12 Guidelines for Creating Photorealistic Art

Photorealism has always been an inspiration for me. I have always awed at the work of Ralph Goings and we’ve all seen the fruit still lifes done in oil paints. This style has always caught my eye. In 2002 I was introduced to Bert Monroy via G4/TechTV. Since then I’ve taken photorealism as a personal challenge in my work. The following is a list of guidelines to follow when creating photorealistic art gathered from my experiences and from others’ teachings and writings.

In addition, you will find that I am alluding toward using Adobe Photoshop when using this technique, however these guidelines are universal to any medium.

1. know your medium

One thing I’ve noticed by watching and reading from Bert Monroy is that he has absolute control of his medium. To be brief, a great many programs but especially Adobe Photoshop. Photorealism is an advanced technique; to create these visual effects you have to know how to manipulate the program, brush, or paint you have chosen. Take the time to learn your medium, the rewards are great.

2. hide your camera

Printed pictures are skewed. Ask any knowledgeable artist, pictures that have been printed are not the same as looking at the genuine article. How so? A printer prints based on the mixture of four colors, CYMK or Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black. When you print a picture you’re not seeing that subject as it truly is you’re seeing a close replication based on those four priorly mentioned colors. Yeah, but the difference is negligible you dork. Maybe, maybe not, was the flash on? Was the lighting right? Is there red eye? Is the color faded? And many other possible picture taintings. If you’re going to have a bowl of strawberry ice cream what would be more appetizing… ice cream with strawberry syrup or ice cream with fresh strawberries? The same applies in using printed photos.

Ok, Jeff. You think you’re slick, huh? What about digital photos? With today’s cameras you’ve got a good point. As long as the medium is digital you’ve got a good argument here for using digital photos as a reference. My only advice is do it only when necessary. If you want to make a photorealistic image of the grand canyon, by all means take some digital photos and work from them. On the other hand, if you want to make a still life of some common household items, set it up next to your computer, sketchbook, or eisel. The real thing is always preferred.

When my camera is sitting near by it’s too tempting for me to use it, hide it.

3. study your subject

Get to know your subject. Spend time looking at it from every angle, not just the angle your artwork will portray. The better you understand it the better you can recreate it. I studied hands for a long, long time when I focused on pencil drawings. I finally got to the point where I could draw them at any angle, any pose, all from memory. These sketches that I did were the best I had in my gallery. Each crease and fold in the skin was exactly as it should have been, this came from spending alot of time practicing and looking at the hands. Even just 10 to 15 minutes of looking at your subject can’t hurt.

4. make your subject something convenient

To reflect on 2 and 3 a bit, if you choose something that’s convenient to access then it makes it much easier to study, thus making your work better. Not to mention that myself and many true artists I know start a piece of work and a year or so later still haven’t finished it. If you’re working with something like your dog, an old car, or a location it may be hard to find the time or the patience to acquire or hold on to it.

I think the best photorealistic work I’ve done has been of something insignificant and accessible, a paperclip, a clock, etc. At the moment I prefer small and accessible things. You can see that Bert has grown tired of these things, which brings me to my next point.

5. start small

Bert’s works are awesome. He’s the man. Don’t think that you’re going to start making work that is even close to his stuff. First, you probably don’t know as much about your medium as he does about his. Second, it’s too ambitious. Rome wasn’t built in a day; take baby steps. Start small. Create a very small scene in front of your computer using only an object or two. Keep practicing until you feel you are ready to move on to more complex things. Personally, I don’t find myself with 15 to 20 hours (or more) of free time to work on one progressive piece of art, I’m too busy. So I prefer the work that I can complete in a couple hours.

Another good point with starting small is that rather quickly you are building up your portfolio of proven work. It’s not about the number of objects in your scene or the size of the canvas, it’s about the quality of your work.

6. light is your friend

If you can see an object, there’s light on it. To effectively create photorealism you have to master light effects. No, light effects are not the Lens Flare, Clouds, or Lighting Effects filters in Photoshop. You have to come up with alternative ways to show the light in your scene. Be creative. A single function or the multiplicity of many functions and tools may create some stellar lighting effects for you. Keep in mind that as objects bend, the light bends on them as well. Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix for this one. You’ve just got to look at light and attempt to recreate it, using your mastery of the medium of course.

7. where there’s light there’s shadow

If you have light, you have shadow. Maybe subtly, but you will have shadow. You need to find ways to display these shadows effectively. Some great advice I’ve received on shadow is that not all shadows are black. Some are a very dark hue of your object. Try it, it actually looks realistic. Many times black shadows end up looking too perfect.

Don’t use the Layer Styling shadow. Make your own. Not too many shadows are as perfect as the ones that creates anyways.

In addition, multiple light sources reveal multiple shadows. Keep this in mind.

8. sketch

As a high school teacher, this is the hardest to teach. Kids just wanna dig in. Sketching first reveals better works. No matter if your work is a Photorealistic technique or not, throw down some quick sketches with the pencil tool. This will give you an outline to follow and keep you guided. I find this helpful, it gives me a sense of calm when I have a guide for my work, I don’t find myself starting over as much. Plus with Photoshop it’s a breeze; make a new layer and call it ’sketch’. Then, if you feel you don’t need it any longer delete it or just toggle it’s visibility.

This is a rough sketch, but a sketch none the less. It shows me where each object in the scene will be, the objects’ sizes, and their orientation.

9. challenge yourself

For my most recent work I decided to create a still life with a paperclip. I did this because the paperclip scared the shit out of me. Paperclips scare you Jeff? Well…yeah…look at how many gradients and reflections are in that tiny piece of metal. That’s tough to recreate. I chose the paperclip because I wanted this challenge; to see if I could pull it off. You will find great reward in these works because you are proving your skills to yourself and at the same time you are expanding your skills. Next time I will be less timid when tackling a piece with a strong metal reflection.

The reflections and gradients really took some work. It’s gradients and reflections on top of gradients and reflections. That’s photorealism. You have to be willing to chug out that fine detail with this technique.

10. make it something fun

For me it’s not so much the subject I am recreating it’s the process. I find joy in creating Photorealism, the subject is a bystander in me obtaining happiness. Maybe for you it has to be about horses for you to get inspired. So be it, make it happen. If you enjoy what you do you will be more inspired and more willing to work.

11. look at your subject, REALLY look at your subject

Too often I see students take one hard look at their subject then ignore it. How are you going to represent all your light and shadows if you haven’t studied it and continue to reference it? How will you know where the light ends and the shadow begins? How will you know what hues to use? Size? Proportion?

Where you see light, make light on your canvas in the shape you see it. Where you see shadow, so on. This is a technique that must be used when attempting photorealism. A good learning vessel for this is to crumple a piece of paper as your subject. If you try to ‘just draw’ you end up with something that looks confusing, so many folds and creases you can’t tell what it is. But if you really look at the paper and create the lights and darks where and how you see them you can end up with some really awesome work. You’ll see what I mean if you try.

12. look to the masters for inspiration

Find inspiration. Find an artist or work you admire and keep tabs on him, her, or it. Reference good work often to keep you humble and inspired. Start looking for inspiration.

And to the naysayers

To those who say, why not just take a damn picture and call it a day.

As a photo-realist painter, I have often been asked why I don’t just take a photograph. Good question, when you consider my paintings look like photographs. Well, for one thing, I’m not a photographer. To me, it is not the destination that is important—it is the journey. The incredible challenge of recreating reality is my motivation.- Bert Monroy