Getting Started · Guide
A reference photograph is evidence, not instructions. It records what a camera captured at one moment; the painting decides what to keep, what to change and what to leave out. Make those decisions before mixing paint, and the photograph becomes a source to interpret rather than a picture to copy.
7 min read
Photographs are convenient. They hold still, they keep the light from changing, and they let you paint subjects you could not otherwise sit in front of. The difficulty is that a photograph offers everything at once. Painting from it well depends on choosing among what it shows.
This guide gives an order for those choices: one idea, a crop, a few values, connected shapes, a small number of important edges and a deliberate approach to colour.
At a glance
Decide what the painting is about. One visual idea gives every later choice a test to pass.
Crop before drawing. The camera’s frame is often not the best frame for the painting.
Reduce to three values. Light, middle and dark groups show the structure beneath the detail.
Join small things into larger shapes. Separate leaves, windows and stones can become one connected passage.
Choose a few edges to state. Let the others quieten or merge.
Change colour deliberately, but keep the value pattern. The value structure usually carries more of the image than exact colour.
What a reference photograph can and cannot decide
A photograph can provide useful evidence about position, relative size, light direction and broad value relationships. Treat those observations as a starting point rather than a complete account of the scene.
It cannot decide what matters. A sharp photograph tends to record a distant gutter with the same clarity as the face of the person standing in front of it, so every part of the frame can seem to ask for equal attention. That evenness is a property of the image, not a decision you are obliged to keep.
A photograph also carries choices made by the camera. Computational photography teaching describes how a single exposure trades detail in the brightest areas against detail in the darkest, so a sky may appear blank or shadows nearly black. Colour depends on the light and the camera’s settings, and it can look different again from one screen to another. Treat both as information to question rather than facts about the scene.
Using other people’s photographs. The UK Intellectual Property Office states that photographs are generally protected by copyright, that most images online are likely to be protected, and that making an adaptation without permission will usually infringe copyright. The simplest course is to work from your own photographs, or from images whose licence clearly allows the use you intend, including any sharing or sale of the painting. This is general guidance, not legal advice; the IPO’s notice on digital images and photographs explains the position in more detail.
Choose one visual idea
Before drawing, finish the sentence “This painting is about…”. The answer might be light falling across a wall, the shape of a boat against bright water, or a quiet group of pale buildings under a dark hill. It should be short enough to remember while painting.
The idea then becomes the test for everything in the photograph. A detail that supports it can stay. A detail that competes with it can be simplified, moved or left out. If the photograph seems to contain several good paintings, choose one now and keep the others for later studies.
If the subject itself feels too complicated, the guide to simple watercolour subjects suggests starting points that make one decision easier to see.
Crop before drawing
The camera’s frame records where the camera happened to point. Try two or three crops on a small sketch or by masking the photograph with strips of paper, and compare how each one presents the idea.
A useful crop usually removes:
- edges of the frame that pull attention outward;
- empty or busy areas that do not support the idea;
- objects cut awkwardly by the edge of the picture.
The crop also sets the proportion of the sheet. Decide it before drawing on watercolour paper, so the composition is not squeezed to fit afterwards.
Reduce the image to three broad value groups
Squint at the cropped photograph, or view it small and in black and white, and sort what you see into light, middle and dark. Mark the groups on a small thumbnail. A photograph can contain many more distinguishable values than the painting needs to hold together.
Grouping values is a decision, not just a measurement. Two areas that are slightly different in the photograph can be placed in the same group so they read as one shape. The full method for planning and painting in this order belongs to the guide to working light to dark.
Join small objects into larger shapes
Once the values are grouped, look for neighbouring areas that share a group and join them. A row of trees, their shadows and the hedge beneath can become one dark shape. Several pale roofs can become one light band.
Connected shapes give the painting structure and make washes easier to carry. Individual objects can be suggested inside a larger shape later, if the idea needs them. Where a light shape is defined by the darker space around it, the guide to negative painting shows how that surrounding shape can be built.
Decide which edges matter
A photograph tends to present every in-focus boundary with similar clarity. The painting can be more selective. Mark the few edges that explain structure or hold attention, then allow edges between similar values to quieten or disappear.
This is where translation is most visible: the same boundary that is crisp in the photograph may be softened or lost in the painting because the idea does not need it. The guide to lost and found edges explains how to plan that hierarchy.
Change colour without losing the value structure
Photographic colour is a record of particular light, a particular camera and a particular screen. You are free to warm a shadow, cool a sky or limit the palette to a few paints that suit the idea.
The value pattern is harder to change without consequence. If a colour change alters which group a shape belongs to, the structure of the painting can shift with it. Check new colour choices against the thumbnail: the light, middle and dark groups should still read as planned. The guide to colour mixing for beginners covers how to arrive at those colours.
What to omit
Omission is part of the plan, not a failure to copy. Common candidates include:
- small objects that break up a large shape;
- signs, wires, cars and clutter that the idea does not need;
- texture repeated across a whole surface;
- detail in areas the viewer should pass through quickly.
Decide on omissions before drawing. If an object is not in the drawing, it is easier not to paint it. The guide to sketching before watercolour explains how much drawing to carry onto the sheet.
A decision table
| Photographic feature | Painting decision | Useful response |
|---|---|---|
| Detail sharp across the whole frame | Where should attention settle? | Keep detail near the idea; simplify elsewhere |
| Bright area with no visible detail | Is this real light or an exposure limit? | Decide its value from the idea, not from the blank |
| Very dark shadows | How much information does the painting need there? | Group as dark, or plan a slightly lighter value if the shape needs reading |
| Many similar small objects | Do they need to be separate? | Join them into one shape |
| Strong colour cast | Does the colour serve the idea? | Change it while keeping each shape in its value group |
| Awkward crop or busy edges | What does the frame need to include? | Re-crop before drawing |
| Several competing subjects | Which one is the painting about? | Choose one; keep the rest for another study |
These are working responses, not rules. A painting can keep a feature that the table suggests simplifying when the idea depends on it.
Common problems
| Symptom | Likely cause | Restrained response |
|---|---|---|
| The painting looks busy | Everything in the photograph was kept | Return to the idea and remove what does not support it |
| Shapes look cut out | Every photographic edge was painted at equal strength | Quieten or lose edges between similar values |
| The painting looks flat | The value groups are too close or insufficiently organised | Re-establish separation between the selected groups without darkening every passage |
| Colour looks right but the image does not read | A colour change moved shapes into the wrong value group | Recheck colour against the value thumbnail |
| Composition feels cramped | The camera’s crop was kept | Crop again on a fresh thumbnail |
Interpret the photograph before you paint it
The photograph supplies evidence; the painting makes the decisions. Choose one idea, crop for it, reduce the image to three value groups, join shapes, choose the few edges that matter and change colour only where the value structure survives. Then leave out whatever the idea does not need.
Copying every detail gives the photograph’s priorities to the painting. Deciding first gives the painting its own.