Now before I get started, I just want to say that this is my opinion, mind you it’s an opinion from 12 years of professional experience but you are welcome to either have a different way or thought on this.
I’ve been reading and seeing a lot of things from people who ask about how or whether to use reference. I’m ALWAYS a supporter of using reference but many people don’t really know how to use it.
For the purpose of pure learning it’s ok to trace, direct copy and study other photos, forms of art to learn technique, form, physics. When I first started learning how to actually draw properly I copied lots of photos from models, actors, backgrounds as well as traced photos to learn shadows, likenesses, form and anatomy. What is NOT ok is to take these as your own, if you are proud of what you have accomplish it’s ok to post and show it off as long as you show what your referencing and properly tag or mention the artist you’re working off of.
Still to this day, after working in the industry for years I still use references, but usually quite different. Without tooting my own horn I feel comfortable enough with the basics of form and anatomy that I can make up poses and backgrounds as I please, but many situations call for poses and environments I have never drawn before and this is where the reference comes in. For example my work on HUNTRESS a few years back. There were many shots of places in Italy that I have never seen nor could I find pictures of the type of shots I needed for the story. This is where I search for pictures of the area and use a collection of them to learn the style of streets, buildings, signs etc to build the shot I needed. Google images is a huge help as you can have it open to “Italian coastal cities” and you can mix and match your reference for the shots you want. As for poses I find that the hardest thing for me to do is drawing a person sitting or standing in a believable way, this is where I either need to ask someone to pose for me or go to a park and draw people doing regular things, which lead us to….
Now I’m not the best at heading my own advice about life drawing but it’s essential that if you are having troubles with your poses and realism, life drawing is the best way to work on that. It’s meant to be a study on real life so don’t beat yourself up on polishing each drawing. You also don’t need classes, classes are good because it’s a controlled environment and the model poses for you for longer periods of time, but know that you can get just as much information going to the mall and drawing people there. If you’re still having troubles with this pull it all the way back and trace photos of people, animals etc. Sometimes you can’t get beyond your own “style” that no matter what you do they just look like the people you have always drawn. This is a common problem and a good way to break that is to trace or lightbox photos, this is for your personal growth and not for you to monetize on.
I’m pretty sure there’s more in my head when it comes to this subject but for now this is all I got. Don’t be scared to trace, don’t be scared to learn and art is all about studying, whether it be the tools or the subject. Also draw what makes you feel happy and do it for yourself and not for others. Enjoy it.
jbbartram-illu
origamiaround
