5 Tips for Finding the Perfect Reference Photo for Your Custom Home Portrait

So you’re interested in commissioning a custom watercolor home portrait, but you’re not sure if your reference photo will suffice? Maybe it’s a bit blurry or the lighting is bad, perhaps you only have a photo of winter and you prefer a spring depiction. Maybe there’s a large tree covering the home? Don’t fret - I have painted over 1,000 custom home portraits and I have a few tips and tricks to help me work around these roadblocks.

1. Give it a google

   I always like to check Google and look at websites such as realtor.com or Zillow.com. If the house has been sold before, there are likely photos of the home - sometimes professionally taken! Googlemaps is also surprisingly a GREAT resource because I can essentially “travel” around the home and see the structure from different angles.

2. Send additional photos

   I’m not trained in architecture renderings, but I do have some knowledge of architecture and perspective. Maybe you have a photo of the home from a straight on view, but a tree is covering up the front door. Send me a close up photo of the front door. I’m always able to trim up trees and foliage, so if I have an additional photo of the front door, I can use that image to fill in areas that are covered up. If you don’t have access to additional photos, perhaps family members will. Check with them - I’ve even worked from family photos taken in front of the home to fill in missing details.

3. Describe details

   If you have a photo that doesn’t depict all the elements of the home you’d like to include, simply describe what you would like added and I can make it happen. Perhaps you have a photo taken in winter, but you prefer a spring depiction for the painting - describe the flowers and shrubbery that is normally in view during the spring. It’s easy enough for me to research what a “Flowering dogwood” tree looks like in bloom and add the tree to your painting.

4. Lighten the photo

   If you have a photo that is a bit too dark, there are apps that can be used to lighten the photo a bit. I’m happy to do this with my photo editing apps as well. Sometimes this trick changes the coloring, so it’s always good to describe the color of the home, door and shutters to make sure your painting is a little more accurate.

5. Trust the artist

   Besides all of these tips, I have a few things I can do on my end to make your watercolor home portrait as perfect as possible! Sometimes I’m able to distort the image a bit to change the perspective, I can combine elements to give me a more accurate reference photo and I can do research to help me with additional details.

I always tell my potential clients, I’m more than happy to take a look at your photos prior to placing an order. So if you’ve searched and found all the photos you can, feel free to reach out so I can take a look at what you have!