Mike:
Let's remember the subject of this topic.
My position is that this Forum is too focused on photography as the primary source for portraiture and for learning portraiture.
While I too use photos, I believe that as we have many students and beginners on this board, the message we are sending is the wrong one - that painting from photos is how portraiture is learned and done.
The best and most successful portrait artists learned from life and it is telling that most often they don't use photos to paint portraits.
I believe that portraiture is best when done from life. Further, students should learn to paint from life under natural lighting conditions and learn to "see" before they dive into complex photos with varying lighting, depth, color, and edge problems.
They will only end up replicating these problems in their work if they don't have the experience painting from life to distinguish the problems with each piece of photo reference and remediate the problems to bring the painting closer to life than photo.
Trust me, painting from photos only is how I started and the problems still show in my work. I am still learning to "see" and will be for years.
I am not saying that we should not use photos to paint from. I am saying that the emphasis of this Forum is too skewed towards photos, with almost no reference to drawing and painting from life as the best way to learn and perfect your craft. The message here at SOG is learn from copying photos, and the message is wrong.
If you want to produce paintings that are closer to life than photo, then learn to paint and draw from life first. Then you can use whatever you like as your reference.
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