Using Photography to create your Art

Scary Stories

Michael Adkins - Photographer and Gallery Member
(304) 634-2025
mike.adkins@verizon.net

Many artist use photography today to capture images for reference to create works of art from later. Norman Rockwell created all of his illustrations from photographs. Most of them were staged to help him develop his vision of a project. Other artists use photography to freeze the moment so that you have that image to refer back to. Norman Rockwell would project the photograph onto the canvas to sketch out the basic details of the subject.

He may incorporate a number of photographs into a single composition. I recently have been trying my hand at the same process. Not only have I found the method very effective but extremely rewarding but also relaxing. It is also helping me develop ideas for more photographs and causing me to think more visually. Here is a shot of my new drawing area at home. (
http://mikeadkinsphotography.com/blog/ ) You will notice the Artograph Projector mounted to my drawing table. This allows me to project my picture onto the drawing board so I can sketch the basic outline of the subject. This is the same method that Norman Rockwell used. You can find out more about how Norman Rockwell developed his illustrations in the book "The Search for Norman Rockwell's America by Kevin Rivoli"

If you would like to learn about how to use your camera and take great photographs from an Artist Point of View, I am offering a course in Introduction to Digital Photography at the Renaissance Gallery. If you ever considered getting into digital photography to help you with your art and was a little intimidated by the technology this is the class for you. I cover everything from the basics of holding your camera, composition, lighting, to the ways to capture the best images.

To find out more about the classes and what we cover please refer to my web page http://www.mikeadkinsphotography.com/introclass.html

Class sizes are very limited and are taking on a first come first served bases. If you think you would like to take the class please email me to reserve a spot for you. The cost of the classes are $125.00 + tax. They run for six weeks and are from 6:30-8:30 on Tuesday evenings.

Note: You should have a Digital Camera for the class. If you would like some recommendations for a camera please let me know and I can help you decide.