How I Start A Painting

Like most painters I need a reference image to refer to during my painting. To create a painting like “Yogi Bera Waving Goodbye”, requires hours of finding images and photos and creating the reference image I want to use. Using photo editing programs I can place images together until I have the exact image I like, rather than trying to sketch it over and over. Creating a reference image like this allows for precise proportions and details that give the client a clear idea of what the final painting will look like. It can be a bit like putting a puzzle together gathering hundreds of photos at times to put it all together. I am an extremely adventurous artist who is self taught, so like other artist who have gone before me like Normal Rockwell, I am not opposed to using anything out there that will help me create the painting I see in my head. Rockwell used a projector to project the photographs he took onto the canvas to sketch them first. A modern day version of that, I will use a digital tablet and pen if I can sketch an idea down with more detail and with more accuracy. This also allows me to determine colors, values as well as play with multiple layout concepts first before committing to the final choices in acrylics, watercolors, pastels, art markers, colored pencils or whatever medium I think will work best.