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Mike M.,
I know that you were asking Mike G. here, but I would like to say that by no means was I intending to say that you should not use photo reference. Nor did I intend that the only paintings you should ever paint should be done in a studio under the light of a north-facing window.
I often am struck by paintings, huge works of art with complex composition, multiple figures in action, that obviously the artists did not have models hold while they painted and placed in a location that the artist was not in front of at the time they painted it.
They did this work before the invention of color photography or even before cameras were advanced enough to capture moving subjects at all. Yet they were able to paint these beautiful paintings. You say photographs are needed. Sure they help, but maybe we need them because we relied on them too much to begin with.
These artists could paint a figure from memory because they had done it so many times and they knew it so well that they could do it again from their mind alone (and with the help of sketches and studies).
Now, I am no master and to do a detailed portrait I need reference, or a person to sit in front of me as I work. But even I, after drawing my wife in what must be maybe over 100 different sketches and 20 or so paintings, can draw her from memory and you would be able to know it was her. Why? Because I have drawn her so many times that I know her face, her mannerisms and how she has changed over the years.
I could paint her today as she looked when we first dated and in using a photo taken today as reference, make her look as I remember her. Or I could take an old photograph of her and make her appear as she does today.
Now, we do not have years to study every person we are to paint so that we know them so well that we could paint them from memory. That would be impossible. But we should be able to draw a figure convincingly enough from memory that we can work out a composition in our mind alone.
If you have painted 20 or 30 paintings of men in a business suit, should you not be able, from memory, to change the position of fold or slightly change the position of a hand from memory? I mean one suit folds over an arm about the same as any other arm and the fabric folds about the same.
Paintings from life are painted from more than a single sitting, and each time the subject gets up and sits back down the folds of the fabric change slightly or they are not in exactly the same position, but that does not matter. We are going to make those folds to create the best composition in the painting, regardless of how the really look.
You want them to be convincing and that can only be done if you have taken the time to know how clothing drapes on a figure. You can only change the position or pose of a hand if you have drawn enough hands that you can make the change convincingly. There is no better way to learn than from life.
I often hear the statement that I just can't get people to pose, or kids just won't sit long enough for me to paint them. I want to say up front that no one is going to sit perfectly still for hours as you paint. That is why reference photos can help.
But I have painted my daughter and her dog from life. The painting is on my web site. My daughter was 10 years old and the Jack Russell terrier in the painting was only a year old and very rambunctious.
How did I do it? I had her sit first holding a stuffed toy dog. I then had her sit with the real dog for about 5 minutes. The dog was never in the same position for more than 10 seconds at a time.
Then I painted from memory, and then she sat again. I am sure some could have done better but I am very proud of that painting. I would like to use it as an example that you can paint even children and pets from life.
A lot of the dog was painted from memory. Also the dog would sit in my studio on a chair from time to time and I would just look over at the dog.
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