Should I paint while looking at a reference photo?

I’m really asking. Sometimes my post titles are rhetorical and I already have an opinion, but not this time!

Some artists argue that you shouldn’t directly paint from reference photos; you shouldn’t be following them that closely. You aren’t a camera or a Xerox machine. A carbon copy of the photo is not only difficult to accomplish, but of less artistic value than a painting that brings out your own ideas and unique vision.

I see the validity of this argument. I often find that when I am in the zone trying to copy a reference photo, I am so wrapped up in the what and how that I forget to think about why I am doing it. Is the specific aspect of the reference that I’m trying to imitate actually interesting, important to the overall statement, or even something I particularly like? For example, I will get hung up on color-matching the photo and not think about what colors I want the painting to be. This often leads to issues with color harmony as I use more and more pigments trying to precisely match a color as if I am working the Sherwin Williams paint counter.

Yet, when I don’t paint from the reference, I find myself adrift. I have a poor visual memory, and I find it challenging to fill in the gaps with my own imagination. Without a reference available to observe the way natural phenomena really look, I tend to paint more stereotyped and childish images.

So which method is better? Painting from the reference, or not?

Experimental Pair #1: Reference/No Reference

Let’s take a pair of paintings that I did recently based on a photo by Jonah Withers on Unsplash.

The first version on the left was painted while looking at the reference photo.

For the second version, I drew the undersketch while looking at the reference photo, then painted largely from memory/imagination (admittedly sneaking a few peeks at the previous version I’d painted.)

I prefer the second version and found that it was much easier to pay attention to whether a decision served the painting when I wasn’t thinking about whether it resembled the photo. This freed up brainspace to think more critically about:

• Composition; for example I made the road smaller and arranged the clouds differently when I was deciding how I wanted them rather than going off what was there.
• Form and value; making sure the clouds, vegetation, and distant hills ‘read’ as having a particular set of shapes instead of copying murky transitions.
• Color changes; for example I made the conscious decision that the cloud shadows should be cooler on the right, and that the path should be lighter in the distance.
• Using a limited palette. When I’m color matching a photo I reach for whatever colors I think I need in the moment, when I’m not I can plan my colors more thoughtfully and economically.
• Brushwork. When working from the photo I kept redoing things because it wasn’t right.

The no-reference version had many advantages. However, I wondered if I’d only been able to move onto more sophisticated concerns in painting #2 because I had already done painting #1 to work through getting my grip on the scene. I decided to try a painting where my first version was the no-reference one.

Experimental pair #2: No reference/reference

In this case I used one of my own photos as a reference.

For the first version on the left, I drew the undersketch from the photo, then put the photo away and painted from memory / imagination. On the right, I made a second attempt while actually looking at the photo.

In this case there is not a clear winner to me.

I feel like in the first version, I struggled to remember the details of the reference and consistently filled in the gaps in the most boring possible way. I made things too neat and tidy: fluffy ice-cream-scoop clouds, a neat line of equally-sized trees.

The version I did from the reference has noticeably worse brushwork including lots of harsh, dark lines. Partially that is because I could not resist going over things twice when it didn’t look “perfect” (that is, like the reference) the first time, but I had no such standard for perfection without the reference. Partially this is because it simply takes longer to paint from a reference since you keep looking at it, and this caused my paint to dry before I was finished.

On the other hand, I feel that in the second version I brought out more of what I like about the original photo, like the diagonal slant and movement of the clouds.

I’m often drawn to reference photos that showcase natural phenomena that are a bit surprising to me, something I haven’t observed enough to find it commonplace. And, this is exactly what I can’t paint without a reference, because I don’t know it well enough!

Maybe it would be easier if I’d painted similar scenes much more often and had more muscle memory and visual memory built up over time. I have to wonder if those artists who extol the value of painting reference-free realize how much knowledge and experience they are building on when they go off the dome. Is this, like starting with a limited palette, another example of experienced artists being unable to imagine not knowing what they know, and inadvertently giving beginners advice that is actually much easier for experts to follow?

Conclusion

In both cases I tend to prefer the version I did without directly looking at the reference in real time. However, I don’t think “simply do not” is the answer. At least, not a complete one.

I got the best results from doing two paintings – the first one from a reference, and a second one of the same scene without the reference. The first painting was crucial in helping me carefully observe the scene and learn how to paint it. But “do two paintings” is also not a great solution for me. I typically don’t enjoy painting the same thing twice in a row. I find it boring and frustrating. Indeed, I found this exercise tiresome.

Maybe it’s not totally necessary to do a whole pre-painting. Maybe there is a more efficient way to get the benefit. I know some artists do pre-paintings in a smaller scale (though my “finished” paintings are already pretty small scale). Poppy Balser does pre-paintings in the same scale but monochrome, which speeds things up while still providing that intense practice in shape, form, and value. (Though I still think that feels boring, maybe even more so because I really like color.) Another option might be to try to replace the pre-painting with some really intense planning, like using the reference to make value studies in pencil and/or a really intense undersketch, then putting it away for the actual painting.

All of these are very reasonable solutions yet all of them make me feel tired. It’s like a battle for last place of which my ADHD brain will find more do-able:

1. Do two full-ass paintings – one from the reference, one not
2. Do a bunch of planning and sketching from the reference, then paint without it
3. Don’t do any of that, paint from the reference the way I feel comfortable, then move on; just accept that the paintings will not be as good as they could be

I kinda feel like #3 is realistically going to win most of the time. After all, I just do this for fun. Still, it’s good to have some fancy methods in my back pocket in case I do want things to be a bit elevated.

And, there is hope. In a recent Jackson’s interview, Abi Whitlock, an acrylic artist who specializes in underwater scenes, explained,

[W]hen I first began working, I used to try to replicate exactly the details of the water from the image I was using as I didn’t yet have the confidence or the knowledge of how to create realistic-looking water without sticking religiously to what I saw in my reference. Nowadays, I’m a lot freer in how I paint water. I’m now pretty familiar with the many patterns and shapes water tends to create so I can go much more off-piste and add details of my own that (hopefully!) take a painting to the next level!

It’s heartening to think that the developmental stage where I need to look at references for everything may gradually give way to a greater general understanding of my typical subjects, which will make even my reference-free images feel more grounded.