How I Create Artist-Enhanced Prints From My Photography

One of my favorite ways to turn my photography into something that feels more like a piece of original artwork is to artist-enhance the finished print by hand.

I've been doing this throughout my art career, long before I ever started offering this work in my antique mall booth. The basic idea is simple: start with a beautiful photographic print, mount it to a thin board, and then use clear matte mediums and brushwork to add subtle texture and dimension to the surface.

The finished piece still retains all the detail and beauty of the photograph, but it has something a traditional photographic print doesn't have—the physical surface and feel of a painting.
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Here's how I do it...

What You'll Need

​For smaller prints, I use:

• A photographic print made on my laser printer
• Thin canvas board
• Mod Podge
• A wide, flat brush
• Heavy acrylic clear matte gel medium
• A smaller brush for adding the textured marks
• A frame

I generally work with 8×10 prints and smaller using this method.

1. Print Your Image

I begin by printing my image on my laser printer.

I prefer my prints to go all the way to the edges with no white border. The image itself becomes the artwork that I'll eventually mount and enhance.

2. Mount the Print to Thin Canvas Board

I apply Mod Podge to the thin canvas board using a wide, flat brush, then carefully mount the print to the board.

The thin board is important to me. I want the finished piece to remain relatively thin so it can fit into a wide variety of frames.

I allow this to dry thoroughly before moving on.

3. Seal the Print

Once the print is mounted, I apply another layer of Mod Podge or a clear acrylic matte gel medium over the entire surface.

This seals and protects the photographic print and creates a smooth surface for the next step.
Again, let it dry completely.

4. Add the Painterly Texture

This is where the magic happens!

I use a heavy acrylic clear matte gel medium and a smaller brush to add thicker brush strokes and marks to selected areas of the image.

I don't cover the entire surface with heavy texture. Instead, I use the heavy gel selectively to enhance the image and create the suggestion of painted brushwork.

The clear gel is especially nice because it doesn't obscure the photograph. Once dry, you see the photograph underneath while also seeing and feeling the subtle texture on the surface.

This is also where every piece becomes a little different.

The placement, direction and amount of texture are determined by me as I work with each individual image.

5. Frame It

​Once the gel medium is completely dry, the piece is ready to frame.

And this is where I like to have a little fun.

I love wide, ornate frames, particularly vintage and antique ones, and I collect them when I find them during my travels.

Gold is my favorite for this type of work, but if I find an ornate frame I love that isn't gold, I'll often paint it gold or add gold accents to bring it into the look I want.
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The ornate frame combined with the textured surface gives the finished photograph a completely different presence than a standard photographic print.

What About Larger Prints?

For larger pieces, I don't print them myself.  I order canvas prints mounted on a thin, flat board from FinerWorks. I usually choose a black backing board.

When the print arrives, I skip the Mod Podge mounting steps because the canvas is already mounted. I go directly to the fun part—using the heavy acrylic clear matte gel medium to add my hand-applied texture and painterly marks.

The larger prints are also mounted on a thin, flat board, rather than a thick panel. Keeping the backing thin allows the finished artwork to fit into a much wider variety of frames.  And, of course, I finish these larger pieces in the same kind of ornate frames I love to source.

Why Do This to a Photograph?

​For me, it's about creating something that falls somewhere between photography and painting.

A beautiful photograph can be wonderful as a photographic print, but adding physical texture changes the experience. You can actually see the brushwork and feel the surface of the artwork.

It's still my photograph—but now it has a handmade, painterly quality that a conventional print simply doesn't have.

And that's what I love about this process: the photograph provides the image, but my hands provide the final artistic touch.

If you're a photographer, this is definitely something worth experimenting with on an image or two. You don't need to turn every photograph into a textured piece. Pick an image that already has strong shapes, interesting light or areas that would benefit from visible brushwork, and see what happens when you give it a physical surface.
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Sometimes that final little bit of hands-on artistry is what takes a print from "photograph" to "art."

~Jai