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Avoiding the trap of reference photos June 23, 2018 15:44

Some people use reference photos as a sort of sacred text for their painting. They will even project it onto their support and trace over it. For me, a reference photo can be a valuable aid for getting some interesting shapes, but if I start trying to copy the colors, it can easily turn into a trap and the resulting painting just looks dead somehow. So usually I morph my reference photos in some major way.

Whistler and Lautrec April 8, 2016 20:40

The Falling Rocket by James MacNeil WhistlerWhistler would work on a painting for hours and be all happy about it for 15 minutes, "It's GREAT!", bragging all over about it, and then an hour later he'd go and scrape it off the canvas, terrified that someone would see it and think what a crap artist he was. Read more...

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Avoiding the trap of reference photos Posted on 23 Jun 15:44

Whistler and Lautrec Posted on 8 Apr 20:40

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