ABSTRACT
There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks
to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
—Pablo Picasso
This chapter introduces a few techniques and ideas for transforming your photographs into artistic
interpretations that emulate the look of traditional drawing and painting media, such as pencil, char-
coal, pastels, watercolors, and oils. I use the word transform in the context of basing an artwork on
a photographic source reference image. The artwork that results is an “interpretation” or “painterly
rendition” of the original photograph. Your source photograph serves as an inspiration and founda-
tion for your creative process.
