Tag Archives: painting from photos

Dave and the Dogs – Portrait of a man and his dogs

Dave and the Dog

I had such a wonderful time with this painting! I have a very dear friend, Marjie, who lives in Denver, Colorado. We’ve known each other for over 40 years. She is an artist as well — pastels, sculpture and glass work. We had great plans in November for her to come join me for an “Artist in Residence” week at Table Rock State park. She booked her ticket and we made plans. Then I got the news that the wildfires in North and South Carolina were encroaching on the park and my “residence” was cancelled! I was so bummed! Marjie decided not to come and take care of some other business in Colorado.

I felt so badly about not getting to spend that time together – and her losing that money for her ticket! It was a perfect opportunity to show her my love and appreciation. Initially I asked her to send me pictures of her pups, thinking I would do a pet portrait of those two cuties. But once I saw the photos I had to incorporate her husband Dave.

I used my favorite palette for portraits these days – the Zorn palette. White, black, yellow ochre and Cad Red Medium. I pulled it together from three different photos. It was one of those paintings that seemed to flow. Sometimes all the pieces come together — and sometimes, I wipe them out, turn them to the wall and fret about them. Perhaps because it was a labor of love, it came together easily.

Here’s to wonderful friendships that endure no matter what! Love you Marjie!!!

Painting from a Computer Monitor

I just recently started painting from a computer monitor when working from a photo reference. I love to paint from life, but sometimes that’s not a option; or, I’ve started a painting from life and I want to work on it some more to complete it. That was the case here. I have gotten frustrated with trying to work from photo prints. First of all the ink is really expensive. And typically I have to do many prints to arrive at one that I’m happy with — right color, contrast, size, etc.

Here are the advantages to painting from a computer monitor as I see them:

Closer to real life than print
I can resize the photo at will at any time. Choose a part of the photo and blow it up if need be.
Adjust color right then and there
No ink costs

Disadvantages:

Initial outlay of cash for monitor and the rest of the setup
When measuring I’ve managed to get some paint on the monitor! LOL! Cleans off with Alcohol usually. I may put some clear acetate over it to protect it.

It took some research to find the articulated arm to mount the monitor on. The next challenge was finding a way to mount the whole thing and make it flexible enough to take down if necessary. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to get a wooden ladder. It’s stable enough to handle the weight and it’s easy to take apart if need be.

The only other consideration I might mention is that I went with a cheap monitor to start out. To make sure this whole concept was going to work. It doesn’t have the greatest resolution particularly for color — especially compared to my Macbook’s resolution. So eventually I’ll probably upgrade to a better monitor. In the meantime I’ve found if I use my photo editing program I can boost the colors so that they look better on the big monitor.

Here’s the result from the painting you see in the photos.

I would say that my painting from a computer monitor experiment has been a success. Now I’ll be keeping my eye out for a monitor with better resolution. Happy painting!! All the best!!

Painting People from Life

This is Pamela — an amazing artist friend who I paint with —and recently modeled for us. We have a wonderful small group of women artists. We paint from life together, critique each others work and mainly support each other in this crazy life as an artist. I painted her one morning — about 2 hours — from life. Came back to my studio and completely wiped it out. While some of the brushwork was nice — it didn’t look a thing like her. So I worked from photos. I know that’s a faux pas for some artists. I’m an desperately trying to make the transition, but I’m still struggling and sometimes I resort to photos to help me along.