One question I hear from people that see a photorealism painting is “what is the point….why not just blow up a photo” and I think to myself….If I could just explain my process they would clearly understand the difference. In this explanation I can only speak for myself and my painting process as I’m sure every artist approaches his or her painting differently.

My wife Karen and I have fun setting up the still life compositions and lighting them as dramatically as possible. We usually take 50 to 100 photos moving things around, adjusting, readjusting, tinkering with the lighting, it seems like in every case one particular photo stands out from all the rest and says “hey! it’s me…paint me!”

Using that photo to make my initial drawing, the painting process begins. At this point I look back at some of the other photos and use parts and pieces from them in areas where the lighting might enhance a particular object.

The main point that I would try to make without rambling too much would be this: I take all the information that I get from the photograph and process it through my brain and I enhance things that I believe improve or completely leave out things that I believe take away from the final painting in hopes that my painting will be a representation of and not an exact duplicate of the photo even though I realize that the final painting looks to be to most viewers; a photo, and I am fine with that. I really LOVE this process from beginning to end. - DB

These are not photos. They are limited edition reproductions on canvas of original oil paintings by Doug Bloodworth.