Drawing from photo reference Pt. 3: Translating your imagery

Now that you have your photographic imagery to work from (check back to pt. 1 for advice on how to find your imagery and pt. 2 for how to prepare it) you’re ready to start drawing, painting or preparing a plate to print. This blog presents a series of different methods for translating a photograph into a tactile image.

Before you start, take a moment to think about the intention of your drawing will help you to pick a suitable approach. If, for example, you are drawing primarily to learn, then the outcome of the work will be secondary to what you learn through making it – in that case, processes like tracing might not be suitable for you because while they help you to arrive at a visually accurate outcome, you will learn less in the process of translation. If you are creating an illustration and you already have well established drawing skills, then tracing might save you some time in pursuit of a final image. Alternatively, your aim might not be to create a visually accurate replica of the photograph, but to use it as a starting point for a drawing that might evolve in a different direction as you work, in which case free drawing approaches might be better suit your aims. Understanding your own intentions at the outset will help you to pick a method of working that best suits those intentions, while experimenting with unfamiliar methods will help you to help to broaden the image making and exploratory skills at your disposal. It is also important to ask yourself what you need from the photograph – as you draw you are able to take control of the images, changing shape, scale, tone and colour as you work and allowing your media to guide your processes. Good photo reference doesn’t need to be perfect, or very high resolution and infact, if it is already a fantastic photo, why do you need it to translate it into tactile media? Make sure that your drawn translation brings something new to the image, helps you find something new in the subject or helps you to exercise your own practical skills.

Main image: Kathryn by Martyn Burdon, Pencil on Paper

“I’ve never thought that using photography in drawing and painting is a cheat. It’s just a handy tool. If I’m going to paint someone, I’ll take a load of photos to try out different compositions and arrangements of light with the sitter. Photography is always just a handy means to an end. The final drawing or painting might be based on elements from any number of photos.” - Martyn Burdon

--

This is a reference article – you’ll always be able to find it on our navigator page here. Feel free to dip into it as often as you like, skipping to the parts relevant to you and your work.

--

First thoughts

In the 21st century, there is no question that it is legitimate to draw from a photograph, but it’s worth considering, what is the photo to you?

• Is it a visual pneumonic, that helps remind you of the subject so that you can channel the memory of them as you draw? Will you use it on its own, or supported by sketches and other photographs of the same subject?
• Is it a window into a world – a piece of glass through which you are viewing a frozen moment?
• Is it a still life subject, where the physicality of the medium is important and its presence on a phone, or a computer screen or as a physical, developed photograph something that your drawing should record?

Ellen by Sandy Rodger, 2020, Oil on board

Free Drawing – image

I’m going to use the phrase free drawing for any observational drawing that doesn’t use an intermediate tool to aid translation; making a free drawing of a photograph utilises and exercises the skills of observational drawing, although it will make use of fewer skills than working from a 3-dimensional subject. Think about the source of imagery that works best for you:

Physical copy – if you are trying to reduce your screen time, print off your digital photographs to work from. While printing will alter the colours and tones, it can be much easier to secure a physical photograph in an ideal position to work from.

Computer – while relatively static and more difficult to manoeuvre than a tablet or printed photograph, laptop and computer screens ofter the largest, clearest picture for you to work from. Connecting your computer to a TV screen or separate monitor can help maximise your image-size.

Left: Using stacked tables to raise a laptop for working at an easel / Right: Working from a laptop with an angled drawing board

Tablet or phone – tablets and phones can be set up on a tripod or clamp to help you line the reference up in the ideal relationship to your drawing surface – they also allow you to zoom into, or rotate reference easily.

Left: iPad attached to the easel with a heavy duty clamp / Right: Phone attached to the easel with a goose-neck clamp.

Landscape painter Hester Berry often works from a photograph of a landscape on an iPhone in combination with sketches made on location, using the drawings for tone, structure and a memory of place and the phone image for general light effects and visual colour notes.

Free Drawing - scaling

There are a few different ways to scale your drawings when you are from a photograph. As you’ll have more control over your photo reference than a live subject, it can provide a good opportunity to practice methods that you can later apply to working from life.

Sight-Size – not to be confused with the Atelier-based drawing method, sight-size simply means drawing the subject at the size at which you see it. When you are drawing from a photograph it is easy to set yourself up to work at a 1:1 scale from your imagery, lining up a tablet directly next to your easel, or sticking a photograph directly next to your paper on the drawing board.

