reference photos guide

8/6/2019 Reference Photos Guide

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www.watercoloursecrets.com Page 0

By Bob Davies

http://www.watercoloursecrets.com/






PPAARRTT 11 – – RREEFFEERREENNCCEE PPHHOOTTOOSS Using reference photos as a basis for your pictures is great way toprovide yourself with a good source of raw material - as long as you usethem correctly!

Many of the great artists in the past- and currently - such as PaulDegas, Vincent Van Gogh,Toulouse Lautrec and DavidHockney regularly used or usephotos for reference, so you're ingood company.

I'm assuming that like me, you'renot an expert with the camera andbasically use it to point and shoot.

And that like most people with cameras nowadays, it's the digitalversion, rather than using film.

Having said that, if you use a film camera, the article is still just asrelevant...

So let's look at a common problem.

Here's an example of a view of a farmhouse my eye saw and I thoughtwould make the nice basis for a picture - or certainly as a reference toinclude in a future imaginary landscape picture.

This is what YOU see before taking the photo...







However, here's what the camera lens actually 'saw' and recorded. Youcan see what my reference photo of the farmhouse turned out like....

This is what the CAMERA sees – the resulting photo.

Does this disappointing picture look familiar?

Wonderful things that cameras are, especially in this digital age, theydon't distinguish foreground, middle distance and far distance as well asthe human eyeball.

Now if you're into photography I'm sure you can make all sorts ofadjustments to get the perfect photo, but for the purposes of a paintingreference, I'd simply suggest the rest of us zoom in a bit to have abetter chance of a picture that's nearer to what your eye sees.







Use a piece of acetate and an acetate pen to roughly draw afigure, animal or other feature you want in the scene. Then moveit around on top of your printed photo until you're happy withthe placement.

Don't rely too much on colours in reference photos - the camera / printer settings may distort these.

Shadows generally appear darker on photos and are usually justone single tone. In real life shadows have a variation of colourand are much lighter and softer at the far edges than right nextto the item that's casting the shadow.

Try printing a copy of a reference photo in black and white as a goodbasis for a tonal value sketch.

Let’s look at an example…

I used three reference photos of a beach in Pembrokeshire in SouthWales. I then played around with small, black & white tonal sketches(see part 2 of this guide) in my sketchbook until I came up with an idea Iliked.







Now have a look at the final painting I came up with - having used partsof these three reference photos to give a completely different picture -but one which still says 'Pembrokeshire Beach'.

I turned the large rocks in photo 1 around to face the other way so theypointed into the picture and moved the family group further back into thedistance as I felt it improved the composition.

And of course, it's unique to me because it doesn't actually exist in reallife, yet still looks right.

Incidentally, this scene features in DVD 4 of the WatercolourSecrets Course… if you want to see how to paint this picture fromstart to finish.

Right, let's consider a few more do's and don'ts:

Photos are great to find out in detail how, say, the muscle structureworks in a horse. Or, you could even trace the outline through a printonto your paper as a starting point.

If that gives you the confidence to go on and draw it freehand in future -great!

Remember though, copying from or tracing over reference photos donot provide a long-term substitute for developing a strong drawingtechnique by observing and copying from real life.

See how much detail you can leave out of your picture that may be inthe photo. Ask yourself the question about every single element - "Does

this add to the composition? If in doubt - leave it out!









PPAARRTT 22 – – TTOONNAALL SSKKEETTCCHHEESS A tonal sketch is an ideal method of working out your composition and alsowhere the lights and darks are going to be placed in your picture, regardless

of what colours are involved.

Look at the example of a picture I produced a while back, which is on mygallery page. It's the delightful village of Wrea Green about 45 minutes frommy home in Liverpool.

It has everything the 'typical' English village should have - an ancient church,a pub and attractive cottages and houses surrounding the village green,complete with its duck pond.

When Pam and I visited, we noticed that the green had a cricket pitch markedout, so this seemed the ideal solution of creating human activity to link all of

the elements together in a picture.

Always look out for a chance to include animals or people in a meaningful waywhen considering your composition. It could be a couple walking down a laneor someone on a horse - or even a cluster of hens near a farm gateway. Tryto use them to enhance the composition rather than just plonking them anyold place in the picture...

Anyway, I made three tonal sketches of the scene, using a 4B pencil on acartridge pad. Each view was changed slightly to try out different angles andarrive at the best composition.







In Picture 1 above I felt the buildings had become too far away and'bitty' and the cricketers dominated rather than complemented thescene.

In Picture 2 I made the figures smaller, but the church was placed toocentrally for my liking. I have a compositional dislike of any significantelement placed right in the middle of a picture, as it can tend to cut it intwo.

Equally I thought putting the pond right across the bottom of the picturecreated an unwanted barrier - even though in real life it would be in thatposition.







In Picture 3 I moved the view so the church was at the right hand side -still towering over the village (as it does) - but it allowed me to developan 'L- Shaped' composition in conjunction with the other buildings usingthe height of the steeple. I included just a corner of the pond and acouple on a bench watching the game to fill in an otherwise blank area.

I also developed the light and dark areas in this sketch so that I knewwhen I came to paint it the strength my colours needed to be (tonalstrength or value), regardless of what colour I was actually using.







In picture 4 we see the final painting, still slightly adapted from the thirdsketch - I made the bench and spectators smaller as it suited the overallcomposition...

The tonal sketch also allows you to 'play' with light and shade so a darkroof in reality might look much better left quite light in your picture.

Maybe you could have the sun coming from a different direction. Or youwill almost certainly want to move some feature in the picture or leave itout altogether - an unwanted lamp-post perhaps - or maybe adjust itssize, if this gives a better overall composition.

Try producing some simple tonal sketches the next time you do apainting.

Don't dive in and paint the first view you see. You will almost certainlyget a better composition with this little bit of pre-planning. In fact, most

professional artists will tell you that for them, a tonal sketch (or severalof them) is an absolute pre-requisite before they commit paint to paperor canvas.

These don't have to be a masterpiece - they are in effect your workingdrawings. But they are a vital stage in organising in your mind the layoutof your picture before you pick your brush up.

As an added bonus, you frequently find that your tonal sketches throwup more than one potential painting of the same scene - with very little

extra effort!







To purchase a copy of the full Watercolour Secrets DVD course, please go to:

www.watercoloursecrets.com

DVD 1 – What You Need To Get StartedDVD 2 – Skies & WashesDVD 3 – Mountains, Rocks & HillsDVD 4 – Trees & FoliageDVD 5 – Water & ReflectionsDVD 6 – Buildings & StructuresDVD 7 – FiguresDVD 8 – Animals & Artefacts

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The lessons on this DVD will show you how

you can easily draw any object, figure or scenefor your paintings (applicable to oils andacrylics as well).

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