I know I’ve touched on this before, but once again, my inbox is full of questions about distilling a photo or scene into something more manageable. To help, I’ve put together my top six techniques and included a couple of videos that might give the old brain box further insight.

Eliminate Chaos In Your Paintings.

1: “What is this painting about?

Amid all the chaos, there must be something you’re trying to say. Strip it down to the bare essentials. This is where ‘ands’ don’t count. It’s not about the lake, the logs, the mountain, the canoes, and the lady on the beach—and, and. No ‘ands.’ Remember KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Your goal is to break it down to its simplest form. Find the essence of what you want to express in your photo.

Mountain lake with reflections. No need for all the clutter in the foreground. It doesn't help the composition, so we can eliminate all that noise. Add some snow to liven up the photo, and she’s ready to paint.

2: Start by thinking about a way to let the viewer into your painting.

An entry. Think of it as a three-act play. The opening act establishes what the play will be about, and you ease into meeting the characters. Just like that, you need to gently let the audience into your scene. A path, some grass lines. A series of rocks lead you in. In essence, don’t block the viewer's path on the way in. Be inviting and gently let them into your scene.

Snow pathways ease you to the barn.

Flower petals leading in

Wind rows in the fields lead you in.

3: Look to simplify larger areas into shapes.

Keep these shapes simple. Three to five is good, and no more than five major shapes. This will help eliminate chaos in your paintings.

A lot going on here.

Simplify into 4 shapes. Smudge and eliminate the unnecessary.

4: If you can’t see any shapes because of all the chaos, another way to help is to try putting a sheet of tracing paper over the photo.

This will dumb down the image and de-clutter some of that nasty business. You can draw on the tracing paper and get your shapes to emerge.

Photo without tracing paper.

Photo with tracing paper.

Draw your shapes on top.

Here is a quick video on using tracing paper in the Sketchbook app.

5: Look for the main items of interest.

You can scrub out any unnecessary Items from the scene. You just need the main characters in your play. You should have no more than three main characters. You can have many sub-items of interest, but they must remain subservient to the primary, secondary, and tertiary centers of interest.

A very busy photo.

The main idea is the umbrellas in the market. Lead-in at the front. Background buildings simplified. The person to umbrellas to yellow bottles on the table create a triangle to keep the viewer's eye moving through the photo. Dark against light and some colour under the brollies. Simplified. Sky at the back is used to ease the viewer out. Like the umbrellas, here is a mini video of a photo fix in the Sketchbook app.

Before the crop.

Cropped photo

After visualization.

6: Paint your scene upside down.

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but I have been teaching the method for a long time and have had the most excellent results. Your eyes don’t recognize things when the photo is upside down. Buildings don’t look like buildings, and boats don’t look like boats. You just see shapes. Trust your eyes and paint what you see. You will be amazed when you flip it over at how accurate you really are.\

Side Note:

See my online workshop on May 25, 2025 and learn more about painting preparation itself using the Sketchbook app. I'll teach you how to set up the design of your painting before even touching the canvas. -> https://www.swintonsart.com/service-page/editing-paintings-with-sketchbook

7: (Bonus) An exit strategy.

Sometimes, all that clutter in a scene makes you feel trapped. To help this, you need to make sure you have a background or an exit point. A way to lead you out of the painting. This is like the comic relief at the end of the play. A lighthearted, funny line to ease you out and let you go satisfied. A way to wrap things up. Like a small sky hole in the trees. A doorway behind a figure. Some directional lines in the clouds lead you out of the painting. By simplifying

your scene and adding some background, you can ease the viewer out of the scene. This way, they’re not trapped.

There is a small piece of sky at the back.

Mirror in a room.

The light patch beside her eye on the left is a way out of this portrait.

The window on the left of this Walter Sikkart painting lets you escape the room.

Thanks for reading!

As always, I hope you got something out of this.

Your friend in art,

Doug.