Working From Photos - Ten Steps To Do It Right
Using photo references can be a great way to improve your painting skills. Here are some steps to help you effectively use a photo reference while painting:
Choose a Suitable Reference. Select a high-quality photo that has good lighting, clear details, and composition that you find appealing. Remember that your source material is probably copyrighted. Make sure you are only using it as reference, not to make a line-for-line copy.
Study the Photo: Take some time and analyze the photo. Look at the composition, lighting, colors, and details. Pay attention to patterns, shapes, and values that will be important in the painting.
Make a Few Thumbnail Sketches: Look at the main elements in the photo. These initial sketches will act as a guide for the painting, helping you establish proportions and composition.
Simplify! Delete a lot. Let me repeat that. Delete a lot. Most photos have way too much information. Look for the big shapes and work with those.
Block in Basic Shapes and Colors. Work large and loose.
Work from Large to Medium to Small. Get all the big shapes down, then add in some medium details, and finally, after you are happy with the large and medium elements, then and only then, start to add details.
Don’t Compare Too Much. Work from the photo, not in an effort to make a copy, but to be inspired by the photo. After all, if you wanted an exact copy, you could just, well, take a picture.
Make it Your Own. Change colors, add details that aren’t there, and change the composition. It’s your painting. You can make it anything you want.
Do More than One. If you’re inspired by a photo, make more than one painting inspired by it. Think Andy Warhol.
Don’t Explain or Apologize. If you’re inspired by a photo (or, for that matter, someone else’s art) it’s perfectly fine to make your own art based on it. Now don’t get me wrong - you should not set out to make an identical copy. That’s plagiarism. But many artists have been inspired by other artists, photography, prints, and so on. For more on that, read this blog post: Steal Like An Artist. So if someone asks you about the painting, just tell them you were inspired by so and so.
Remember, using photo reference is a long and honored tradition. Well, as long as photography has been around, anyway. It is essential to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Make an effort to make the painting your own - show you’re inspired - and then do your own thing.
For more information on using photos as reference (and a lot more besides) check out my book: Acrylic Painting With Passion. Buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Walmart.
Or take a look at a great book, New York Times bestseller “Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon.