Are Your Painting Studios bursting at the seams with Reference Pictures?
Your Online Memory sagging with the numbers of Picture Files you have?
Mine are.
Yet many of them are useless!
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| My Petunias last summer looked like great companions for my Hummingbird Painting |
As many of you know I spend a week with Robert
Bateman and a group of wildlife artists, a year ago, discussing the ideas
embedded in creating our art. Those
ideas have been percolating ever since. One of the big things I realized was I
was collecting lots of pictures of birds and animals that I saw in my travels
but not paying enough attention to what was in my reference pictures. Getting information on their setting was a
big area of weakness. This year I have been photographing settings for my
wildlife as much as my wildlife itself.
What does photographing the Setting Mean . . .
Sounds simple eh? Not so I realized. First, I really needed to look at the setting
and determine who/what wildlife would be there.
That means more specifically ‘where’ would they be. If it is a bird, where on the branch, stump,
fence post, bucket would he sit. Now if
your bird/animal is obliging enough to sit or stand in a great spot, by all
means shoot it. But they just don’t seem
to always do that for me. I often end up
with a great picture of my subject but not in a very interesting location.
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| Adding another flower makes an interesting setting for my humming bird flying by |
In the old days I would just shoot pictures of
the location but later find them lacking in information. By shooting shots with
specifics in mind, I am finding my reference material is way more
informative. Note my shot of petunias
in the garden.(see above) I can picture the
hummingbird coming up to the flowers from the right. The angles are good for her to dart around
and try each of the blooms if she likes.
The shadows and lines of the post and leaves provide lots of interest to
frame the picture.
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| Taking a horizontal view, adding another bloom and now a good setting for a chickadee or crown sparrow |
Don’t forget the size . . .
Animal lovers are just like sailors. A sailor knows his boats and if you paint a
picture that has the rigging wrong you are in big trouble. Animal lovers are the same - that hummingbird must be in the right place and the right size. That also means keeping in mind which plane in the picture your bird will be in. The Front Petunia is obviously in the foreground. My hummingbird is in the mid-ground so the size would be comparable to the back petunia.
Of course petunias are a little more obliging then other flowers as they come in different sizes. This means that you have a little more leeway with your bird to flower ratio. One thing Bateman did to check his size ratio was drop his camera case into the picture. Later he have an accurate sense of the size of things for placing his wildlife. See my post "The Story of a Painting" for an example of how this can work.
Zooming in on the setting and really picking the spot where you
animal/bird will be really helps in getting the size right.
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| Cropping my petunias gives me another way of integrating my Hummingbird into the Picture. Here having the correct size becomes very important. |
Watch your shadows . . .
Where is your light source? Would your bird be in the shadows, sunlight,
or mixed. I often look for a mix setting
for my birds. When I place my bird/animal in the setting I can have a piece of the shadow from a branch or leaf crossing over it. That bit of shadow on it makes it a little more interesting to look at and also integrates it better into the setting. One of Bateman's favourite lighting for reference pictures is a back-light. If all the reference material has the same lighting it makes for a much easier integration of subject and setting.
I have worked out my picture and started to paint. Sorry, you will have to wait til next week to see which picture reference I used.
Do you have special strategies for taking your reference shoots? I would love to hear you thoughts on tricks to use.
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