Observational Studies

Observational art is to draw or paint a subject as accurately as possible. The subject may be a still life, figure model, portrait or landscape and the image must be created from real life rather than a photograph or the artist’s imagination.

The artist studies the subject on its own terms. For example, this could include a study of the behaviour of light, colours, forms, textures etc.

A key point to remember when practising observational art is to draw what you see, not what you know!

The following pages contain photographs from real life and photographs of works of art. You can also search the whole website using the search box on the top right and refine the results to images only. The purpose of these photographs is to provide inspiration for observational art studies. The photographs are not intended to be used in the place of real life observation.