[Enzie Shahmiri]

Administrator's Note: Images were removed from this thread due to copyright issues.

With great interest have I read the debate going on about whether or not to use photos for one's work, and how to ensure proper lighting as weilluminate our subjects. I agree with all, because each has a pro and a con, but what is one to do when you want to recreate something you have seen in a magazine, movie or other source?
I love to create my own environments and tell a narrative and here is how I go about my work:

1. If I have a reference photo, I try to duplicate a certain aspect that has caught my attention.

Here: I wanted to use the same color scheme and keep the man in that pose.

2. I start by asking myself how I can use the image in an alternate setting and start by gathering resource material.

Here: I decided to make him into a fruit vendor and will try to dup licate the colors by introducing fruits that share the same hues.

3. I set out by gathering reference material to change the image as much as possible without loosing the gist of it.

Here: I looked through cookbooks, online and everywhere I could think of and found images of eggplants, grapes, pomegranates. The pumkins are a poor attempt from memory. For the ochre backdrop I could only think of bags of onions. The trick for me is to introduce all these elements but keep the color sense the same as in the originalreference photo.

4. Avoiding copyright problems.

Here: The background was changed, the old man received a different hat, his shoes have been changed. The man's hair will be black and he will be a bit younger by the time I am finished with him. He is pouring (? not decided yet) into a blue ceramic vessel.

I will appreciate any comments or suggestion you might have to pull this off. I work in the "Verdaccio" method, thanks to Mari and Michael, who finally helped me to put a title to the way I go about swishing around my paint!