It took me a while, but I was able to finish my 4' x 3' acrylic painting of salmon and herring - I used an image rendered in Carrara as the model - the fish were made in Carrara too! The painting took about 3 weeks - on and off - and I'm just learning how to paint. There were a lot of little fish to paint - makes me appreciate the computer.

Here is the Carrara render - it was up once before... thanks for looking.

I painted allmost full time from the 80s to 2000 and had to give up because of Arthritus.

The main reason I started on the computer.
 I would ONLY paint now in Photoshop or Painter IX.5 which I am fortunate to have as well.

Between those two and Carrara, I would take my file down to the local Epson specialists and have it printed out, on canvas, up to 5ft wide!

WOW posibilities nowadays.! (And no brushes to clean!)

PS--I forgot--your image is damn great! Very envious.

bwtr,

How much does something 5ft wide on canvas cost to be printed?

Just curious.

Thanks Brian - I still have a lot to learn about painting. I did all that work on the painting, then put a shinny gloss over it and now the glare is very distracting where it sits... wish I hadn't been so hasty. With the computer - the undo is soooo helpful. I'm also curious about the 5' printing... I did a poster print and it cost $50US 3'x5'. And I think that was cheap - non-glossy, thin paper... I usually use Costco for printing my 3d- the largest format (16 x 20) is $3.15 or something like that - the size might be a few inches smaller, and the photo paper is suposed to have a long life. R

not bad! from an art critic's pojnt of view, the painting is several orders of magnitude better than the render IMVHO. there was a salmon farm in n. ireland attacked by jelly fish. normally they don't go that far north, but things have changed due to global warming.

I know, can you imagine what the oceans will be like in the next 20 years? There was a population explosion around Japan - apparently they Japanese were cutting up the tons of jellyfish they caught in their nets while fishing (dragging?) for other species - and the jellyfish multiplied ! Doubled, tripled the numbers because they grew back, regenerated... We are even catching species of shark in Alaskan waters that are not normally caught - invasive species on the loose!

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductMediaSpec.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Overview&oid=-11182&category=Paper+%26+Media

Here is a starting point for the USA.  There is no doubt a huge amount of printing on canvas is done--even Art students are doing it now. I see only 44 inch wide is being listed--mabe still to come for the new 60inch printers.(Though you should be able to feed single pieces cut to size from the art shops.)

Glossy finish--go over it again with a clear semi matt finish.

http://www.epson.com.au/prographics/products/largeformat/DisplayMain.asp?id=styluspro11880
About the 64inch printer

I'll give it a try. I wanted to protect it, but the high gloss is too shiny.

If you have a lot of acrylic gloss you can buy small quantities of a "flattener" which you can add , proportianally to gloss reduction needs,to a small quantity

I've been doing large format printing for about 8 years now, I'm on my second 54" printer. You can have prints done on canvas, but even a 60" printer won't give you a five foot stretched canvas. The printers don't go edge to edge and you need some extra for the frame. I would figure to subtract about 4 inches from the printer get the actual frame size. There are also liquid laminates you can paint , spray or roll for a different finish and UV protection. You can have prints done in either solvent or water based inks also, the new eco-solvents are probably your best bet now. $10.00 (US) or less, a square foot, would be the price range.

 The other issue I think you should consider is what you will be able to get pricewise for your efforts. People will readily pay much more for an actual painting than a printed 3D render. It's not even close. I can do an average size painting ( 3 feet ) in one day and get $600 to $1,000 for it, but people will offer as low as $30.00 for a print of a render. If you have the ambition to paint, I wouldn't give that up for doing just renders. If you want to make money and utilize 3D to help with composing your paintings that can be useful tool. Personally, I think the best way to make money is to use 3D to design your paintings, then paint the finished product. Then if you want to sell prints, have them made from the actual painting. You will find customers place more value on them than prints of 3D renders. Some may argue that a render is worth as much as painting, but the marketplace doesn't agree at this time. It's also not necesssary to divulge your methods to the public if you don't want to. Many famous artists and illustrators in the past used photos, airbrush, etc to help create their pieces.

If it were not for the Arthritus, I would still be painting--probably in oils.
The greatest pleasure is being before a blank canvass, put a single mark on it to get the mind
  working on an idea. Then as Patrick says, some few hours later having an image which blows your brain at the skills of your minds eye!

Have fun.