portrait Archives - Sophie Nicoll Studio

Tips for Pet Photography

September 8, 2017By adminSTUDIO No Comments

Pets are so popular as a subject matter, and that’s fine with me as I always love the chance to work with a new pup. Reference material is so important and I prefer to take the photos myself wherever possible to get a sense of their character and form in person.

However, taking photos of dogs can be unpredictable – they’re so energetic and obviously have a mind of their own. Here are some tips I have learned:

Probably the biggest thing to remember is don’t try to get the perfect dog photograph – this is not award winning stuff! If you do get this holy grail image then BONUS, but using the below tips you will get something equally as good – you might even be pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, think about the following:

1) THE DOG: You’d be surprised how often this is overlooked. It sounds obvious but it is easy to forget that he image is about the DOG – so forget the background, we don’t want a pin sized dog in the photography, the dog needs to be the main event! So make it so. The amount of times that I get an image across where the dog is floating in a sea of grass or a dot on the landscape. Lovely – but we want to see the detail of the fur, the colour of the eyes and so on.

2) BACKGROUND: First you want to make sure that there is nothing too ‘busy’ in the background or disturbing the dog’s shape. Can you take the photograph against the grass, or against a cleanly-shaped plant or background like a wall or tarmac? This will provide a ‘blank canvas’ to concentrate on seeing the shape of the dog. There’s no point in having the dog hiding half way behind a tree for example.

3) MOVEMENT: You want to be able to see their tail, possibly even wagging (as it wags you’ll probably get one photo ‘tail-down’ and one ‘tail-up’ so worth taking a couple on quick succession!) That said, you want the image not to be too blurry so check before you wrap the photoshoot up that the image is crisp and clean.

4) POSE: Have a selection of treats and balls ready, make the dog(s) ‘sit’ and wait for the treat or ball. Owners generally have this routine down-pat and so are the best people to be able to handle this situation. The upshot is that this gives enough time to take a few snaps.

5) COMPOSITION: Is it a double portrait? If so, it is best to have a single image with both in to work from. It sounds corny but the energy and composition works best when it is from a single picture (the same with people). This sounds horrendous, right? Well easier than it sound. Dogs generally like hanging out with each other. For this single photograph, try to have the two dogs focusing in the same direction. To do this, maybe someone behind the scenes is holding a stick ready to throw. This often concentrates the dog’s mind (for a second) and will make for a lovely composition.

6) LOCATION: Taking a picture of the dog outside in the grass or in the woods is best because the lighting is natural and will reflect your dogs coat and eyes. The colour balance will be better than if the picture was taken indoors. Also the dog’s demeanour might be happier and more energised which will be easier for you.

7) LOCATION LOCATION: It might be easier just to do it on a routine walk rather than making a fuss about doing a specific photoshoot. Not only is it familiar surrounds, but the dogs don’t play up as much as they are in their natural habitat.

8) CONTROL: If all else fails we find that putting dog tv on such as ’10 puppies and me’, ‘Beethoven’ or ‘Supervet’ mesmerises the dog, giving you enough time to snap a few pictures of them in comatose state. Seriously, this WORKS!

9) LAST RESORT: If all else fails, you might have to capture them asleep…….

Working With Photos In Portraits

August 23, 2017By adminSTUDIO

Last week I started a new piece for a gorgeous client. A double portrait of her gorgeous toddler girls. When I consulted her about this piece in late Spring, we agreed to start work straight away to capture their youth while their faces are so quickly developing from their babyfaces.

So we scheduled a photoshoot. Pretty usual for my practice – cup of tea at their house, a chat and a introduction to the girls to get to know their mannerisms and take some pictures for reference. All was well – they are gorgeous girls and very well-behaved with beautiful manners (the tea was exceptional too – remarkable (see ‘I don’t thrive without caffeine’).

But. These little ladies would not sit still! Beautifully vibrant and full of life, apparently I had to see ALL of their extensive toys and plastic vegetables complete with mushroom and chicken. They were not in the mood for sitting still. Woe was me indeed!

Fortunately, their mother, my client, was happy for me to capture them in action. So I snapped away, various poses, engaging the girls and getting – quite frankly – some lovely pictures of their expressions, vitality and happiness. And Tomy’s back-catalogue.

When I came back from the studio I reviewed the photos, I realised that while I had some GREAT material, the final composition would work so much better if I patched two photographs together (a complete no-no in my book). I wanted to incorporate two almost-identical images, but with slightly different expressions of each of the girls in both.

‘…bugger!’ I thought. This idea put me way out of my comfort zone. After all, I’ve always drawn people ‘from the flesh’, in situ and/or from a single photograph after a fat to face meeting.

Moreover, I don’t like shortcuts in artists and was never keen or interested in merging photographs for reference (don’t get me started on contemporary art….). I’ve always believed that the energy in one photograph can never be replicated by merging two, especially when it comes to the energetic, dynamic pictures of people and pets. It would end up like a 15th century wooden staged pastiche of people’s faces. No thanks! Not satisfactory at all!

So I began to research. And actually I tested around with the photos and saw what I could come up with ( i was desperate). I was not going to be able to get new photographs, especially with the idea of time and growing not on my side – these girls were away for the whole summer growing up in a far away country and I didn’t have the option to revisit the photos. This HAD to work.