Comparative – a comparative free drawing process is more flexible that sight size, allowing you to intuitively scale your drawings up or down compared to your subject. This is often how we work most naturally, without really thinking about it. We often set ourselves up in relation to the screen or photo and launching into the drawing, allowing medium, paper size and intuition to guide the scale of the drawing. As it is a more flexible drawing approach, you might find using multiple refernce images will help you to better understand your subject.

Enforced limitations – While the set ups above will help you to drawing objectively, you might find that you want to inject deliberately confounding elements into your process to create dramatic tension in your process. This gap between a clear view of the subject and the developing drawing will allow more room to focus on the process and the drawing itself and less on the photo reference, creating drawings that embrace serendipity and potentially interesting mistakes. Anything goes here – deliberately working from a tiny image on your phone – placing the reference material behind you so you have to turn and remember what you have seen before you make your marks. Explore and experiment with different ways to untether yourself from reference, while still borrowing from it.

Squaring up

‘Squaring up’, or 'Gridding' is a well-established method for accurately translating an image from one surface to another, particularly when it involves a change of scale. By breaking an image up into square units you can more easily translate the contents of each square from you’re a preparatory drawing, or photographic reference onto a new support. Here’s a simple introduction:

Preparation - There will be some maths and measurement involved in this – you’ll need a ruler if you’re working from a physical photo. Decide how many squares you will divide your reference into – this might involved trimming the image down if the dimensions of the image are not easily divisible by the number of squares (the yellow in the picture is the trimmed area). Draw out a grid of exactly the same number of squares onto the support you want to translate the image onto – the squares can be larger or smaller. If you are working on a tablet or phone you can find apps that will instantly overlay a grid on your drawing (search ‘Grid’) – the gridded photos can typically only be viewed in-app although a screen grab is possible. This Youtube tutorial will show you how to grid an image on photoshop.

Process - Translate the shapes in each square one at a time, relating each square in the photo reference to the corresponding square in the drawing. Don’t try and copy the subject, bit focus on the shapes, noticing the particular negative and positive spaces within the boundaries of each unit and noticing where edges in the photo the grided lines. Lightly erase the grid to allow you to draw over the top, or leave it in the drawing as an admission of process.

Projection

Artists have most likely been using projection to create paintings since the camera obscura just over 400 years ago – it is likely Johannes Vermeer used a camera obscura to help him paint and tools like the camera lucida have been used to aid perception and create an optical pattern for artists’ drawings ever since. Modern projectors can be an effective way to provide to translate digital images into tactile drawing, particularly if you are scaling image up – older projection equipment like overhead projectors can be used for projecting imagery printed onto acetate sheets. As your body and hand will block the light from the projector it can be challenging to place your marks precisely and it is important to adjust the keystone of the projector to avoid unwanted distortion, (or to facilitate wanted distortion)!

Artist Jonny Shaw uses a projector as part of his drawing process, the first image shows his drawing set up and the second shows one of his ‘Fragments’ series of drawings (used with permission, copyright of the artist). ­

Tactile tracing 

While it destroys your reference material, tracing can be a good way of translating a printed photograph to another surface at the same scale. Simple draw around the subject with a transferable medium like a soft graphite pencil, turn the paper over and rub vigorously on the other side so that the lines you have drawn transfer onto the new surface.

Traced reference, ready to be over-drawn

Pouncing

An interesting alternative to tracing is ‘pouncing’, a traditional technique used for translating a cartoon onto a new surface. A contemporary take involves taking a printed photograph and pricking around its contours with a sharp tool. Use a compass or etching needle (pins are a little too slim) and make sure you have protected the surface beneth the photo. Next, turn the photo over and pat charcoal dust into its pricked surface, transferring the dots on to the paper underneath – it will leave you with a mirrored version of your pricked photograph. While intended as a preparatory process, it creates an engaging image in its own right!

Traced reference, ready to be over-drawn

Lightbox Tracing 

As well as being an established tool for animators, lightboxes are used by lots of illustrators and artists for copying imager between thin papers. If you are working on canvas or a heavy paper it is likely that you won’t be able to see through your support and will need to use a tactile tracing method instead, although I’ve found a good modern lightbox can shine through 90gsm and 200gsm cartridge paper happily enough.

Drawing from a lightbox

If you don’t have a lightbox you can use the backlighting of a screen to trace directly from a digital image

Try taping your reference to a window and tracing through the paper.

--

This article was written by Jake Spicer. All uncredited images by the author. Main photograph of Elle by Olly Hearsey from The Brighton Studio for the Draw Patreon.

<< Read pt 1. Gathering Imagery Here 

<< Read pt 2. Manipulating Imagery Here 

--