Learn to Paint a Watercolor from a Photo with These Easy Steps

As much as I love painting outdoors, you’ll often find me using a reference photo for watercolor inspiration. In fact, it is commonplace to find me working from a photo in my studio. 

But the process is a little different than plein air painting. There are a few important methods to remember when you’re painting a scene from a photograph. Keep reading (or watch the video above) for more information!

How to Paint From a Photograph: 3 Strategies

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Before you Begin, Crop Your Photo.

You're never going to take a picture that's going to be exactly perfectly translated into a painting, so you're going to need to do some cropping. 

You don't need to include everything that's in your photograph in your painting. Look at your photograph. First, think about the thing that attracted you to the scene. Is it the sky? The light on the surface of a building? The colors and motion of a cityscape? 

Identify what’s most important to you in the scene and crop the picture in a way that best features this main idea. 

Something I see with students a lot is they'll take a very complicated scene and attempt to paint everything that is in their photograph. But the better approach is to zoom in on a little area of the scene, find the little bit that inspires you, and crop out the things that aren't important.

Also consider the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds is when you divide your painting with two evenly spaced out vertical lines and two evenly spaced out horizontal lines. Where those lines intersect are the parts of your painting that you want to place the most important parts of your scene. Want more information about this? Check out this blog!

Pay Close Attention to Contrast.

The second key is to pay attention to the contrast in your picture. 

When you take a photograph, what happens is you lose some information in the darkest areas of the photograph. A lot of detail is obscured and these areas often appear darker in the photograph than they are in reality. 

If you're looking at that scene in person, your eye is going to be able to see a little bit more detail in the shadows than your camera can, so just be mindful of that change in perception. 

Creatively Arrange Elements of Your Scene.

The last key is to give yourself permission to rearrange elements in your scene. Take artistic liberties as you see fit.  

So, for example, if you take a look at the reference photo for this watercolor that I painted in today’s demo, there is a car with headlights. I wanted to find a way to incorporate this element into the scene, so I changed the road and I moved that car from the edge of the painting over into a prominent area of the scene.

The temptation is to get really locked in to exactly how the subject is in real life. I walk by this house almost every day, and I know that there's not a road right there. 

Remember that, as an artist, you're just taking cues and inspiration from the scene or the photograph - not being directed and dictated to. You have the license as the creator to move things, rearrange elements, and to change the composition completely if it makes for a better painting.

How to Paint a Picture from a Photograph

I hope that these three tips for using a photograph when painting a watercolor help you paint the scenes you most want to render. Whether it is a beloved vacation spot, a sentimental place from your childhood, or (like my example) a scene you pass every day, I hope this advice allows you to approach this task with more confidence.    

If you’d like to see the step-by-step process of this watercolor, scroll back up to the top of this post and watch the attached video. In it, I show you how I painted this scene and invite you to paint along with me if you’d like. 

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