I am not a purist. I make my living painting portraits and do not wish to make a tough job more difficult by having to "paint from life."
I think photography for painting reference is the best invention since somebody put paint in tubes.
There is an overwhelming number of people that say painters (especially beginners) should NEVER work from photographs...and personally I disagree with this for some of the following reasons...
1. Many of my clients travel from long distances and our time together is limited.
2. I enjoy painting babies and children and having them sit still is impossible...and it is frequently tough for adults too.
3. Holding a pose for a long time eliminates many creative composition possibilities (i.e., having a raised arm).
4. I don't have a large enough studio for the sitter to be elevated at a proper viewing distance, nor do I have the space for a long-term setup.
5. A long period of time is required for me to complete a portrait and I oftentimes prefer to work in the (inconvenient) early morning and/or late night hours.
For starters, I am talking about good reference photos and not poor snapshots. It is not possible to paint a good picture from a poor photo - most especially a photo that does not have a single source of light.
Taking the photograph for a portrait is extremely important and the following link explains in detail how I do this:
http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...s=&threadid=56
I take many photographs of my subjects from all angles. I prefer to photograph my female models without makeup (and add it later in the painting) because it is easier for me to observe the subtleties of form. My paintings are often a combination of many reference photos (i.e., a hand from one, a drapery from another).
Shadows that look wonderful when you have the model sitting in front of you, can unhappily appear as solid black in the resulting photograph...and this is the problem that causes sooooo much difficulty when you copy. In working with photographs, you must paint what you know and NOT what you see.
You must make those shadows a lot lighter and warmer than the way you see them in a photo. Because it is difficult to see what is going on in a dense black shadow...take the negative to your photo store and get a very light print so you can look into those shadows. For those of you lucky enough to have Adobe Photoshop, you can play with the image and change the brightness and contrast.
Threaded Mode
