Portrait Artist Forum - View Single Post - Using photos and relying on them for only source for paintings.

Michael Fournier · 08-17-2002, 12:14 AM

I have been reading the posts about photo critiques as well as painting critiques. And I have found that a lot of you seem to feel if you copy your reference photo accurately, that is enough to have an accurate portrait.

I hate to break the news, but cameras lie! Photographic distortion is a very common problem, and without doing an accurate sketch from life, you will copy it to your painting. You can minimize the distortion by standing back far enough and using a 80 mm

08-17-2002, 12:14 AM	#1
Michael Fournier Associate Member FT Pro / Illustrator Joined: Dec 2001 Location: Agawam, MA Posts: 264	Using photos and relying on them for only source for paintings. I have been reading the posts about photo critiques as well as painting critiques. And I have found that a lot of you seem to feel if you copy your reference photo accurately, that is enough to have an accurate portrait. I hate to break the news, but cameras lie! Photographic distortion is a very common problem, and without doing an accurate sketch from life, you will copy it to your painting. You can minimize the distortion by standing back far enough and using a 80 mm __________________ Michael Fournier [email protected] mfour.home.comcast.net/~mfour/portraits/