Today’s question deals with cropping reference photos for artwork. Here is the question.
How do you crop a photo to make it interesting for art? Do you have a technique for knowing what to include or do you just do it by instinct? Would love to know tips for this subject.
Cropping Reference Photos for Artwork
This is a difficult question to answer because a lot of what I do is intuitive. I compose artwork based on what looks good to me.
It’s also further complicated by the fact that my artwork includes portraits and landscapes. The cropping necessary for a portrait is usually different than what is needed for a landscape. So let’s look at each one.
Portraits
Most of the time, cropping reference photos for portraits involves leaving out all the parts of the animal that aren’t necessary. For head studies that’s easy. If all of the body shows in the photo, I crop the photo to include just the head and as much of the neck and shoulder as necessary to create a balanced portrait.
I also crop the image to the same proportions as the finished artwork (8 x 10, for example), and I put it in the same format (horizontal or vertical). That’s about all the cropping that’s necessary. Here’s an example.
This is the original reference photo for one of our cats, Bing. I liked the pose and the lighting, but didn’t want to do a horizontal portrait.
So I cropped the photo to focus in on Bing and also to create a reference photo that was the same proportions as the artwork I wanted to create.
In this case, there was nothing to leave out of the composition. It was all about getting the right amount of background for Bing’s portrait.
Since the finished artwork was only 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches, I didn’t include as much background as I would for a larger portrait.
Usually, more time is spent choosing the right photo than in deciding how to crop the photo once I’ve chosen it.
Landscapes
Landscapes are different. Unless I’m drawing a single tree or cloud, there’s a lot to consider in composing a landscape.
If I had to describe a technique, I’d describe the rule of thirds. It’s not a sure-fire method that works every time because there are times when it’s not the best option. But it’s a good place to begin with landscapes.
Let’s talk about that in a moment.
What to Leave In, What to Leave Out
When it comes to deciding what to include in the artwork and what to leave out, that’s also intuitive. I start with whatever I want to be the center of interest.
Portraits
Choosing the center of interest is pretty easy with portraits. The animal is the center of interest.
But there may be bridles or halters to leave out of horse portraits. This piece is called Buckles and Belts, and the center of interest was the horse’s eye and bridle.
The reference photo shows the horse wearing a blue halter. I originally included the blue halter, then decided to leave it out because cropping the photo created distracting lines. That bit of blue over the nose bothered me so I removed it and the rest of the halter.
Landscapes
Landscapes are more complicated to compose, but my process is still fairly intuitive. It begins with the initial cropping of the reference photo.
The first thing I do is decide how big I want the drawing to be. That’s usually anywhere from 4 x 6 inches to 8 x 10 inches. If I haven’t yet decided how big to make the drawing, then I’ll choose a proportion. For example, a proportion of 2:3 could be scaled up for a 4 x 6, a 5 x 10, a 6 x 12 or something even larger. It could also be scaled downward. I can crop the reference photo to that scale, and then decide how big to make the artwork.
Here’s the original reference photo for Spring Storm, before cropping or resizing.
This is the reference photo after I cropped it to 2:3 proportions. The original artwork is about 4 x 6 inches.
I do most of my photo editing in Affinity. The crop tool allows me to set the scale I want so I can try different scales while cropping to find the best composition. This helps me choose the center of interest. From that point, I can decide what to leave in or take out of the composition.
For a more in-depth look at how I do this, read How to Find the Best Composition from Digital Photos. The post is a step-by-step with PhotoShop 7.0, but the process is the same now with Affinity.
Leaving In and Taking Out
In the sample above, the center of interest was the play of sunlight across the field in the middle ground and the dark trees in front of it. I decided where that should be in cropping the photo. When I sketched out the composition, I arranged the “supporting cast” around it.
For example, there’s a barn in the photo. I asked myself if the barn helps tell the story of the trees or if it distracts from the tree. If it distracts, I leave it out.
Maybe it doesn’t distract from the tree, but it’s too large or in the wrong place. In that case, I’ll make it smaller and try the barn in different compositions relative to the tree. If nothing seems to work, then the barn is history. If something does work, then that’s the composition I use.
I keep doing that until I have a nice composition or until I get bored with the subject.
Surprisingly, if I get bored with the subject just working on compositions, then I can be pretty sure it’s not going to hold my interest long enough to finish a colored pencil piece.
Cropping Reference Photos
As I said at the beginning, cropping photos and deciding what to leave in and take out is an intuitive process. There are times when I have to work at it more, but not very many.
Will this process work for you? Maybe and maybe not. It doesn’t always work for me!
For a more in-depth look at how I decide what to leave in and take out of reference photos, check out What to Keep and Leave Out of Reference Photos. It includes step by step the design process I used to create Afternoon Graze, shown here.
This post is part of a series in which readers ask questions about my life as an artist, and I answer them. Most of the posts this month will concern one of these questions. If you have a question you’d like to ask, please ask it. It’s never too late to get your burning questions answered!
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