Working from life is unquestionably the optimal way to work, but it’s not always possible. Weather, mobility, time constraints, among other things makes painting from life impractical some of the time. Weather is often an issue for me. No matter how hard-core you are, sometimes conditions will not allow you to do your best work outdoors. You may be on a painting trip when there isn’t enough time to paint all the many scenes that inspire you. If we don’t use photo reference in these cases, we could miss out on an opportunity to paint something of great merit.