us today at support@nobilified.com to find out how.

There's nothing like a wedding day to focus our attention, create indelible memories and sum up our hopes for the future. Launching a life with another person is one of the most important things we can do, quite simply one of the biggest days many people ever experience. We pour hopes, dreams, anxieties and joys, hundreds of hours of planning (and tens of thousands of dollars) into weddings.

Not surprisingly, we also remain suckers for the spectacle of the fairy-tale wedding: British Royal weddings such as those of Prince Charles and Diana and Prince Harry to Meghan Markle brought in one and two billion viewers respectively, making them solid competitors with events like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. Fairy-tale weddings of the past have lost none of their glamour, either: think Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, or Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy, and the numerous other entries on gorgeous celebrity wedding lists, and it gives a sense of the powerful imagery and feelings that wedding days evoke in us.

It only makes sense, then, that many of the great paintings of the past take weddings as their subject. There is of course the Biblical Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine and the subject of countless paintings over the centuries. There's the famous Arnolfini Portrait of van Eyck, or in a very different vein, Frida Kahlo's wedding portrait with Diego Rivera. Wedding portraits can come in an amazing variety of styles, but they're always compelling.

If you want to turn your wedding photos into canvas paintings that will commemorate your big day while providing truly beautiful art that your family can cherish, Nobilified's photo to painting service is just what you need. The process is as simple as uploading your chosen photo and letting us put you in touch with one of our many talented artists. They'll create your painting with care and ensure the final product is something you can be proud to display in your home and share with friends and family. Contact Nobilified us at support@nobilified.com to get your custom wedding portrait today.

The Hero's Journey is an arduous one. The stuff of myths and stories from the most ancient times down to today's modern blockbuster movies and even video games, it begins with following the call of your heart to undertake a great task, right a great wrong, or simply to try to understand some wondrous or terrible prodigy that's crossed your path. As the great scholar of myth Joseph Campbell puts it, this call to adventure can summon the hero to any number of places:

" . . . a forest, a kingdom underground, beneath the waves, or above the sky, a secret island, lofty mountaintop, or profound dream state; but it is always a place of strangely fluid and polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, super human deeds, and impossible delight. The hero can go forth of his own volition to accomplish the adventure, as did Theseus when he arrived in his father's city, Athens, and heard the horrible history of the Minotaur; or he may be carried or sent abroad by some benign or malignant agent as was Odysseus, driven about the Mediterranean by the winds of the angered god, Poseidon."

From that point begins a cycle of events that involves facing enemies and great ordeals, maybe even traveling to the very borders of life and death, and being tried in the fires of adversity before finishing the hero's great task and undertaking the long journey home. It's stirring stuff, the kind of thing that both fond daydreams and harrowing stories of sacrifice are made of.

There's just one problem: most of us, in our day to day lives, have to be a very different kind of hero. In the hustle and bustle of modern life and nine-to-five commitments, in between dropping the kids off at school, getting ready for a big presentation at the office, household chores and yard work and taking the dog to the vet—or any of the other dozens of commitments that make up contemporary life—where do you find the time to go questing? And if adventure came calling, would we even want it, with all the dangers and hardships it would involve?

Luckily, there's an easier way to get into the heroic frame of mind. All you need is an idea and the help of a talented artist from Nobilified.

Maybe you'd like a custom novelty portrait of yourself or a friend as a mythical hero like Hercules? Maybe you'd like to be cast as an American President, or a Viking warrior, or a chivalrous Knight, or even as Napoleon? With Nobilified, the sky is the limit. All you need to do is submit a source image that serves as the basis of your idea, choose the piece of art you'd like to see it combined with, and our talented artists will turn that concept into a custom portrait painting that will put smiles on the faces of your friends and family for years to come.

These novelty portraits make for both hilarious conversation pieces and delightful artistic works in their own right. Mount your Nobilified masterpiece on the wall and be an instant hero without having to risk being eaten by dragons! Contact us today to set your very own Hero's Journey in motion at support@nobilified.com.

A landscape painting is essentially emotional in origin. It exists as a record of an effect in nature whose splendour has moved a human heart, and according as it is well or ill done it moves the hearts of others.

- Walter J. Phillips

Landscape paintings are one of the mainstays of art in homes, museums and galleries around the world. There's something captivating and satisfying about this artistic genre: the rich variety it offers and the way it can brighten any room is hard to match. It brings a piece of nature into our living spaces while adding visual interest to the walls of our homes—and the variety of colors landscapes can offer make it more than possible to find examples that will blend harmoniously with almost any choice of décor—and it can promote soothing and positive feelings or rouse our sense of wonder. Landscapes can inspire our inner traveler, too: a picture of a beautiful, exotic bucket-list destination can lift our spirits until the time comes when that dream vacation is actually possible.

Artists often love working on landscapes just as much as the rest of us enjoy looking at them, and for many similar, or related, reasons. There's a satisfaction in working on images that have a noted emotional connection with the viewer, putting them in touch with feelings, memories and aspirations. They provide painters with an unparalleled means of exploring colors, learning new things with each outing about the interplay of nature's seemingly endless color palette with shifting sources of light. Painting landscapes challenges them to appreciate the natural world more fully, looking in closer detail at what makes up the world around them.

