The Importance of Reference Photos in Portrait Painting

No matter how many portraits for painting you are going to be using for a particular subject, you will need to make sure that you have enough perspective for your painting. Having reference photos in portrait painting is important, and you should take into consideration a few things for your photos.

First, you will need to have photos that are especially up to date and are all from around the same time. Over time people will grow up and as they get older they can have more effects on their faces. No one is perfect, but it is important to have plenty of photos from the same time period so that you will be able to have at least a good amount of accuracy in your painting.

Having multiple angles for your reference photos is important too. The portraits for painting that you will be using should be able to give you a good amount of perspective involving the figure that you will be working on. This includes the ability to help with figuring out how different parts of the face or body will look from different angles. By having this it will be better to get an idea with how to design the portrait you are working on.

Having a good amount of reference photos will be important, but it will be even better if the photos are ones that are in a good light. The lighting quality of your source photos will be important in that these portraits for painting are going to be your reference points. In fact, it can be good to have multiple reference photos taken at different lighting qualities so that you will get a better idea of how your portrait should look like in certain lighting qualities.

The last thing involving portraits for painting involves the expressions that are going to be used.  You may want to ask the subject of your portrait about how you want to have that person portrayed, whether it be a smiling look, or a neutral look. This is with the intention of being able to get accurate photos that will have the same expression on them.  Remember, in some cases different facial qualities can appear when a person is smiling.

Reference photos in portrait painting are important in that you will need to use them to make your portrait painting the most impressive and accurate when a model is not available. As I mentioned before, having various angles, lighting qualities and up to date reference photos is very important.  It also helps to have a good idea of the expressions that will be used in these photos.

By using these tips you can get your painting to be its best.