Below is the process I went through to determine what I felt worked in terms of painting from a photograph. I started at the beginning if you like until the work evolved into what I would consider great paintings that are fun and easy to paint.

Hay Bales Field

I started as most people would. Just representing as best I could what was in front of me. At this point I wasn't thinking about light or dark or colour or balance. What I was thinking of was what tools best work. So I tried various different ways, employing expressionist, impressionist and minimalist ways of painting. These sketches took some or no time at all depending on how I felt the sketch was panning out. Subjectively, some I liked more than others. I did so many that I popped them in a pdf HERE. So this was the 'AS I See It' take on my image.

Talking about the image it was from a trip out in the Worcestershire countryside. I had not taken the photo to paint. It hadn't occurred to me that I would use it as reference. I was just documenting the lovely bike ride out and about. It was late afternoon and the sun would be setting soon so the light on the landscape was not very good at all. But there was a light in the sky which was in reality spectacular, but as a photo taken by a phone, barely decent.

Apart from this one photo I based the paintings on, I did take others. I think to represent the impact of a scene its probably best to take a few. Also think about composition. A great photo will ,have things like composition and balance so you don't have to think about it too much when you are painting.

I admit I wanted the painting to go in a different direction so I represented just some of the colour and line that you could see in part not as a whole. This totally changed the composition and layout of the painting.

The last painting that was 'represented' became an abstract of the sky, with the land as a secondary notion.

Sutton Park

I went on to paint an image taken in Sutton Park. a lovely countryside within the city in Sutton Coldfield.

The paintings were semi abstract and not totally abstract but that was ok because I was obviously in a semi abstract mood! The PDF of all the images including techniques is here.

Below are some sequential techniques I used.

Its best to have a few photographs of the same area or subject. We are not making a true copy of the photograph, that would be boring. Rather, we want to take some aspects that excite us, and paint those. That could be colour, light, shapes, specific detail etc.

Photos can be full of extra stuff that in terms of a painting would make it cluttered and contrived. You can't paint in every little bit. It looks naff unless you are a photo realist. I am not, hence we abstract what we want and leave the rest.

You can work on any surface but each surface has its own unique properties that affect the outcome of the painting.

First you choose your colour palette. So check the colours that appeal to you most in the photograph. Paint wise, you can use any, but acrylics dry quickly, so these experiments are with acrylic.

Start by laying a ground. This can be a fun aspect of the painting where you lay down colour, mix and merge, add gesso or modelling paste, add marks and scores and generally have a fun time of it.

Let this surface dry completely. Then take the most prominent part of the photo and lay down that colour. You can use the same shapes or line etc. Make sure you use neat acrylic or with a flow improver, not water as that will destabilise the colour.

Let this dry completely as well.

Then block in the next main colour areas. You can change the shapes, sizes etc. You an do this at the same time as long as they dont overlap. You dont want mud!

Once those areas are dry. Block in some perspective.

This is the first layering of the ground.

Let it all dry

Now using pencil or charcoal or oil pastel, pop in some detail. This could be marks, lines dots, not overt detail just mark making.

Paint over some of these with the colours already lain.

Before the paint drys cut into it with your palette knife to create further marks.

Now block in the colours again.

With each layer you are building up the painting.

When you have enough middle ground detail scrape back the areas where the first main colours sat to reveal those colours through the layers.

Add some further strong brush marks and voila it should be done. Each painting differs of course and you have to let it become its own thing, so at some point dont bother with the photograph. It is usually a starting point however if you feel you haven't abstracted what you want add another layer!