In offering all these boons to the painter and the viewer alike, it's no surprise that the landscape painting tradition is a long legacy in art that embraces masterpieces by some of history's most famous painters. And if you want to get a piece of that great tradition for your own home, then Nobilified offers a painless route to getting replica painting of wonderful landscapes by some of the world's finest artists on the walls of your home.

Nobilified's replica painting program is for all those seeking to commission a simple replica of an original masterpiece. If you've always wanted a Monet but would rather have a custom-painted replica on canvas than a print or a poster, this is the solution you've been looking for. All you need to do is contact us with the full name of the piece and the original artist and upload a reference image if you have one available. We'll take care of the rest.

Contact us today to get started at support@nobilified.com. Let us help you explore the right combination of landscape inspiration and artistic expertise to truly inspire you.

Your freshman college dorm room can be a true home away from home with the right decor. Here are a few tips to think about when you're planning how to make your learning space a living space, too.

Pick a Color Scheme

Color really can make a world of difference in making a space feel welcoming and relaxing. The Internet overflows with design tips for picking color palettes, and it's worth checking those out, but the most basic thing is to pick colors that please your eye and fit your personality. It's you that's going to have to spend the most time in your space, after all.

A Rug Can Really Tie the Room Together

As a very wise man known as The Dude once said, "That rug really tied the room together."Floor coverings can come together with items like accent pillows and curtains to unify your room's look. They also serve the practical purpose of keeping your feet from getting frozen on a bare floor if temperatures dip.

Seeing the Light

Some extra lighting can do a lot to shape the character of your space. Christmas lights can be useful in all sorts of ways for providing a pleasant, warming touch or generating a particular mood.

Picking the Right Wall Art

Finally, you definitely don't want your walls to be bare. This is where Nobilified can come to the rescue, providing hand-painted wall art with character and quality. You can choose the whimsical touch and get the true Nobilified treatment -- a heroic portrait of yourself or a friend depicted as heroes, royalty or glamorous icons of pop culture -- or you can use our photo to painting service to get a custom oil painting version of a favorite photographed moment from your collection. You can even get a hand-painted replica of a famous classic artwork, or customize your own heroic Nobilified portraits if you're looking for elements from beyond our gallery. The options are endless.

Whatever route you choose, the talented artists of Nobilified will be standing by to make your vision a reality. The process is simple: for a Nobilified portrait with a famous figure bearing your face, you just need to upload a selfie, pick the portrait you want used as a base, and let us do the rest. Our other services are just as easy to use, and all of them can be a route to fabulous wall art for your dorm room.

To find the perfect wall art for your dorm, contact Nobilified today at support@nobilified.com and find out how we can bring art with a sense of fun, vibrancy and character to your college residence.

"When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'"

- Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

The oldest known art of "man's best friend" may date back more the 9,000 years. Even then, people and their canine friends were close partners in the primary work of the community—in the case of the engravings from Arabia, hunting together in the harsh desert—so it comes as no surprise that dogs feature prominently in these ancient rock paintings. From prehistory down to the present day, the bond between people and their pets has gone on inspiring treasured art and portraiture.

It's a bond that anyone who's been lucky enough to have a dog will understand all too well. There are, in fact, scientifically documented benefits to being a dog owner. People who own dogs get sick less frequently, enjoy better cardiovascular health—even just petting a dog lowers heart rate and blood pressure—get more exercise out of the daily need to walk and play with their pets and are less likely to suffer from depression. Dogs have even been known to save owners' lives by acting as early detectors of the onset of cancer.

Little wonder, then, that famous works like Warhol's Portrait of Maurice, Munch's Head of a Dog, and Norman Rockwell's Pride of Parenthood all testify to the unique relationship between pet owners and Rudyard Kipling's "First Friend." Painter Lucian Freud described his fondness for working with dogs by saying: "I am impressed by their lack of arrogance, their ready eagerness, their animal pragmatism."

Safe to say, then, that for all our dogs do for us, dog owners who'd like to see their own "best friend" celebrated with a beautiful personalized painting are far from alone. If you'd like to see your four-legged friend join the ranks of those dogs who've been celebrated on canvas, there's a truly unique way to make that wish into a reality. Nobilified specializes in refacing artistic classics with the portraits of clients, painting you right into the frame as everything from a famous figure of history to a whimsical moment in pop culture. It's artistic excellence-meets-comedy gold for everyone involved: but what if your pet could get into the action, too?

It turns out, they can. The process is simple: upload your favorite photo of your dog (or cat), and choose an artistic work from our galleries you'd like to see it combined with. (Want to see your dogs' cute faces featured in DeVolson Woods' classic American Gothic painting? We've done it!) and put Nobilified's artists to work. They'll deliver a unique custom painting from that photo reference that you and your family can enjoy.

If you feel like the time is right to commemorate your favorite furry friend with a personalized painting you can cherish for years to come, then reach out to us at support@nobilified.com and find out just how easy it is to make your dog the star of their own custom portrait.