Working from photo reference
Franklin House Series, Journal # 2
After a small break, let’s get back to it! This is the second part of my Franklin House painting series (a project that will hopefully keep me busy through a quiet winter).
After gathering photo and sketched reference over a couple of visits (see part one), the next stage was to interpret the reference, and find the points of interest that will link together the works in this series.
I printed out a small selection of photos, and organised the rest into a folder on my iPad for easy access. I pinned up the printed photos with some of the sketches I had created on my visits, and made a selection of the compositions I found most interesting.
Working from photographic reference can have a few pitfalls. It’s important to remember that you aren’t painting the photo. You can circumvent this by taking multiple reference photos from slightly different angles, distances, times of day . . . and use all of them while you are sketching the piece. You can also supplement with sketches done on location, or plein air studies.
I think a successful landscape painting shows your unique perspective of the subject, and this might mean making conscious decisions to ‘edit’ the landscape in your depiction.
As I began to choose the compositions of my paintings, I flattened the perspective, bringing the back planes closer and bigger in the frame. I exaggerated the shapes of trees and rose bushes, emphasising the organic, flowing shapes of branches and vines.
My eye was drawn to natural rhythms in the garden — circles, curves, repetition of slanted lines, and arches. To make a clearer story, I emphasised these features in my sketches.
These sorts of creative decisions might not suit you, if your style is more realistic and accurately detailed. However, I find a lot of enjoyment in interpreting a subject through my own unique view, and if you haven’t tried it, then I would encourage you to give it a go!
It’s as simple as identifying what about a scene interests you (colour, shape, rhythm, contrast, etc) and then making creative choices and decisions to emphasise your point of interest.
Here’s an activity to get you started with creative interpretation
Pick a photo from your phone library. It doesn’t have to be an interesting photo.
Make a simple thumbnail/compositional sketch from the photo as it is. Make a note of light and dark areas, focal point, and other interesting points.
Now make three more compositional sketches, exaggerating or emphasising different things. For example, in one you might choose to drop the horizon to highlight the sky and add drama to the cloud formations. In another, you might make a tree or building the focal point, and shift the lines of composition to emphasise it.
Now pick one of your four thumbnails and draw it at a different time of day or night, with a different light pattern.
For your final thumbnail, imagine you are standing looking at the scene from a different angle. How might the distant trees or mountains shift in relation to each other? Perhaps you could imagine you are crouching down, or standing on a tall ladder.
This exercise might not result in any excellent drawings, but it will show you how you can use a mix of photographic reference and imagination to create your work. The next time you are working from photos, remember to do more than just copy the photograph. Instead, show the world as you view it through your own eyes and thoughts.