The key? Continuous adjustment.
In this 113-minute demonstration, Tom Browning creates a beautiful figurative painting with Degas-like qualities. Because his reference material is a photographic slide of a ballerina posed in a window-lit studio, he explains the advantages of painting from photographs. He takes time to point out the specific pitfalls inherent in working from photographic references and explains how an alert artist with experience in painting from life can avoid these pitfalls.
Figurative painting can be intimidating but aspiring artists will find plenty of encouragement in watching Browning’s approach. Although his painting philosophy revolves around the faithful adherence to observed values, shapes and color temperatures, he never becomes rigid about the fundamentals. Viewers will see how this artist’s mental checklist helps him to arrive at the accurate rendering of convincing form. With perfect ease, he moves the painting from preliminary sketch to finished work. He continues to make adjustments and corrections. “It’s only paint; you can move it,” he says.

In this video, Tom explains the materials including the use of linen on board, preferences of canvas tooth, the adhesive used to mount the linen, the use of Liquin to revive workability in a dried layer of paint and a simplified color palette. He also shows ways of posing the model. The video shows an explanation of color mixing and a stroke-by-stroke explanation of the painting process, including laying in of masses, observing and recording accurate values, comparing value relationships, painting direct and reflected light, distinguishing fabric textures, the treatment of facial features, the halo effect of back-lighting and much more.

Making photographic references work for you.
Tom gives tips on the use of photographic references: how to avoid the pitfalls and take advantage of the conveniences, plus how experience in painting from life makes all the difference.