Working from Reference Photos
Many of my students have asked me how to choose a reference photo for a painting, so I thought I would take this opportunity to explain my thinking behind reference photos.
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF PHOTO REFERENCE
I don’t see my paintings as copies of photos; I see them as interpretations. They are translations, not transcriptions. Throughout this article I refer to my painting which is based on photo reference as “figurative”, rather than “realistic” as a way of acknowledging that distinction. I use the photos as information, with which I strive to create a believable visual world much like the one I see rather than the one that the camera records. I once heard someone say that when the composer Rimsky-Korsakov wrote “Flight of the Bumblebee,” he didn’t put a tape recorder in a beehive. That observation is a wonderful analogy to the way I use photos for subject matter. My photo reference serves to remind me what excited me visually about a scene and supplies me with some of the information I need for a painting.
The reason to paint from your own reference photos, rather than published photos—aside from the matter of copyright infringement—is that in the act of simply taking a photo, you have made original composition choices and you have more information about the scene stored in your subconscious.
BUILDING A REFERENCE LIBRARY
When I take reference photos, I take them liberally. and I am not concerned with taking spectacular photos. What I am concerned with is capturing interesting shapes and arrangements. I’ll often take multiple photos of the same scene, with different people walking by, from slightly different angles, etc., which I can later combine into a single painting.
I strongly recommend printing out your reference photos rather than working from a computer screen, phone, or tablet. The vivid backlighting of a screen is very different from the reflective surface of paper, and looking back and forth between them makes it very difficult to evaluate the subtleties of the image on which you are working. While it is very tempting to zoom in on all the details in a digital image, you may lose sight of the overall scene. A painting is most successful when it recreates the act of seeing which, unlike a digital image, leaves ambiguity.
You can build a reference library by either printing out your photos or keeping them in electronic files according to subject matter. Sometimes I’ll take a photo thinking it will make an interesting painting, but then find it is not interesting to me when I go to paint it. However, that same photo may call to me again when I am perusing my reference library months or years later and become a successful painting. I don’t usually decide if I am going to work from a particular photo until I have noodled with a thumbnail, which is where I make decisions and see what my intent is. If I am bored during this process, I won’t want to commit time to the painting.
WHAT MAKES GOOD PHOTO REFERENCE
Conceptually interesting photos do not always translate to great figurative works. The subject matter should be visually understandable without needing to be explained with words. It is never a good idea to leave your viewer confused.
Consider the following example: On a very cold day, I started my car and the windshield wipers turned on. Every time the wiper cleared the glass, beautiful new ice patterns quickly formed. They were very visually exciting and I took a photo, but I realized that it would be almost impossible for anyone who saw the photo to discern what actually was happening. To replicate those patterns in a painting would only be effective if I were to make an abstract painting loosely based on those forms. rather than a figurative painting that a viewer could discern as ice on a windshield.
When assessing your subject matter, try to separate the emotional from the visual. You can and should consider the emotional content of the scene that you are painting (i.e. how you felt in that place), but for most figurative paintings, that emotional content is not enough. You may experience a beautiful sunset and take a photo of it, but when you go back to your studio and try to evaluate it as possible subject matter for a painting, ask yourself, “are there interesting shapes?” “will this sustain the viewer’s interest?” As you try to evaluate the photo of that sunset for a possible painting, ask yourself if the photo represented a “wow” moment for you because you were surprised by the colors or filled with happiness from finally being away from the city, or if there are enough visual elements and shapes in the composition to guide the viewer’s eye and divide the rectangular space of the painting.
EVALUATING YOUR REFERENCE PHOTOS
Here are some general things to look for when evaluating your photos for reference material:
Large, connected shapes. In outdoor scenes, I often look for interesting “sky shapes”
Interesting value structure
Angles. Ways to enter the picture plane
Different amount of activity
A variety of sizes, values, symmetry, straight and curved paths
Strong lighting, which can create shapes and shadows
I like to evaluate subject matter using a 75/25 rule, with large shapes occupying about 75% of the picture plane, and certainly no less than 60%.
I see many students try to pick a singular object for a painting because they are afraid of complexity. Complexity is not a bad thing in subject, but you must be willing to strip it down to basic connected shapes and values.
COMPOSING YOUR PAINTING
Once you have chosen your photo reference, you are now faced with the task of composing your painting. The photo may have recorded the scene or event, but you shouldn’t rely on it for your final composition without careful consideration and editing. I recently heard an interview with David Hockney where he spoke about Asian scrolls vs. European paintings. The Asian scrolls tell a story based on time… as you roll the scroll you travel through the story with the characters in the visual story. Western art introduced the idea of the art as a window into a scene with a rectangular formed by the edges of the canvas or watercolor paper.
This observation reinforces how important the relationship of the shapes within a painting are to the edges of that painting. When working from a photo, take the opportunity to look at and even reframe or crop the subject matter, paying close attention to the positioning of the elements in relation to the edges of the image. If you paint from multiple reference photos, make sure that they don’t conflict; they must have a consistent perspective and lighting. Don’t be a slave to your reference but DO make sure it has all of the information you need for someone to understand and appreciate what they are looking at.
A photo does not have to be perfect to make a good painting. In fact, I recommend to students that if they have a magazine-worthy photo, they blow it up and frame it and not bother painting from it. I am always happiest if the painting I make is more exciting that the photo on which it is based.
Happy painting!
©2023 Marilyn Rose
Marilynroseart.com
