Mixed media painting of Mac

I received this beautiful piece of art from our friend Stephanie. It's a mixed media piece. I'm going to try to explain it as best I can. This will blow your mind...

First she painted the canvas. She did this to create a neutral background and to give the canvas a texture. Then a photo I had taken of Mac was printed on to the prepared canvas.

Oh, so it's a photo? Not exactly. You will notice in the above photo, Mac has some lovely highlights.Those are painted on the digital photo.

To better illustrate; this is the bottom of the canvas. it is the printed photo, untouched with paint. See the difference? There is no definition, no detail. Stephanie painted over the photo and enhanced it with shading and detail. She called it paint by numbers, but I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

Compare the previous photo of Mac's hands to this one above. See all the shading and detail? 

So yes, it is a photo, printed on to a painted canvas and painted over to enhance and shade. Making my photo more of a sketch than anything else. I am honored she used my photo and even more honored to have this beautiful painting hang in my home.