John Constable

English landscape painter (1776 - 1837)

I paint from life to gather knowledge to produce better studio paintings. I take photos to gather information to produce a studio painting also. Photos are good to use but you have to be aware of the pitfalls and avoid them.

Photos will automatically flatten a scene out so bad that you have almost know depth in you scene.

Photos take some of the subtleties away in your shadows and mid tones such as reflective light.

The darks are to dark and flat and lights are to light and have a lack of color.

 I use photos as a starting point to my studio paintings. I use them for design and details and to put my memory back into the essence of that day. After about 10 minutes into my studio painting I hardly ever refer back to it.

Don't use photos for much more than that or your paintings will start to look like a photograph. Memory is one of the most important tools in creating a studio piece. Learn to see and remember what you see.

Frank Dumond told his students,  I am not here to teach you to paint I am here to teach you to see.  Seeing is crucial.  Learn to see the different color shifts in shadows and light .

Learn to see reflective light. Don?t go into a painting with preconceived notions of what color or shape things are. Try to copy natures colors the way you see it. These memories will carry into your studio.

Enjoy the process of art.

Do field sketches, drawings , photos, and memory exercise to create studio pieces. Some people will take video of the area they want to paint, so they can put themselves back into that moment. Sometimes just go out and sit and study a field or trees or people and don't paint. just study patterns of light and shadow and how color reflects on the object around it.  Study shapes, not detail, just the contour around the object.   Study the value of an object compared to other values around it.  Take a small sketch book with you everywhere you go and practice drawing, enjoy the process of art.

Explanation of how ground plane recedes . "from workshop notes".

Using the ground plane as an example:

Your ground plane is more about color and temperature shifts. Even though your ground is mostly green do not generalize or stylize your ground color. There are different colors of green and different colors all together in the ground. Look for the variety of colors in the ground. This is called color shifts. Remember, Just because there is a shift in color doesn’t mean there is a shift in value. Don’t confuse the two. Check and double-check the value

Always remember the shifts in temperature. This is what will make your ground plane recede. Stronger chroma in foreground. Ground will get bluer and grayer as it recedes. Take the green in the foreground and grey it down with blue or blue and red and it recedes. not really changing the color just cooling it off a bit so the ground will recede. don't over do it . it doesn't take much to cool things down.

the best way to learn this is to go out on location and study and understand what the landscape does as it recedes.

(sometimes I don't think in terms of color but in terms of temperature)

This same temperature and color shifting will also occur in the light and shadow patterns. This is how you create the illusion of your object turning or curving or receding. It will make the object have form.

Warm colors come forward and cool colors go back.

If using one color. Stronger, warmer chroma will come forward. Add blue or blue and red and it will cool the color and go back.