painting

Photographer and artist Gary Greene has assembled a collection of reference photographs that has something for every artist. As reflected in the title, this book has a useful mixture of photos subdivided into the three categories: Reflections, Textures and Backgrounds. Here is a sampling of what you will find.

Reflections
- Subjects reflected from water such as buildings, bridges, daylight, sunset and artificial light
- Water in motion
- Light reflected from man-made objects such as metal and glass

Textures
- Natural subjects such as tree bark, weathered wood, mosses, autumn and winter trees
- Man-made subjects such as rusted metal, old buildings, fabrics, pots and baskets

Backgrounds
- Mountains, deserts, barns and fields, seascapes, autumn and winter scenes

This book has more than a collection of beautiful reference photographs. Greene has included some very useful information. For those who wish to take their own reference photos he discusses the timely topic of digital versus film photography. Next he covers in detail the different equipment and techniques for photographing reflections, textures and backgrounds. Throughout the book Greene discusses how he used the Adobe Photoshop software to digitally enhance his photographs. Finally he and five other artists demonstrate how they interpreted reference photos in various artistic media.

The first demonstration was a photorealistic interpretation by watercolor artist Beverly Fortheringham. Her painting strongly resembled the reference photo of a boat reflected in water.

In the second demonstration watercolorist Pia Messina took a different approach. In an impressionistic style, Messina chose to emphasize certain elements and omit others from a reference photo of antique items.

For the third demonstration Greene used Adobe Photoshop to create a better reference photo. He combined major elements from two photos to make the third reference photo of a tree trunk in a bed of flowers. Multi-media artist Liana Bennett used this photo for her demonstration.

In the fourth demonstration Greene used Photoshop to rearrange elements in the reference photo of "the perfect door". The artist Steve Whitney interpreted this photo in acrylic and molding paste.

Greene painted the fifth demonstration. First he used Photoshop to remove the distracting shadows from his reference photo of a wagon wheel which he then interpreted in colored pencil.

For the last demonstration Greene used Photoshop to add a vibrant colored background to silhouetted trees. He called this technique "sandwiching". This reference photo was interpreted by the pastel artist Paulette Johnson.

The major attraction of this book is the collection of beautiful reference photos and by including the additional information Greene has not attempted to write a complete how-to for photographers or a Photoshop manual. However he does offer suggestions for taking good reference photos and digital enhancing those photos.

Gary Green is an accomplished artist and photographer. He has written many other books including Creating Radiant Flowers in Colored Pencil, Painting with Water-Soluble Colored Pencils, Creating Textures in Colored Pencil, Artists Photo Reference: Landscapes, Artists Photo Reference: Buildings & Barns, Artist's Photo Reference: Flowers, and Artist's Photo Reference: Boats & Nautical Scenes.