It's generally used to point the huge differences between two related things or two different approaches to the same thing; similar to "del dicho al hecho... (hay mucho trecho)", the latter specifically used to point out the difference between the declared intentions and the real actions.
"De lo vivo a lo pintado" evokes the cartoon image showing a splendid house or car that suddenly moves down revealing it's a picture that was covering the view of the real thing, which is a lemon. However it's not necessarily used as a negative thing and it's widely used to depict different points of view or even meta-messages.
[a lemon is "una batata" in Argentina, how do they call that in other countries?]
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