Art Ideas from Family Photos

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Art Ideas from Family Photos

Have you ever collected art ideas from family photos? I’m a huge fan of painting, sketching and collaging familiar places and faces stored in our old family photo albums. Here are some examples to give you ideas to try it with your own family photo albums….

Portrait Collage from 1960’s Family Photos

Take scenes from vintage images of your family, and expand them into mixed media collage using rubber stamps, torn tissue paper and water-based media like gouache, watercolors and acrylic paints – like this:

Portrait Collage Ideas – Vintage Family Photos

Watercolor Portraits from Cell Phone SnapShots

If you’re more inclined to paint watercolors from family photos taken recently, use your cell phone to capture a moment, and then embellish it with your take on the scene. Print and make art from your cell phone photos with a goal towards experimentation. Give yourself permission to play with narrative painting and practicing your figurative skills – like this:

Watercolor Portrait of Mother and Child

Making Collages from Photo Albums

You can draw and sketch from old family albums, or pilfer the memories to use in collages. If drawing is a challenge for you, simply scan (or photograph) the vintage photos, and then print them at home to use directly with collage, paint and dry media – like this:

Creative Collage Ideas – No Drawing Required

Creating Art from Travel Photos

Every vacation results in a stash of memorable photos that usually include selfies, landscapes, quaint cafes and architectural scenes. All of those are superb subjects to use as painting and sketching fodder. If you’ve never considered your own photos as art inspiration, read this:

Watercolor – Italian Door – and encouragement to photograph your life

Pilfer Your Own Photos for Art Inspiration

All of the art above was inspired by family photos. The next time you’re looking for inspiration to draw, paint, collage, or start a printmaking project, grab your family photo albums. Flip through those yellowed, cello covered pages, and use your cell phone camera to snap photos of images that speak to you.

Try not to fret over likeness, or accuracy to copy exactly what’s in the photo. Play with the images, and be your own art-boss. Add Great-Great Aunt Margaret from the 1800’s to a 1970’s image of a back yard softball game. She might look good as the catcher. 🙂 Or play with scale and put baby brother Reggie as a tiny rider on the back of an enlarged family dog.

Dip into the well of family memories, familiar features, and fond roomscapes as inspiration for your next art adventure.

Let us know in the comments if you share your work on social or a blog so we can visit and cheer you on.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post,

Belinda

P.S. If explorations into using your own family photos as art reference material lead you towards wanting to digitize all those cello-sealed family history treasures, the company I’ve used and recommend is Scan My Photos.

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