One of the topics that I often discuss in classes or demos is: Why?
Specifically, why do you want to tell *this* story? What is it about this photo or subject that says “paint me?” Is it the light, or the colors, or something more subtle: a mood, a memory, an appealing shape? Perhaps you just want to capture the cheerful flowers in a market stall, or the patina of a weathered wall.
Spending a few minutes determining the “why” of a subject will be tremendously helpful in creating a successful painting. As you can see from my example, the first time I tackled this subject I said “Oh, I love this photo, I’m going to paint it.” And that’s basically what I did – painted the photo. It’s a nice painting, but not terribly engaging, and I knew there was more in the image than what I’d captured.
The second time around, I spent some time asking myself what I really wanted to convey. What I loved about the scene was the relationship between the girl and the goat. Secondary to that was the girl’s posture and the simple beauty of her white clothing. By changing the orientation of the painting and dropping out most of the surroundings, “Love-A-Fair” becomes an image that tells a story, and gets people talking about their own 4H memories.
