Painting from a photograph

It is commonly assumed that photography and photographic devices developed as a scientific process and photographs, the obvious results of photography, only gained acceptance as “Fine Art” in a more recent era. In fact, centuries ago, art and science were more closely intertwined. Many of the early experiments in capturing light to create permanent images were made by artists, artisans and printers applying principles newly advanced by the scientists and engineers of their day.

The great artist-scientist-engineer-inventor Leonardo da Vinci experimented with devices to reproduce images. In 1490, da Vinci wrote a detailed description of a camera obscura in his “Atlantic Codex,” a 1286-page collection of his drawings and writings, "...here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!" Painting from a photograph would have been a very natural result of his experiments, although we have only speculation that he may have done so.

When later artists working in Europe used photographic devices and other gadgets to obtain perspective and natural proportions in their paintings it was with no more connotation of copying or “cheating” than it would have been to use special pigments, brushes or canvas fabrics to obtain the effects they wanted.

A fascinating example of the use of the camera obscura in specific painting masterpieces may be seen in 17th century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer’s “Music Lesson” or “View of Delft”.

A Paint Your Life painting from a photograph may become your family’s new masterpiece.
Painting from a photograph