Why do artists refuse to use references why why why.
It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.
You don’t get stronger or better by pretending. Nobody is impressed by the awkward whatever-it-is you just drew. Use references.
I don’t think a lot of people know that it’s not cheating. I recall seeing so many piece of art called out because they referenced a pose, someone recognized it, and then proceeded to shame them for it. There’s this belief, both by creators and the audience, that artists should just be able to translate the ideas from their head to paper, and if they don’t, it’s plagiarism, or not true originality (spoiler alert: there’s no such thing).
I myself didn’t start using references until very recently, because even I was under the impression that it was frowned upon. And that belief has seriously crippled and stalled my ability to improve as an artist.
As a restarting artist, I can confirm. I just never knew. I thought you were just supposed to know how to draw the body correctly and if you didn’t you had no talent.
(( I am going to say this again, loud and clear for everyone:
USING REFERENCES FOR ART IS NOT ‘CHEATING’!!!
If you can draw/paint without references, great! But if you need to use them, and feel that your art can be bettered by using references, please, use them! This is one of the biggest tips I can give to artists, is USE REFERENCES!
Anyone who would dare to attack someone for using references after ‘recognizing a pose’ is a dipshit, who doesn’t know a thing about art.
Do you know who else used references for their art?
Norman Rockwell
Alphonse Mucha
Gustav Klimt
Toulouse Lautrec
Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Gauguin
Edgar Degas
Gil Elvgren
Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso
Disney Studios
And thousands of others! So, artists! Go forth, and use references!!! ))
I was weirdly just thinking about this today. 80% of my stuff I use reference, and that’s fine. Tracing elements is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE as long as you don’t steal/trace another’s exact art and say it’s yours.
Exactly. USE REFERENCE TRACE CERTAIN THINGS ITS FINE
Just dont trace things that dont belong to you. Even that isnt “cheating” its just theft. Which is entirely different.
Google images are not something to trace because those images belong to someone, but you can always take your own photos, use photos in the public domain, use a live model, use a mannequin, etc. I dont have (and dont really like) wooden mannequins, so what I reference for poses is usually Daz 3D Studio models, which I pose, and sometimes render to see how lighting works etc, so I have something to look at.
After tracing for a long enough time, eventually it will become second nature to you.
So please, DO, trace, sometimes.
I DEFINITELY use references. Nearly every professional artist I know uses them. Entire art studios even have giant highly organized folders of references for poses, materials, textures, etc.
USE REFERENCES.
As someone who is just starting out, I’m actually pretty terrified of using references just because I’ve seen so many posts calling out things that were referenced for “art theft” so it’s really good to hear….
It’s okay to use references! I frequented an oekaki board in the early 2000s where referencing was frowned upon because of things like art theft or cheating. I followed that standard, and over time I nearly gave up on being an artist (I have almost no work from 2004-2010) because I thought I could never get certain things right on my own.
Now I’m trying to use references, and I’ve been improving quickly.
^ this was the same for me when I used oekaki boards back in the mid 2000s. I still have majority of my old work, but my improvement was probably sluggish due to the lack of references. Then again, I didn’t quite know how to use them just yet until I was an adult. I do wish I had the “references are okay” beat down into me more when I was younger.
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