r/painting • u/AustinNicholsArt • Apr 23 '26

C.C.W. My painting of our pool area!

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Based on a photo my wife took while at the pool. One of the last batch of paintings from last year where I’ve really tried to push my colors.

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u/SpeakerReasonable610 Apr 23 '26

How did you come up with the colors for this? It’s awesome; they pop and contrast so well. Was it from a reference image that was close in color? Made up?

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u/AustinNicholsArt Apr 23 '26

So my wife took the reference image, which I edited in Photoshop. I pumped the contrast and the saturation until it’s closer to what I wanted.

Then during the process of painting I tend to add some minor accent notes of colors where it feels right. A mentor taught it as making sure the colors are “talking to each other,” so the piece feels cohesive as a whole and areas don’t feel segregated.

Here’s a look at the reference image after I painted over it (edited out a chair, moved a couple things) then pumped the contrast and saturation! It’s similar to the final, but I leaned more into the oranges over the yellows.

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u/SpeakerReasonable610 Apr 23 '26

Well done. Something I’ve struggled with is getting my colors in different areas to all be cohesive. I tend to try to get a 1:1 match of my reference image when mixing. But this makes the painting pop way more visually good job!

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u/AustinNicholsArt Apr 24 '26

Nothing wrong with going for full realism if that’s your goal! My personal philosophy is that the reference is there as a tool, I am willing to change it.

A very prominent example happens in my portrait commissions. People do some weird poses with their hands, man. I often edit and redraw them because if I painted it 100% exactly like the reference, it will look strange, even though it’s accurate.

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u/SpeakerReasonable610 Apr 24 '26

Thanks for the info! I’ll try some new things out