Plan Well for Success
- Walk Around to Find the Best Angle
When you take references images or do plein air painting, it is important to walk around the subject to get the most impactful composition. Take picture from different angles. If possible, come back when the light might be better.
Examine your photos to find all the possibilities you can derive from the photo. Sometimes multiple paintings can come from one reference photo.
Look for pathways (lines) into and around the painting. Find your focal point and eliminate anything that does not support the subject or focal point.
2. Crop Your Reference Photo
Crop your images to find the layout. Take your time setting up your painting to ensure success. There is nothing worse that starting a painting but then find you are unable to complete it. Lightly sketch the basic outline with a paintbrush. I find this particularly because then I can see the structure and make adjustments before I begin.
There have been times when I just started painting without a plan, and then halfway through I realize that I started in the wrong place. Perhaps the sky became too big or too small or more often there is too much foreground space that I don’t know how to full. Mistakes can be avoided by sketching out the basic layout.
3. Take Your Time
Planning and preparation work is very important to a successful painting. I often plan my paintings before I enter the studio so I can just sketch the outline on the canvas and get painting. When I want to paint, I like to start while the inspiration is fresh.
These ideas came from Ian Roberts “Mastering Composition.” The video can be found at https://youtu.be/zVf8o6GO2OY?si=S9Hm6u2gWBAOB2-d
Here are several paintings I did from reference photos taken from different angles:
