Shelby Keefe: Painting from Photographs

Here's How You Can Turn Photographs Into Stunning Works of Art Maybe you’ve heard it before. Art critics and naysayers who tell others that it’s “impossible” to make a beautiful painting from a photo. They say, “ Photos are too static to capture the liveliness of the real world.” Or,“They're too flat to create dynamic, enthralling paintings.” Some say, “People only use photos because they can’t draw or paint from life.” Maybe you’ve even said these things to yourself. Mary, a 11th-grade art teacher in Milwaukee,Wisconsin, thought the exact same thing. Despite her love for painting and the many improvements she’d made to her techniques over the years, she could not figure out how to paint from photographs. It frustrated her beyond belief… It seems so simple! But her paintings usually ended up abandoned before they were even finished. Whenever her painting friends would bring up the topic, Mary always had the same response: “ Photos were never meant to be turned into paintings. It’s too