Paintillism, however, has no restrictions of depicting an original scene. As a painter has the freedom to chose his lighting, his sky, his point of view, etc, so does the paintillism artist. The only requirement I put on myself are that the images I use MUST be my own and not taken by someone else. But that's where my restrictions end. If I want to take out an element that I think shouldn't be in the final image, then I'll digitally remove it. If I want to add an element, I will. If I want to change the color or contrast or mood of a scene, I am free to do so.
When I actually perform the final paintillism brush strokes, it is usually done on a image that is different than the original. Sometimes dramatically different. Below are examples of a before and after image that I haven't paintillized yet but will be doing so at some point. This gives you a good idea of the pre-work I can do with a photograph.
In this instance, the sky area was a "perfect" blank canvas for me to "paint" in a more interesting sky. And the contrast of the scene was too flat to be of any visual interest so I kicked that up, too. As you can plainly see, the before-scene, though it has promise, lacks any kind of visual punch. The after-scene is far more exciting and as I mentioned earlier, it should make for an enjoyable paintillism (and subsequent jigsaw puzzle).
Before:
After:
