The right image

Chapter 2 – The right image

I believe that when most of us show the results of our work to other people we want them to say things like "That's fantastic," "Wow," and "I can't believe you painted that", and so on – we all want this.

So, the first thing we can do to increase the odds of this happening is to aim for a really impressive image to reproduce. For me this is the first and most important step in achieving the very best result.

We can look through books or scour the internet in our search, but finding the right one is absolutely crucial in achieving optimum results. An old maxim I always stand by is "Rubbish in = Rubbish out". If you start off with a crumby sketch, photograph or image to work to, you can produce a fantastic copy but the final result will still be crumby. So take your time and make sure you have a good image that you, and most people, find impressive or admirable before you adopt it as a reference for your own work.

Then, once you find it, you can either do a direct copy or produce a completely new painting of your own by identifying the qualities that makes the image so attractive and attempt to incorporate them into a similar image of your own. Artists have done this for years. Here is an example of my own. Whilst surfing the net for interesting images I discovered this black and white photograph of a victorian woman chasing after an out-of-control horse in the snow (below, left). It occurred to me that I could do a similar picture where the horse had been caught and, following a meeting of minds, the horse was quietly following her subservient and obediently

For the sake of simplicity, I am going to recommend that, initially, we do a straightforward copy rather than making the exercise more complicated than necessary.

So, what do we think of copying an image? I say this because some people look down on copying as if it is inferior in some ways to painting something new - as if art has to be new, and copying is not creative and therefore takes less skill.

Well, firstly, many of the greats did their fair share of copying as a way of learning, or even attempting to surpass the skills of their peers. Some brilliant artists actually made their living as 'copyists' which was a very highly respected vocation.

Another way of looking at it, is that artists always copy images in one way or another. Either copying from the images retained in our heads, from a photograph or a painting - or copying from life itself. So, let's not look down on copying.

Transferring the image onto our surface

There are several different ways in which we can transfer the image onto our surface. These include:

* Sketch by eye (eyeballing)

* Use a grid

* Project the image with a projector or epidiascope

* Print down method (trace)

Whether you are copying a landscape, seascape, abstract or a portrait, the picture will be made up of components and shapes and it will be a lot easier if you get these in exactly the right place.

I will explain the process that I usually adopt to get the first outline onto the surface.

Sketch by eye (or 'eyeballing')

Firstly, try to make it so you are copying from the same size image as your picture is going to be (it is possible to scale up or down but let's do it the easy way first).

Select something like a number 4 bristle brush, then load it with dark paint (I tend to use raw umber or Van Dyke brown). Then, use your palette to work the paint well into the bristles. After that, take a piece of rag and wipe it off again! But do not clean the brush with spirit, just wipe it. The brush should then be good for making vague outlines by scrubbing it on your surface. Try it out, there should still be sufficient paint left in the bristles to make a pale straw-coloured line. Use this to make construction lines on your picture.

At some point, you may decide to remove a line or two and have another more accurate attempt at it. This can easily be done by putting a tiny amount of spirit (recommend odourless mineral spirit or OMS) on a cloth and wiping the line out. Even when the OMS disperses completely into the cloth it will still work very effectively.

Then whilst standing back and taking in the reference picture as well as the surface you have selected to work on, move your eyes between the two and, picturing the image on your surface, establish some basic reference points with your brush. If it is a landscape, the height of the horizon might be a good one, the position of the mountains, or if it's a portrait, the eye-line, the mouth, top of the head and bottom of the chin will ensure that things are kept in proportion.

Use a pair of dividers to check that your construction lines are in the right place by comparing to the original. Dividers are fairly inexpensive but, if you want, you can actually make your own from cardboard or hardboard, but they are excellent for comparing your new work to the original. A few years ago when I visited Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam it was lovely to see a beautifully decorated pair of dividers in with the artist's equipment in his studio.

When you are painting a landscape or seascape, distances are not as crucial as if it is a portrait you are painting. This is because nobody can disprove the height of your mountain or tree. But because our brains can detect minute differences in faces, we must make sure these distances, and positions, are spot on if we are painting a portrait and expecting to get a likeness.

If it is a portrait you are painting, it is worth spending good time with your dividers in getting the features correct and relative to each other before moving on. It is quite a miserable situation to discover when you have completed your portrait only to discover an eye, for instance, is a distance from where it should really be. That might be alright for Picasso but not for us!