Implementing Style Transfer with Korean Artworks via VGG16: For Introducing Shin Saimdang and Hongdo KIM’S Paintings

Abstract

By introducing genre painting to the artists of the time, artist Kim Hongdo is a man known for opening the Renaissance era of Joseon’s art history. Not only did he introduce new genres of art, but he also combined his delicate techniques with his own unique art styles and thus completed over 130 art pieces during his lifetime. Shin Saimdang is another prominent artist of the Joseon Dynasty. Despite the Confucianism beliefs that limited women at that time, Shin Saimdang managed to introduce her meticulous art styles to the public and receive acknowledgment from many officials of the time. This research aimed at a deep learning-based algorithm to recreate original photos by implementing Kim Hongdo’s and Shin Saimdang’s art styles. Unlike previous research which utilized western paintings for the target of the style transfer, this paper proposed the traditional Korean artwork; such difference contributes to making this research meaningful. Furthermore, this paper suggests a novel method that is based on the VGG16 model, in order to reduce the computation speed compared to the VGG19 model. The model implemented style transfer to five original photos which created successful results, capable of introducing Kim Hongdo’s and Shin Saimdang’s art styles and techniques to the general public. The brush strokes and color themes of each artist are successfully recreated in the new images. Despite such drastic changes, the overall structure of the original photo is well maintained and expressed. The five examples can become a helpful guideline for a better understanding of Kim Hongdo’s and Shin Saimdang’s art styles which can further stretch to the understanding of Joseon’s art history as a whole.