Painting Great Pictures from Photographs

By Hazel Harrison

Book Overview

A camera can instantly capture a fleeting moment in time--that shifting quality of light, the shape of a moving figure, or a flash of emotion across a face--and preserve it for artists to paint at their leisure. Make your photographs an invaluable inspiration for great paintings. A technical discussion covers cameras, lenses, viewpoints, and depth of field. Themed mini-galleries place source photographs and the paintings they motivated side by side--including a photo of Paris by night that, in the artist's hands, becomes a glittering, romantic pastel of the city. Eight in-depth profiles of painters feature a selection of their art, conversations about their working methods, and a "tutorial" that follows the progression from photograph to painting. 128 pages (all in color), 8 1/2 x 11.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806968214
• ISBN13: 9780806968216
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Sterling
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.9" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Now I SEE!

Whether photographing landscapes or close subjects, I could never remember what caught my eye or why I wanted to paint it. Harrison's book solved that problem. She walks you through the various cameras and lenses to use, simple techniques of photography and then the best part; cropping, combining different photos, handling the lights and darks of your photos and composition. Then to the painting....she frees your mind to paint as YOU want to see it, choosing your own colors and giving it your own signature. In going through my photos once again, now I SEE why I took those photos! What was once dead, is now alive and begging to be painted.