Painting from a photograph is a common practice for artists. Many painters prefer to take photographs of their subjects, instead of working from live subjects on site, or from their imagination. Photographs have the advantage of offering accurate information about the subject in a never-changing state, unlike live subjects, which must shift and move over time.
If you are taking the pictures yourself, you may wish to take several photographs in order to maximize the number of good images to work from. Use a good camera. Try to get detailed photographs.
Instructions
1. Select the subject or photograph that you will be painting. The photograph should be detailed and of high resolution, and the dimensions should not be small.
You may wish to work from multiple photographs for an added three-dimensional understanding of your subject. In this case, the photographs should offer different perspectives on the same subject. This is up to you.
2. Choose your medium. Some artists know exactly what they want to paint with and always use the same medium. Some artists may choose a medium based on the subject--for a painting of flowers they might choose watercolors. For a portrait, they may choose oils.
3. Study the photograph before beginning the painting. You may want to sketch the photograph a few times on a piece of paper. Draw the subject on the canvas.
4. If you are concerned about distortion of the image, try placing the photograph you are working from in a grid, and draw a proportionally similar grid on the canvas. Draw each box as it appears in the photograph.
5. Apply the paint to the canvas in a thin wash at first. Build the paint in layers, adding details as you proceed. This is especially important in the case of watercolors, because watercolors are a transparent medium that leave little room for correction of mistakes. If you are working in watercolors, you will want to proceed slowly to avoid errors. Refer back to the photograph for information about the color, light and form.
6. When you have finished painting from the photograph, leave the painting for a while and return to it later. This will give you a fresh perspective on your work and allow you to correct any mistakes you made the first time around.
