My very first day long study in art was with a group of 15 students. We basically used a photocopy from a magazine that had been enlarged, then traced it onto the canvas. The Artist then painted the subject and showed us how she used her palette and we tried to follow with our own paintings.
At first the whole thing felt cheap to me. This isn't art!
At the end of the day as I walked around the room I was amazed. There, in front of me were 15 stylized impressions of the same subject that were wonderful. Some looked older, some elegant and one whorish. They were all wonderfully different. I learned a big lesson that day.
Since then I have used photo's to paint but not copy. I often move things around for better effect. As far as portaits go, I find that the photo is quite a handicap. I will do most of the photo from the photograph then I will finish with what I know about the subject and what seems intuitively correct.
Dean
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Hybrid Mode
