The process of creating a painting begins some time before I put brush to canvas. First I need a reference (or references) and an idea for the composition. Either of these can come first.
Sometimes I find an image that inspires me and I start to think of where I could take it. For my duckling painting I found a reference photo (by Karin Gedge on Unsplash) that was filled with such joy I knew it needed to paint it! The duckling in the reference wasn’t actually in a puddle, but I wanted to give him one, so I removed the background and went instead for a simple colour with lots of extra splashes!
Sometimes the idea comes before the reference. In the case of the barn owl painting below, it started with an idea for a wintery picture, with that diffuse glowing light you can get on a snowy day, and how that would work with the softness of the owls feathers. Then I found the reference picture of a barn owl that would work with this. In the picture I found (a beautiful photograph on Unsplash by Bruno van der Kraan) the owl was actually standing on some lush green grass, so I found a number of other pictures I could refer to when creating the snowy background, the old branch and the light.
Molly Fleming Art 
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