Artist tip: Use References! plus links

FAQ | Commissions | Characters

This is something a lot of artists need to change their mind on. Somehow a bunch of us were taught at some point, or heard, that we shouldn't use references. Some teachers may say you can ONLY use references from life.

That's dumb.

Yes, if you have something available to you in real life, use that as a ref! But most of the time what we want we can't find or it's not possible for us to get a real life ref for what we want to do.

We need to learn how things work, so the best thing to do is look at references and over time you'll learn the details of certain things through it! If you don't know how something looks, look it up! Don't just guess!

When I started to do original art, I don't remember being taught to not look at refs but I had this overwhelming feeling like I SHOULDN'T use references. I felt like that cheapened the art. I suffered for it and my art back then was very wonky and didn't make sense, because I didn't know how things work!

Remember: you don't magically know how something looks in your brain. You have to study the thing! That requires references!

What you should avoid: Don't reference off of other people's art (if it's general art), however. As others have said before me, you'll only be drawing their mistakes as well. Instead, look to where they figured out how to draw certain things. Look at photos of animals and people and videos of them moving.

An example for me is people are referencing off of the wings I draw. I have been told this. That's not good! I do not draw them perfectly and there's several things I am still learning! Instead, look up bats and how their wings work. That's what I do! Practice out drawing the wings you see from photos, and after getting a sense of how they work you can then pose them differently, and in time won't even need a ref anymore for that!

There are plenty of stock photos as well that are for the purpose of referencing off of. Many times they'll ask to be credited and others won't care. If you are only using certain photos for small parts as a ref, then I don't see a need to credit, but it needs to be a big enough change. When you can use a bunch of refs to mold your own pose, that can be best!

Small important note: you can't copyright poses, so don't worry if others have used the pose before. At this time it may be nearly impossible to have a (human) pose that's completely original.

Here are some places that can help with referencing:

Posemaniacs:
www.posemaniacs.com/

Figure and Gesture Drawing practice:
artists.pixelovely.com/practic…

Stock poses (read the rules please!):
senshistock.deviantart.com/

More poses:
daposes.deviantart.com/

istockphoto:
www.istockphoto.com/stock-phot…

Gay couple photos:
www.gettyimages.com/photos/hom…

Animals and automobiles:
www.kimballstock.com/index.asp

and much, much more! Just search in google for specifically on what you want!