image of void

lexxercise:

joannaestep:

escargod:

ugh, exactly. that’s why i draw with my eyes shut. just to keep out all those horrid outside influences, you know?

and when i get jury summons. i make sure i’ve got my mp3 player in with me to drown out all that relevant information so i can make my judgement based on absolutely nothing at all. same thing when i’m voting. i just drop my pen onto the ballot paper and hope it makes a tick in one of the boxes. heck, i’m reblogging this post with commentary and i didn’t even read it. i have no respect for people who put any research into what they’re doing whatsoever. they’re just gross.

Reblogging for amazing comment.

OP, how…. how do you think master painters work? Illustrators? Do you think professionals at Disney or Pixar or Ghibli work without references? That they’re just magically able to accurately draw architecture and animals and natural looking movement without references?

Using a reference doesn’t mean copying an existing piece of art; that’s just copying. It means researching your subject matter and using your research (often visual) to create stronger, more accurate work. It’s not just “okay,” it’s necessary to attain the level of skill the artists you admire exhibit. These artists don’t generally rely heavily on references for every piece, either. They look up what they need, learn from using it, and are able to absorb that knowledge for use in future work.

This may not change how you and those who share your sentiment feel about it, but I urge you to look a little deeper into what using references really means, as it would appear your understanding of the subject is fairly shallow.

had to reblog this. guys don’t listen to OP, because these comments are very well-explained and TRUE. i can attest to them. a few years ago i used to hate using references but when i started doing it more my stuff immediately started to improve, and at a much faster rate than ever before. it not only helps with things you’ve never drawn before, but catching the details you normally miss because you’re working from memory.

memory isn’t nearly as good as having how the thing actually looks right in front of you so you can catch the errors in your memory before they become even bigger mistakes on paper. it’s the same reason drawing from life is so important, because you can constantly check your work from different angles.

sure, you might not need references of certain things after a while, but only if you’ve practiced drawing it enough times with a reference to build your skills and memory up to that point.