How to Turn a Photograph into a Painting: Part 2

 

As promised, here is another photograph I used to make a painting. Following the same steps as the previous blog post, here is how I did it.

Tip #1
Find the essence of the photograph.

For this one, I loved the house and the lamps, but decided to get rid of the chicken wire protecting the small trees and some of the background to create a simpler scene.

Tip #2
Change it

I made the house a bit smaller in the painting so I could focus more on the path leading up to the house instead. I also changed the light in the piece to reflect more of a foggy winter day instead of a snowy winter day. In retrospect, I think the snow is kind of nice, but, eh, I can always add some flakes if I want to. I really wanted to keep the piece simple. I have ruined many projects by trying to do too much.

Tip #3
Tell a story about the piece

I added a bunny to give more of a friendly, woodsy feel to the piece, but I felt that it had a pretty neat story going for it already. A sort of path leading up to a cheery looking, older mansion-y type place. I was tempted to put a team of draft horses and a carriage in, but I didn't.

I can't say that this is my best painting ever, needs some reworking for me to really feel like I made it my own, but I wanted to give you guys another example of how to use photos to construct a new piece of art.  If I were to feel good enough about this one to sell it, I would definitely want to add something else to make it my own.