How to Move from Reference Photos to Sketching on Location

What changes when you leave the photo behind?

A photo gives you a fixed, flat image with a boundary already chosen. Outdoors, you select the boundary yourself, and your view can change when you shift your seat, tilt your head, or look from page to scene. The light may also move or change while you work. The practical adjustment is to treat your first look as a set of decisions, not as a perfect snapshot you have to copy.

That does not make your photo practice irrelevant. A viewing frame can help isolate a scene, and preliminary sketches can help plan a composition. Art UK recommends using a paper viewing frame for an outdoor painting activity, while an artist’s field process described by Artists Network uses a viewfinder and small value studies before developing a larger work. For sketching, borrow the decision-making stages and simplify the materials: choose the view, identify the large forms, and begin with those.

Before you go: rehearse decisions with a photo

Use one photograph of a place you can visit, or a photo with a clear subject such as a building beside a tree. Make two or three tiny rectangles in your sketchbook. In each, try a different crop: include more sky, bring the main subject closer to an edge, or reduce the amount of foreground. This is a planning exercise, not a requirement to reproduce the photograph on site.

In the version you prefer, mark only the horizon or major directional lines and a few large shapes. Notice which shapes touch, overlap, or leave gaps. You might see a dark roof against a light sky, a path widening toward the bottom edge, or a tree mass that partly covers a building. Artists Network’s plein-air sequence recommends simplifying scenes into a small number of shapes and values before adding detail. Apply that principle here as a way to decide what to look for outdoors, rather than as a rule that every sketch must use a fixed number of tones. Artists Network, “Plein Air Landscape Painting: Your Guide to Getting Started”

Write down one question to take with you: “Where does the roofline meet the tree?” or “How much of the path is visible from the bench?” A question gives your first observation a job. When you arrive, check whether the actual place matches your photo’s framing and relationships. If it does not, redraw the small rectangle to fit what you see.

Pack a small, forgiving kit

For a first session, take a sketchbook or firm-backed drawing pad, a pencil or pen you already use, and an eraser if your chosen medium needs one. A small book is easier to hold and gives you room for several trials without making one page feel like a finished picture. Art UK’s outdoor activity suggests a drawing board or hardback pad for support; that practical idea is useful even if you are carrying only a sketchbook.

Choose a place where you can stand or sit without blocking a path or needing to move every few minutes. A park bench, quiet street corner, or view from a café table can work. The Urban Sketchers manifesto describes drawing on location indoors or outdoors from direct observation, with people using available supports such as a bench or wall. You do not need specialized equipment to begin. Urban Sketchers, “Urban Sketchers’ Manifesto” (PDF)

At the site: select and frame one view

Before opening your sketchbook, pause and look around. Choose one subject that can be described simply: for example, a shopfront with a tree, a footbridge over water, or the corner of a building facing a street. Move a little left or right if a foreground object hides the feature you want to draw. Then decide whether your page should be upright or wide, and use your fingers or a paper frame to preview the edges.

Compare this view with your photo study. Keep a useful idea from it, such as the approximate placement of the horizon or a large dark shape, but let the observed scene decide the drawing. The photo may have been taken at a different height, angle, or time. Inference from the sources: because both the framing and observed conditions can differ, the photo works best as a rehearsal for selecting and simplifying, while the on-site view supplies the actual relationships for this sketch.

Block in big shapes before drawing objects

Make a thumbnail sketch first—small enough to finish quickly. Lightly place the top and bottom limits of the main subject, the horizon if there is one, and two or three large shapes. Think of a tree as a joined mass before drawing leaves, and a building as a set of planes before marking windows. The National Gallery of Art’s drawing lesson introduces fast gesture sketches and simple contour approaches; its landscape prompt likewise suggests building an outdoor view from simple shapes. National Gallery of Art, “Lesson: Drawing Everyday Objects”; National Gallery of Art, “Mindful Drawing: Activities that Embrace Experimentation”

Now compare your sketch with the scene, one relationship at a time. Is the tree taller than the roof, or only as tall? Does the path begin at the page edge or leave a strip of grass below it? Is the gap between two buildings wider than the narrow building itself? You can use the pencil held at arm’s length as a simple comparison tool: keep your arm extended and measure one feature against another without moving the pencil between comparisons. The aim is not precision equipment; it is a repeatable check against guessing from memory.

If the large relationships feel plausible, add a few supporting lines: a window row, a railing, a trunk, or the edge of a shadow. Keep returning your eyes to the subject. After a short mark-making run, look up again and correct what matters most. Small corrections early are easier than trying to rescue an entire page after filling it with detail.

Use a short sequence for your first outing

Try this sequence as one compact session. The times are a suggested structure, not a researched standard; shorten or extend them to suit your setting.

If the scene changes while you work, decide whether to keep the original arrangement or adjust the sketch. For a passing figure or moving vehicle, it may be enough to record its position and continue with the stable structure around it. For a shifting shadow that changes the scene’s main light-dark pattern, make a quick note or small extra study before it moves further. Artists Network’s outdoor process explicitly recognizes that shadows and clouds change, and advises establishing the larger pattern early. That guidance is for painting, but the same constraint matters when an observational drawing depends on a temporary shadow. Artists Network, “Plein Air Landscape Painting: Your Guide to Getting Started”

How to use photos after the session

When you return, compare your on-location sketch with the reference photo if you have one. Do not grade the sketch by how closely it matches the photo. Instead, look for a concrete difference you can investigate next time: perhaps the photo’s crop encouraged you to place the building too centrally, or the live view made the foreground path more important than expected. Write one observation beside the page.

The photo can also help you identify details you could not finish on site, but label any later additions so you know which marks came from direct observation and which came from the image. This distinction is a practical record of how you worked, not a judgment about the drawing. Urban Sketchers’ manifesto frames on-location sketching around direct observation and recording surroundings; using a photo later as a reference is a separate step from the act of observing the site.

Troubleshooting common first-session problems

The page feels crowded. Stop adding detail and check the boundary. A tighter crop may be easier than trying to include the entire view. Make a second thumbnail with fewer elements before changing the larger drawing.

The sketch looks like an outline with no depth. Identify which large areas are light, middle, and dark. Add a few broad tone areas or hatching marks, keeping the objects’ edges secondary to the overall pattern. The National Gallery of Art’s drawing lesson describes using pressure, hatching, and crosshatching to indicate tonal differences and form.

You keep looking down and lose the proportions. Pause after every few marks and look back at the subject. Start again with one large relationship—such as the height of a doorway compared with its width—instead of trying to fix every line at once.

The scene feels too complicated. Choose a smaller part: one doorway, a corner with a tree, or a bridge and its reflection. Urban Sketchers’ workshop on capturing a sense of place emphasizes filtering what to include and what to leave out, including key lines, shapes, and angles. A focused sketch can still describe where you are. Urban Sketchers, “Workshop 20: What to Leave Out, What to Leave In – Capturing a Sense of Place”

A simple check before you close the sketchbook

Ask three questions: Can I recognize the main subject from its large shapes? Do the biggest proportions and overlaps agree with what I see? Did I make at least one correction by looking back at the scene rather than relying on the photo or memory? If you can answer yes to these, the session has done its job. Keep the page as a record of what you noticed, then choose one specific thing to test on your next outing.

The transition from reference photos to on-location sketching is a change in where you make decisions: prepare with the photo, then let direct observation correct the frame, proportions, and details. A familiar viewpoint, a thumbnail, and a few deliberate comparisons provide a repeatable way to begin without turning the first outing into a test of finished-drawing skill.

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