I’m coming to the end now of this work, and actually I believe it is my best portrait yet. Maybe it took more more than my located time to get there, but of the purpose of exploration and discovery, (not cutting corners for this very unique case) actually it has tested my mettle as an artist. Thanks to some careful – and time-consuming – trials and software manipulation, I think I got it covered. Now for the client’s verdict…..

Double Portrait – The Prep And Taking Photos Of Little Ones

August 23, 2017By adminSTUDIO

This is Lilly and Polly, they’re sisters and they are 2 and a half and 11 months old. Their favourite things are their mini-kitchen, their dollies and cuddles.

This double portrait was such joy to make because the girls had such love between them. Also, just using one final reference photo rather than multiple meant the energy and composition seems authentic and ‘real’.

Agreeing on the composition and how your client wants the image to appear is possibly the most important thing to get right when starting a piece. After showing the client some examples, we decided together that we wanted the girls to be embracing and ‘close’ in some way so that formed the basis for our approach to a photographic reference point.

It’s worth looking at art history for the many ways artists have depicted a double portrait (often to tell us a political or social story), such as romantic couples even where there is discord (think this by Hockney, this by Van Eyck or this by Gainsborough), professional companions where there’s appropriate space between (think this by Holbein) or family members where a distance was portrayed (think this by Portinari, or this by Schadow).

To get my reference imagery for this portrait of sisters, I did a little photoshoot of both of them together for use back in the studio. This was far preferable than the girls sitting for me while I draw because at this age they are so expressive, they’re rather wriggly, and their attention spans are quite slim.

It took the girls a while to get used to the camera. I seem to get a good rapport with kids – but patience and earning their trust is key when on a photoshoot as it can be overwhelming for them. Fortunately, we ended up having lots of smiles and even more great pictures!

So what should you aim for when taking a photograph for an artwork portrait?

My goal for a studio-made double portrait is to select just one photograph to work in which they both feature. I would use the other photos as reference points for the individual detail – for example, to develop the fold of the clothes, the fall of the hair, the eye colour and the exact turn of the cheeky smile. But overwhelmingly, we need one photograph – mainly because the energy between the two subjects just works this way, and the colour reference, lighting and naturalness of the dynamic is obvious.

Another goal for me when taking photos is to have an image which is vibrant and natural, because my artistic style is to express ‘movement’, realness and energy. I won’t want to draw a picture where the subject is rigid and dour, I’d prefer a silly face to get the character of the person over.

Good luck with your double portraits and preceding photoshoots.

Meanwhile stay tuned to see how this double portrait ends up!

Drawing Freddie – The Process

August 14, 2017By adminSTUDIO

This is little Freddie. He is one and a half and he is ace. His favourite things are tractors, smiling and his Mum.

I often draw portraits of children for my clients (more often than not I don’t publicise them because of privacy reasons). They’re such a joy to draw and paint. Full of character and cheer, their facial features are quite different to humans as they’re still growing. As an artist, it is both a different challenge and a refreshing change.

So how does it differ? Well, artists usually go down the route of life drawing, self-portraits and the like when starting out, all drawing adults. Years spent drawing adults means that you get used to the bone structure, musculature, expressions and mannerisms of adults.

Kids are so different: most obviously, the eyes are proportionally larger than an adult’s. Recently a client confided to me that she had really struggled to find an artist who draws children well. Mainly, she said, due to the eyes not being accurate, to be ‘too adult like and not expressive enough’. Well it is true – unlike an adult, a child’s skull is small and still growing, while babies are born with eyeballs close in size to an adult’s. This makes kids extra-cute of course, but it’s also an artist’s reminder to draw them differently, to think about how the eyesockets and the eyebrows sit. Coupled with the puppy fat that children carry, which creates a more rounded face shape with less definition and structure, the trick to drawing a child’s face is to really ‘look’ at your subject matter.

Of course, some of the art historical greats have drawn adult babies – there are countless examples from art history, including the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Mannerism (think this, this or this ) where babies (more often than not Jesus) was depicted nothing more than a tiny man, with adult proportions and scrawny – almost wizened – legs, arms and facial features. These paintings do serve a purpose – not least, learning – and laughing – about these were what got us through Art History A’level classes…..

From an art practice point of view, again the trick to drawing anything new, including infant’s heads, and this picture of Freddie, is to ‘look’. It sounds trite, but challenge your perceptions of what you’ve seen and check that the proportions and the shapes that you’ve drawn on paper match what you see in the flesh. Are the eyes rounder, or more almond shape, and are the ears in proportion to the face? Also, think about the structure underneath the face – when you’re drawing a piece of skin over the cheek for example, can you imagine the muscles and the bones underneath, is there the correct shading, however so slight? This was something that Michaelangelo was masterful at, time and again. The increasing technical success of his inordinate amount of work – like yours, mine and all artists -boiled down to just one thing: practice, practice, practice.

Meet Minnie The Greek Pup!

July 19, 2017By adminSTUDIO

Meet Minnie, a six month old Greek pup who is a little shy. I was asked to do this to celebrate her as a pup and it was a pleasure – a little different to do as she is a little more shy than other pups that I draw, also that I haven’t got to meet her in person yet, just via FaceTime and photos. (Commonly the case with my international clients). However, it was lovely to challenge myself with a new character to pooch life, in the shyness and dependency of a small one. This pic is now on its way to her owner in Greece!