Viral of the week: Adobe challenges artists to re-create lost masterpieces with Adobe Stock

Jun 22, 2016 | Online video, Viral and buyrals

Adobe has launched a multi-channel campaign in the UK and US, challenging four digital artists from its Behance artist community to intricately re-create lost, stolen or destroyed art using just Adobe Stock photography. See why it’s our video viral of the week below… The artists and their assigned pieces of art include Karla Cordova (Ecuador) […]

Adobe has launched a multi-channel campaign in the UK and US, challenging four digital artists from its Behance artist community to intricately re-create lost, stolen or destroyed art using just Adobe Stock photography. See why it’s our video viral of the week below…


The artists and their assigned pieces of art include Karla Cordova (Ecuador) and Frida Kahlo’s The Wounded Table; Jean-Charles Debroize (France) and Caravaggio’s Saint Matthew and the Angel; Mike Campau (US) and Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Cathedral Towering Over a Town; and Ankur Patar (India) and Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.
The result is four re-creations of lost masterpieces created from thousands of Adobe Stock photographs that, without a second glance, could pass for the originals.
“No one can truly replace these lost paintings. But by faithfully re-creating them with Adobe Stock, we can remember them again and reshape what the world thinks about stock photography in the process,” said associate partner and creative director Will Elliott from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the agency responsible for the campaign, which will be promoted using PR, display advertising and social media. The global campaign will run until the beginning of November, and media partners include Creative Review, National Geographic, Vice, Design Week, Digital Arts, Wetransfer, Wallpaper and Dazed.
“Make a Masterpiece, created entirely with Adobe Stock and Photoshop CC, demonstrates the compelling possibilities of stock photography in the hands of talented designers and artists. Only Adobe offers an integrated workflow that seamlessly integrates stock content with our industry-leading design tools. We hope these restored paintings inspire digital artists around the world to rethink and reimagine with Adobe Stock,” said Scott Braut, Head of Content, Digital Media at Adobe.
The “Make a Masterpiece” experience is housed at adobe.com/go/adobestock and features images of the finished masterpieces, alongside the originals, as well as behind-the-scenes footage. Visitors are encouraged to click on each masterpiece, uncovering the individual stock photos that were used in the process of the re-creation.
In a series of online films, Adobe interviewed each artist to find out more about the individual artist’s approach and the challenges they faced in re-creating each masterpiece. The films have also been repurposed for social media channels YouTube and Facebook in the form of time-lapse videos, showing the entire process these creators went through.
“I approached the re-creation the same way Rembrandt would have, starting with the sky and working forward from there,” said Ankur Patar, who used 246 stock images to re-create Rembrandt Van Rijn’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. “This is a dream project for me, and I hope it inspires other artists with the possibilities of Adobe Stock.” Watch the video behind Ankur’s creative process on YouTube.
To learn more about the “Make a Masterpiece” campaign, click here

All topics

Previous editions