Postcard No 17 : Life by the River
Only yesterday I came across an artist on Instagram stating that artists should only paint from life and that if you paint from photos then it’s really copying…he had a lot more to say …much of it valid and useful, but from the comments it was clear I was not alone in thinking it’s a load of tosh to say painting from photos is simply copying.
I use my camera as a compositional tool and I do much of my pre painting editing by taking a lot of photos to isolate different areas that might be interesting. Even if I’m sketching or painting in the great ourdoors I always take photos for later reference. I don’t just copy from those photos , I might change the format, the colours, crop in, leave things out or add things in.
Trying to sketch everything from life is not for me. Some things are just too dificult, like this heron who has just caught a little fish. Sometimes you need to use a camera to capture an action shot!
Here I zoomed in, changed the format to a square and left out the grasses. I think the fish looks quite good but the heron does need work! His heas sin’t right and I need to make some of those feathers darker.
I added a little bit of fineliner for some details and left quite a lot of the mid tone paper showing because I like the effect in the water.
Some birds are not easy to sketch from life as they flit around darting here and there and never settling for long. Herons are such graceful birds and usually I’m happy to sketch them from life because they often stand quite still but I wouldn’t have been able to catch this moment without my camera because it was all over so quickly.
A camera is just another tool in my artist kit.
How we make art is a very personal thing. Even what we perceive as art varies from person to person. I believe that as long as we’re not copying someone else’s art and calling it our own then we can make use of whatever tools we feel best helps us express our artistic vision. I often work from photos and they are usually my own because I think that using my own photos will helps me create better art because I’m emotionally invested and connected to the subject.
Sometimes I have to use other people’s photos because I can’t physically get to a place to get a photo or a sketch. ..and that’s OK too as long as I have permission to use the photo.
I’m always very interested in how other artist’s practice their art. How do you work? From life or photos or imaginataion or a combination?
Lindy Whitton Studio 
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