Before the invention of photography artists always had their subjects model for them in order to draw or paint their portraits. This practice is very deep in the tradition of portraiture. Of course, after photography became available artists' options for creating portraits were expanded. This included using photography as the final medium, as well as a tool to help create drawings or paintings without having the subject model for the artist in the studio. Today, many artists choose to use a combination of both approaches when doing portraits. There are also artists that use only on form or the other for various reasons. Each approach has pros and cons that will be discussed in this article.
Sam Borenstein