Why Good References Matter and How to Get Them
The best restaurants start with the best ingredients. A five star Michelin doesn't create the award-winning food it does with sub par produce or poultry.
So why do we as artists keep thinking we can create a great painting with a bad reference?
WHAT IS A GOOD REFERENCE FOR PAINTING
The challenge comes in how do you figure out what is a good reference.
It’s a question we often revisit on the podcast...and the answer is almost always the same: light
And I'm not talking flat in the middle of the day light.
I'm talking Carrie Waller (Ep.8) drags furniture and props out to the backyard for golden hour or Melanie Morris (Ep.34) uses both a window and a clip lamp to create a stronger sense of directional light. Ian Roberts (Ep.36) revisits his plein air subjects at different times of the day to see which offers the best lighting options to make a great painting.
And they aren't doing all this work for no reason. It's because strong lights and darks- the kind you get best from slanted, strong directional light, make the best compositions...which in turn, make the best paintings.
THE FLAT LIGHT OF LIFE
Flat light is everywhere and it has a purpose.
Our houses are filled with flat, bright light. That kind of light helps us find things we’ve dropped on the floor and not trip on stairs.
Flat light is also incredibly useful in photography...for products.
This is a beautiful photograph by Giorgio Trovato and it may not make a reference for a painting because of the flat lighting and low value contrasts.
Scroll through Instagram and you’ll notice hundreds of beautiful photographs of flowers and shoes and people all with flat beautiful lighting to show off the colors and details of wedding bouquets, makeup and burgers.
Flat lighting is incredibly useful for showing us the details.
But details are not what make a strong painting.
Strong paintings come from references with big value masses.
This is also a beautiful photo and would make a better painting photo because of the dramatic lighting. (Image by Mike Dorner.)
So just because a photograph is beautiful and shows all the details and color of the object doesn’t mean it’ll make a good painting. This is a hard switch to make in your brain, but it’s one of those necessary steps in learning to see.
FINDING OR CREATING STRONG LIGHT
So how do you create or find a reference with the right kind of light for big value masses?
If you are a still life painter, you can either use the sun or set up your own light.
To use a window, turn off the lights in your studio, and place your still life next to a window with strong light. If there is too much bounce light from other areas in your studio (and remember, you’ll still need some light for painting) you can add additional light through setting up a clip light on the side of the window. This is exactly what Melanie Morris does.
Carrie Waller gives us another option. The sun is VERY powerful, and so she will bring her objects outside at different times of day to be in direct sunlight. This contrast is so dramatic that sometimes she can’t even see the photos she’s taking until she goes back inside and her eyes adjust.
Ian Robers will visit a scene at different times of day to find the best light. He will then come back and paint it.
If you don’t have great directional light either because it’s an overcast day or because it’s in the middle of the day, you’ll need to look at local color to find good contrasts of light and dark.
Local color is the color of the objects themselves. For example, the local color of a tree may be green leaves and brown trunk.
If Roberts knows he needs local color, he’ll again, spend some time walking around looking for scenes where there is a dark row of trees next to a light field, for example.
If you are looking at photos, again, look for images with strong contrasts between light and dark. If it’s not in the lighting itself, look for reference photos with value contrast in the local colors.
Remember, there is a difference between a reference that’s pretty and one that makes a good reference for painting.
YOUR LIBRARY
Now that you know what you need for a good painting reference, begin to build your library. This may take some time, but none of it is time wasted.
Not only will you be building your collection of photos, but you’ll also begin to intuitively understand how and when to capture the best light for painting, be that en plein air or for a reference to take back to the studio.
And once you’ve got a great reference photo, don’t be afraid to use it again and again. Melanie Morris will use a single reference photo dozens of times. Sometimes she’ll paint it exactly as she photographed it or more likely, she’ll change the cropping and or colors to make it a completely new scene.
Get articles like this and new podcast episodes sent straight to your inbox by signing up for the newsletter below.