Make closeups

This is a helping tool for when you are painting something that

has a lot of detail that you may not be seeing too clearly, even

though it is right there in front of you. Take a photograph,

a close-up of the detail and study that.

I did this recently for a student who was having trouble seeing

the way the lines of the pattern curved around. With the

photograph that you see above, it became much easier to see

what was actually happening. And she drew it correctly!

Nothing is too small!

This sweet statue is actually only two inches tall.

A student brought it to class so I could see it after

she had done a drawing of it.

But it was so small, it was hard to see the details.

So I told her to take a photograph of it and enlarge

it so she could see the details well enough to draw

it.

I took this photo with my studio camera to show

her what a difference it makes to really see all the

details! I put it on a plain background that enhanced

the figurine and then lit it with my desk lamp to

create what you see here!

Composing from your photos

When I see a scene that I would like to paint, I take a long shot of it, then close up shots.

The reason? Because when you photograph a long shot, there are things that are not clearly visible in the photo.

Therefore, taking closer shots of the same subject gives you more visual information.

This was a series of shots from last week when I was down viewing the

glorious cherry blossoms in

Washington, D.C.

There were families and couples everywhere, but these two were in a setting that

worked for my painting purposes!

Taking photos to paint from

The main point of this post is to tell you to take lots of photos

of any scene you may want to paint. Take a long shot, take

close up shots, take pictures of what is around the main subject.

You may want to paint something that is essentially a long

shot in a photograph, but if you don't shoot up close, you may

not have enough data.

I didn't post all the photos I took of this wonderful stone

barn, but I hope you get the idea.

The other thing about close up and far away shots is that

sometimes you can't see what is in the shadow areas if you

have a shot with a lot of light colored area like sky. That closes

down your lens (if you are shooting on automatic) and then

the shadow areas will look practically black. If you shoot some

close ups, then the camera lens opens up and allows you to see

what is in those shadow areas.

I hope this helps!