Tuesday 22 April 2014

How to use Artistic Licence from a reference photo

When I first started painting, not having any idea at all, I would try and slavishly copy an image with little or no regard to whether the composition was ok, the colours were right and translated well, in fact with no idea at all!!

I didn't have either the courage or the know how to change anything and I think I had this belief in the back of my mind that I couldn't possibly do better than the image in front of me, especially if I was copying another artists work.... how could I improve on what they had done?

Anyway, some years later, lots of practice and disasters later, some more successes later and a lot more confidence, I no longer seek to produce anything like what I see in front of me and tend to use the image more as a clue if that makes sense?

I started to use black and white images so that I could use my own colours and not be influenced, I started to think about changing the "feel" of something so I could think about interpreting for example a sunny day into a Winter scene. I started trying not to include all the detail... especially backgrounds and especially if there are trees (!!!) and opting to just concentrate on my subject rather than trying to include everything and so my painting has evolved to the point I'm at today.

The next painting has been done from this photo by Ruth Archer on Paint my Photo and I think it illustrates most of the points above

I love this photo and may well do a more representational one of it but I had an idea I wanted to just do a dome, close up with the light falling upon it. I have lots of my own photos from Venice but not one as close as this so I chose to use Ruth's image as my starting point.

All I really wanted was the shape of the dome with the touch of detail below, nothing more and I wanted to do a bright sunny painting, so I decided to lose all the gondola posts, just give a faint ghost of an impression of the dome behind and add, in the larger painting a hint of water, in the foreground. I did a small practice piece which you will see on the poster for the Loosening Up workshops I am running at the Boonric Gallery in the Summer and liked what I was seeing so did a bigger version last week.

I like the freshness of this one and think I have capture the sunny feel but I also think it is bordering on sloppy and might need a touch of detail adding here and there but this was a very quick sketch just to give me an idea.

I think I might have tightened this a bit too much, possibly too dark on the shadow side of the building, have lost the feeling of light I had in the first and brought in too much of the building into the foreground rather than concentrating on the dome )and that really happened by accident as I started off painting the dome) and should have made it considerably bigger so that it became the focus. If I am being really picky I think the edge of the building directly under the dome needs losing, it looks too linear and regular and I may well do that or in fact paint another having got more information. I do like the colour and like the way it has translated into a sunny day and I like the little areas of detail in the building thought I thik thy may also be a touch dark.

As an aside... it is always good to try and critique your own work as above, rather than just say you don't like it, first try to understand why you don't like it, try and put it into words, if you don't like the colour say so and try to think what you don't like about the colour, likewise try and find something you do like and understand why....  if you have analysed what you have done it makes you more aware of the pitfalls for next time and essentially makes you a better painter

You can see I have only used the image as a starting point, basically to get the shape of the dome and a bit of detail to add to it... the posts and gondolas have gone, the other buildings have gone, the whole atmosphere has changed and I have added my own slant on the colours. In this case it isn't because I think I can do a better job on composition, colour, light etc, simply that I had something I wanted to try and the image fitted the idea I had in my head.


I hope you can see from this that it isn't rocket science and it is something anyone can do given a little time and practice.Why not try converting your images to B&W as a starting point and see what you can come up with when you're not locked in to the colours you are seeing... very liberating!!! I work both ways from photos... like this where I have an idea of what I want to do and find an image that suits, or alternatively see something I want to paint and then maybe change the colours, the bg, the composition whatever I think will work both in a painting and for me as a painter.


18 comments:

  1. Excellent advice, Judith. I usually convert images to B&W to check tonal values, but I hadn't thought about using that as a way of seeing reference photos differently. Great post.

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    1. Hi Vandy... I started doing this when the teacher I had kept bringing other artists work for us to copy... he would have a selection of images and if he ever had a b&w that is what I would choose as I wanted to do my own stuff and challenge myself with the colour... I still do it now and run a workshop using this method.

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    2. Wonderful advice thanks.

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  2. great post Judith......I am going to try putting into words what I don't like in my paintings (mind you might be there all day!!!)..love this painting a lot!!!!.I so wish I could look at interpreting like you..............but maybe some day??!!!

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    1. Val... you do it all the time!! Your colours are nothing like the images you see, you have an excellent grasp of colour and definitely not afraid to experiment.... the critiquing part I have to say is good advice and will definitely help you!!

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  3. Love the idea about using B/W photos. I often feel trapped trying to create what I think I should especially where colour is concerned.

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    1. You might like to check out the colour planets idea.... http://judithfarnworthart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/colour-planets.html

      I use this all the time to work out a colour scheme for my paintings...I choose colours often randomly and see how they all look together mixed on the paper not in the palette, let me know how you get on!!

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  4. Thanks for this blog post. Using black and white photos so you aren't influenced by the colours is an excellent idea. I want to start doing landscapes (taken some brilliant photos) - I like bright colours (paint with acrylic ink etc), but am held back by the obvious "green" of the view I am working on, so keep on giving up. Also I try to do too much of the scene - working out what interests you in the picture and making the other areas more vague is definitely the way to go. I think I need to "play" a bit more, experiment and just see where it takes me.

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    1. Sounds like you just need to follow your own advice Lynn!! Being a slave to the colours in photos paralysed me so I really found this to be helpful... I often do it for commissions too especially the dogs...

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    2. You are probably right. Sometimes I think we just need to let ourselves play a bit more - experiment, try out different equipment, be brave using colour etc. I don't do that enough. My acrylic ink paintings started life as an experiment on a degree course I was doing at the time - I was bored with the results of an assignment, so decided to really go for colour and loose marks - and the only way to stop fiddling was to "draw" with the dropper and use acrylic inks - you can't be subtle with those! It was easy with flowers, as they are often bright already - but I never succeeded with landscape, as I mentioned before. Black and white photos are definitely the way forward - easy to change on the computer as well. Thank you for your suggestion.

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  5. It's a brilliant idea. I'll definitely try changing to black and white and focussing in on bits off a picture that interests me. I will have to try and narrow down and critique rather than just bin as well.

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    1. Will look forward to seeing what you do Carmen!!

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  6. A great teaching tool Judith. First, you used your imagination to interpret the scene and second, I totally agree with you that one should critique one's own work to discover what is right or wrong with it. When I attended watercolor classes with artist Jerry Stitt, he drummed the elements and principals of design into us so much so that we were all able to critique our own work and learn from our mistakes and thereby improve our work. Studying the elements and principals of design is so important to creating good compositions.

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    1. Thanks Jean... I used to run a group about loose watercolour painting where we offered critique and I tried to encourage this there as well.. it is so good for your own progress. I so agree about the elements of principle and design.....just need to get to grips with them!!! Some I find are easier than others, maybe I should do a blog about them so I would have to really understand!!

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  7. Terrific interpretations of Venice, Judith. Your art career is on exponentially upward curve, and thank you for being a sharing artist on your blog.
    Mike.

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    1. Thank Mike... I love to share the things I've learned along the way ... it's about "sharing the love!!" as my friend Joanne would say!!

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  8. Just caught up with your latest blog posts! You make everything so interesting, the secret to being a good teacher! I adore your ballerina and have posted a comment on FB! x

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