Take as many original photos as you can at the highest quality you can
Use every outdoor adventure as an opportunity to take photos of the plants you encounter. Take hundreds of photos because you never know which ones you might select as a reference for a painting. Plus, you don’t just need average shots. You need shots that are perfectly focused on the tiniest plant parts as well as the whole plant. It’s only when you review images later with an eye for painting them that you’ll realize what the best focal point and most interesting position is. That’s why it’s best to have more, rather than less, to choose from.
Moreover, you’ll need multiple reference photos of the same subject to successfully reconstruct a plant portrait (Figures 1–4). Specifically, you need:
- Close-ups of the various plant parts to understand how the plant is constructed (how the leaves attach to the stem; how the petals, pistil, stamens, and sepals come together; and what patterns are at play (for example, the number of petals, the inflorescence, and the leaf morphology); and
- Macro views of the entire plant to understand the plant habitus (the characteristic overall shape or form of the plant).
FIGURES 1–4. White swamp rose mallow in Caddo Lake State Park. ©Suzannah Alexander
It’s good to know the basics of plant anatomy, but it’s not essential. It’s important if your goal is to accurately portray the plant, but less important if you like a more impressionistic style.
Sometimes, people have a preconceived notion that painting from photos is cheating, but let me ask you this: If photography is an art form, then why would painting from your own photos be any less artistic? If taking a photo requires artistic skill, then painting from a photo also requires artistic interpretation.
There’s one caveat to this, however. You must use your own photos to paint from. Using someone else’s photos is copyright infringement because you’re essentially stealing their artistic vision, so painting from a photo off the Internet is not allowed. That’s the photographer’s intellectual property; painting it does not make it yours.
Gather or buy live or dried plants
An alternative to taking photos is to gather or buy live or dried plants. You can always go to your local flower shop and pick up something to paint. The downside to this approach is that:
- You won’t be seeing the plant in its natural habitat; and
- Your painting is on a timer, meaning you’ll have to finish it before the plant starts to wilt or die. Otherwise, you’ll still have to take reference photos to finish your painting.