The Story Behind Sunset Swim – Creating Coloured Pencil Art from a Bad Photo

I’m often told that my drawings look like photographs. While I take this as a compliment, it isn’t my goal. I strive for realism in my art because that’s what I enjoy, but I don’t aim to copy my reference photos exactly. I often work from multiple images, adjust the crop to improve composition, or tweak colours to better suit the final artwork. Sometimes, that process even involves turning a less than ideal photo into a finished drawing.

Why I Don’t Copy Reference Photos Exactly

Although photography has always been an interest of mine, I’ll happily admit that I’m not particularly good at it! I often joke that if I could take a perfect photograph, I could stop there and not bother drawing it at all. But for me, drawing is about interpretation as much as accuracy.

When I saw a Nature and Wildlife Photography course advertised at a local college, I signed up straight away. Our first outdoor session took place at a local boating lake just as the light was fading — not the easiest conditions for wildlife photography.

Photographing Wildlife in Low Light

The sunset reflections on the rippling water were beautiful, with soft pinks and purples contrasting against the dark greens and blues of a male mallard duck. However, once I reviewed my photos at home, it became clear that they were far too dark to draw from.

The unedited photo doesn't have enough detail, especially in the shadows

This is where shooting in RAW format really helps. RAW files contain far more information than JPEGs, allowing much greater flexibility when editing. Although they take up more storage space, I find the extra detail well worth it.

After some careful adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, I was able to recover detail in the darker areas and create an image suitable to work from.

After editing - more detail and colour!

Choosing Materials for Sunset Swim

For this piece, I chose to work entirely in coloured pencils. My paper of choice was Saunders Waterford Hot Pressed watercolour paper, which allowed me to achieve the smoothness of the water more easily — I’m all for choosing materials that work with me rather than against me!

Even so, achieving realism still required slowly building up many layers of colour. I also pushed the sunset tones slightly to make the most of those rich, glowing colours reflected on the water.

Building up those layers of coloured pencil

The Finished Drawing - Creating Coloured Pencil Art from a Bad Photo

I’m really pleased with how Sunset Swim turned out, especially given the disappointment of the original photo. This piece is a great example of how a drawing doesn’t have to be limited by the reference - sometimes a bad photo can still lead to a successful artwork.

The finished coloured pencil drawing

Sunset Swim will be on display as part of the Open 26 exhibition at Queen Street Gallery, Neath, from 7th–28th February 2026. Prints and greeting cards are also available via my Folksy shop.