Richard wrote:
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I would say that I very rarely work directly from the life, "painting what I see". Almost everything I do is "frankensteined" together from sketches, memory, imagination, photo references, and the great difficulty I have is to make it "flow". The usual flaw is a sense of being contrived, or a "wooden" aspect, even if glaring errors of scale and perspective have been avoided.
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That's hard to do, isn't it! That's why a lot of people think it's easier to work from life (aside from being a lot more fun, too). You never have to "make something up". It's all there right in front of you.
Sharon wrote:
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Then I do quick color studies. I find that they are not informative enough to paint from, and are useless references for color.
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I do color studies for every portrait and find them very helpful for working out the composition. If I took the model or other reference away there's no way I could complete the painting from the color study, though. I use the study mostly to "test out" compositional ideas. I'll even do this halfway through the painting. If I want to change something I'll change it on the study and see if it works. Tom Nash told me he uses his color studies for the same purpose.