"Paintings With Personality"

I painted Dr Ross was a retired doctor doing a friend a favor by modeling. My reference was a photograph I took at a watercolor workshop. Several years went by before I was inspired to do the painting. I loved his girth and the way he was sitting. The background is my own creation.

          I know what it’s like to look at a photograph or scene and think there is no way I could make that any better than it is. The problem is… I wasn’t looking at the photograph with the eyes of a thinking artist; I wasn’t considering creating a painting at all. I was only concerned about copying what I saw in the photo whether it had a strong design or not. These days I crop, rotate, zoom in, take things out, put things in, and etc., whatever it takes to make a work of art. My concern now is to paint my experience not copy the photograph. If I don’t do a value sketch I have the idea firmly in my mind before beginning to paint.

            If the only way we can paint is from a photograph then the photographs have the power, not the other way around. In that case we need to stop using them altogether and go a different direction. We are the creative painters, not our photographs. When we are looking for the ‘wow factor’ in our work we have to think, adjust and move objects around, creating a design.

Photographs aren’t honest with their information. They are often distorted, the values are off, and the color mediocre. The photograph flattens the image and leaves out all feeling about a scene. And the design generally needs tweaking, even in portrait work.

            Here are a few things to keep in mind when painting from a photograph:

1. Correct the Value Contrasts: Value as it appears in a photo can ruin a good painting. Most photographs have mid-range values with no bright lights and the darks are a lifeless gray. It’s important to exaggerate values in a painting in order to create more drama and you won’t find that drama in a photograph. It is up to the painter to create the drama and lead the eye around the painting and to the focal point.
2. Increase the color: The camera distorts color as much as it distorts value. The shadows appear a dull blue gray that kills the light. When you paint make the darks warm and vary their color. Emphasize the gray colors in areas away from the focal area and keep the most intense colors at the center of interest.
3. Remake the shapes: Photographs and scenes often have too much to look at and much more information than we should put in our paintings. Change and rearrange the shapes, contrast large and small, light and dark, curvy and straight, etc. Shapes next to each other can be connected by making them the same value and softening the edges. Remove or connect small shapes (making larger shapes) that might be a distraction.
4. Spotlight the Center of Interest: Create your strongest contrast and greatest definition at the focal point. Place the focal point off center as described by the golden mean and keep your most brilliant colors in the focal area. When we look at a scene en plein air we only see sharp detail and hard edges where our eyes are focused, objects outside our focal area are softened or blurred. Contrast the soft and hard edges to keep the viewers eye moving through the painting.

Art should entertain us and our viewers, as a copy of a photo can’t do that. Working from photos doesn’t mean we’re required to copy them in fact, the opposite is true.  We must create using what we know about the elements of design, including color, value, line, edges and dominance, to make the work our own.

Who is in control you or your photograph? Please leave a comment below.

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