How To Simplify Your Reference Photos To Tell One Unique Story

with Sharon Lynn Williams, Master Artist & Mentor

Do you have thousands of reference photos but don’t know how to capture the magic of the moment you took that shot?

Learn how to hone in, declutter, and “mine” down to develop several paintings from one photo telling a single, clear story that is uniquely yours using my signature ’shape mapping’ methods.

What You’ll Learn:

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Non-member: $60

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Course Description

If you’re like most artists, you have a thousand reference photos on your smartphone! But often a reference photo lacks the feeling, emotion, and magic you experienced when you took it.

Sharon Lynn Williams, Master Artist & Mentor, will teach you the secret of simple but great compositions so you can tell your story and CAPTURE THE MAGIC of the moment.

In this 2-hour on-demand course, you’ll learn how to use even the most cluttered reference photo, HONE IN on what you loved about the moment, and ELIMINATE anything that does not support your version of the scene.

You’ll learn Sharon Lynn Williams Signature Shape-Mapping Method. The key to excellent composition is having a variety of interesting INTERLOCKING SHAPES that move your viewer through your painting without confusing them, boring them or causing them to leave.

It’s these intentionally DESIGNED SHAPES that will contain the all important values and colors you will use! And you’ll learn how to create MULTIPLE PIECES from a single reference photo – each one telling a unique story.

Supply List

• Sketchbook
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Ruler 
• Photo references

Meet SHARON

My passion is helping artists to paint with their own individual voices rather than reproducing a photograph.

The best way I have found to do this is by teaching a self critique process where we look at 3 stages of art creation: before you begin to paint, during your painting process, and at the end of the process.

“My goal and ambition is to bring beauty and peace into people’s homes through my art, and to offer the life-giving joy of creation to my art students.”

I have been passionately painting and teaching in diverse media and subjects for over 35 years, and have earned signature status in the Federation of Canadian Artists (AFCA) and the International Plein Air Painters (IPAP).

My current work is based in my love for the landscape, filtered through my extensive background of color and design, to express the joy and freedom I find in the subject. After a 20 year studio career, primarily in abstraction, 8 years ago I began to paint ‘en plein air’ (outside in front of the scene) in order to truly understand the way light plays on the landscape and to teach myself to paint in oils. I was able to really absorb myself in it, not only the visual input but also through my other senses. The feel of the breeze, the smell of the earth and foliage, and the sounds of nature were also able to be captured within my work, and that made all the difference.

I published a book called “En Plein Air -One Artist’s View” to show how I interpret what I am seeing.

After that time, the experience on the land was in my soul, and I felt the freedom to begin to express myself in less representational ways. I began to seek a more personal and contemporary expression, often moving into working from my imagination in mixed media -moving back to my roots in abstraction. That experimentation began in the studio using acrylic paint for its quick-drying and ease of radical shifts in direction. The new aesthetic that I have developed focuses on a limited amount of very interesting shapes; strong decisive brush marks; inventive, pushed, and gradated color; flattening of the picture plane; pattern, and strong value contrasts. As my mantra is “What would happen if…”, I am always exploring new ways to make my work and always growing as an artist. The excitement of working from chaos to order is invigorating and creates a dialogue between the work and the artist that I love. My interpretation of the beauty around me, as well as my vivid imagination make for an eclectic and varied body of work!

My work can be seen in person at the Leighton Art Centre and Lineham House Galleries and on my website.