The main aspect of a photograph is that it is a split second in time, which certainly captures a lot of information for an artist to work from, but it’s knowing what to leave out that makes it a good painting. So it’s down to my artistic licence to leave out the aspects that don’t add to the image, and adjusting them slightly that can add greatly to the composition. As an artist I can look at a photo and see what I need to work with from it, and what I need to ignore, or alter by changing colours, or tones, contrasts, and focal points. To demonstrate I’ve shown a few examples here so that you can see the original photo that I have used as my source material, and the finished painting that I have painted from it. So in an animal portrait I can ignore the fact that the background is too intrusive, and in a street scene I can remove the cars, telephone wires, TV ariels, street signs, and dustbins that detract from the simple beauty of the house being depicted.
It’s picking up the essence of the photo that forms the painting.