Edgar Degas painted from photos: Degas became a painter right at the beginning of photography. He first had others take photos of him to use in his paintings. Later, he became an expert photographer. Degas’s paintings show the influence of photography on the cutout of figures. Before Degas, the whole person was inside the painting. In many of Degas’s works, the figures are cut in the middle of the leg or his figures are cut to the left, right and above the edge of the painting. This camera cropped from the reference photos of him.

Photos were a tool in his paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Degas’s photographs looked like his paintings. The paintings of him were based on photographs of him.

Students ask me if it is correct to use photos: I have a classmate from the art school that I graduated from. He has had a very distinguished career painting his entire life. He said that whatever you do to help develop a painting is a correct method.

Seven ways to project or transfer photos or drawings to your canvas:

1. Paste them on your easel for reference: There is a famous Norman Rockwell self-portrait (google it). The painting shows Rockwell painting himself at an easel covered with portrait photographs by Rembrandt and Van Gogh and a drawing of himself. Rockwell also looks at himself in a mirror while he paints.

2. Opaque projectors: Blackout projector is a machine that projects photos, book pages or drawings by shining bright light onto the photo from above. A series of mirrors, prisms, and lenses project the image onto a canvas. The artist then draws the outlines of the photo on the canvas using the projected image as a guide. Blackout projectors are available from Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artorama, or Mister Art online or at some art stores.

3. Camera Lucida: A camera clara is a lens on a metal arm that is attached to the artist’s drawing board. The camera lucida superimposes an image onto the artist’s drawing surface. One sees a scene or the reference photo on the drawing surface. You can then trace the outlines of the objects.

4.Mirrors: David Hockney, a well-known contemporary artist, was interviewed on “60 Minutes” on CBS-TV. Hockney had Lesley Stahl stand outside his study window, in full sunlight, in front of a mirror installed inside the window. Her image was reflected in the mirror and projected inside Hockney’s dark studio onto Hockney’s canvas. That projected image can then be copied. Hockney had written a book called “Secret Knowledge” about which Stahl did the interview. In the book, Hockney theorizes that 15th-century artists learned to use lenses and mirrors to project images onto their canvases.

5. Print the photo or drawing on your canvas: You can print your photography directly on your canvas and then paint over them with oil paints. Inkjet printer paper suppliers offer inkjet printable canvases. You should ask your inkjet/canvas printer supplier how long their inks last based on scientific testing.

There are printing services that offer Giclee fine art reproductions for painters, photographers, galleries and museums on fine art canvas. Some artists use these services to make reproductions of their paintings for sale in addition to selling the original oil painting. Giclée (French for “a jet”) is an inkjet process for making very high-quality, long-lasting prints. A good supplier uses fade-resistant inks or dyes that some say last up to 100 years.

Other artists print photographs on canvas on giclée printers and then paint over them with oil paints. Giclée prints are not only durable, but also do not have visible dots like most inkjet printers. Google “giclée printers” to find giclée printing providers on the web.

6. Camera Obscura: In his book “Vermeer’s Camera”, Philip Steadman puts forward the theory that VerMeer used the first version of the photographic camera: the camera obscura. Camera oscura are the Latin words for dark room.

How the camera obscura works:

• A box (or room) with a pinhole in the front is placed in a well-lit room.
• The room in front of the hole will be projected to the inner back end of the box.
• Later, the camera obscura became what we now call a camera. In a still camera, the film is placed at the inside rear end of the box where the image is projected from the lens at the front end of the box.
• Using the camera obscura principle with additional lenses and mirrors, an accurate image can be projected onto a paint surface and traced over the projected lines. Some suggest that one can paint on the canvas guided directly by the projected image. People still make camera obscuras… Google “camera obscura” on the web.

7. Tracking: Some artists trace and transfer the outlines of photos onto their canvas or other drawing surface. They staple together a “sandwich” of the traced photo, a transfer sheet, and the canvas. Drawing with a pen over the traced photo pattern on top of the sandwich causes the color on the transfer sheet to transfer onto the canvas. They then paint using the transferred line drawing as a guide on their canvas with the original photo(s) pinned next to their canvas for reference.

Is it okay to use photographs? Like Edgar Degas and Norman Rockwell and many other great painters and illustrators, I think so.