How To Use Reference Correctly When Drawing

When you use reference as a tool to help you draw then you are using it correctly. When you use reference as a crutch, then you're using it incorrectly. To be clear, using photography and models as your reference source is the topic of discussion here. It is not a crime, sin or even cheating to use photos as reference.

Gil Elvgren photo and pin-up art

This is more important when you're doing figure work. When you are drawing backgrounds, which include building, streets, cars, machinery, then it is expected that you stay pretty close to the reference. With figures, when you stay too close to the reference, even if you didn't trace it, it looks stiff, posed, awkward and stands out like a sore thumb from the non referenced figures in your story.

Tracing or copying a figure exactly is using reference as a crutch. Why? Because a normal human body doesn’t fit the idealistic or heroic proportions used in comics. Look at the traced figures below compared to the drawn figure.

Real life woman in photo above has a nice shape. The trace of the real life woman makes her look dumpy. Without changing her height measurements and making some artistic decisions while drawing and looking at reference, she looks more feminine without tracing.

When you are drawing from a photo as reference, you should be adding your own knowledge of anatomy, composition and rhythm to the mix. Drawing every wrinkle you see in the photo does not look good at all. You just need to draw enough information to communicate to the reader. You are extracting the information from the photo you need to help create that convincing reality.

When you stay too close to the source of someone else’s photograph, it becomes a derivative work. There is nothing wrong with this, just don’t try to pass it off as totally original art. I must admit a bias against photorealistic work. While I am impressed with the draftsmanship, skills and patience required to do it. I have an attitude of, 'What's the point?' I'm getting the same information as if I was looking at an actual photo.

It’s always best to start with your own drawing of the pose. Then find or create reference if you are having trouble communicating the authenticity of it. One tool an artist should have next to their drawing table is a mirror. Some expressions and hand gestures are easily solved with this.

It is hard to set forth, firm guidelines for using photography as reference. There are countless big, small and minute decisions an artist is making while drawing. Please study the images below and see how those decisions come into play to create a piece of art. See the differences that artist is making as they deviate from the photo in order to create something more graceful, more individual, more beautiful than the photo.

Gil Elvgren photo ref from chunky to trim and graceful
 pin-up art

Gil Elvgren stiff photo ref to lively pin-up art

Gil Elvgren photo and pin-up art

Gil Elvgren photo and pin-up art

Alphonse Mucha from boring to graceful

Paulonna Donkey by Picasso 1923

Norman Rockwell in studio working on Art Critic, 1955

The Runaway pencil art by Norman Rockwell

The Runaway photo ref and final painting by Norman Rockwell

Use reference as a tool, not a crutch!

And here are some other thoughts on using reference. Very interesting reading.

Amy Reeder

Shattered-Earth

ArtBuisness

Vera Curnow - The line between inspiration and plagiarism needn’t be confusing.

Oliver Wetter - A Tip for Digital Artists

Teresa Bernard

Augie De Blick - Artists: Stop Tracing. Start Cartooning Again

If you know of any free, legal online resources for photo reference, then please include them in the comments below.

to be continued…

read next - Rock That Body
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Do Artists Use Reference?

Have artists always used reference?

Yes they have and you should too. Using reference is doing research to understand what you are drawing. Research helps you create a convincing reality. Artists have been using reference since before photography was invented. The reference they used was called live models and cadavers. Michelangelo and a lot of renaissance artists used models that posed for them. And Leonardo da Vinci surely went through his share of cadavers to learn anatomy, along with many other artists.

The problem sets in when you use reference as a crutch and not as a tool. If you're just going to copy or trace a photograph exactly as it is, then you're using reference incorrectly. Also you're violating copyright laws by using an entire photo, as it already exists. You have to make changes.

The best way to use photography for reference is to take the photos yourself. And that is so much easier now that the film does not have to be developed. Easier and cheaper. You can take a photo with your digital camera or smartphone of most reference you will probably need.

The Problem We All Live With is © 1964 by Norman Rockwell

Artists have always used reference, because they can see. You know how to draw a wooden chair because you've seen it, used it and you have sat in it yourself and drawn models sitting in it. So that you know it well enough, that you can draw it from memory. You will most likely have to use the photograph of a different type of chair that you're not quite as familiar with in order to make it look somewhat realistic.

This will be the case, when you have only looked at something and not really seen it. Because when you really see something, it becomes a part of your mental file that you can draw upon when you don't have time to get reference. You need to become a trained observer so you are always recording something for your mental.

Every artists should have a reference file, also sometimes known as a swipe file, scrap file or morgue. You start by cutting out photos and images from magazines, newspapers, catalogs, junk mail, and books. And file them away under different subject categories. And start cataloging your digital photos on your computer, preferably putting them on an external drive.

Here are some categories to get you started. Architecture, nature, people, animals, transportation, clothing, fashion, science, businesses, churches, schools, famous landmarks and street scenes. You can subdivide and add to them according to what you think you may need or want to draw. However, you should be prepared to draw anything and everything.

If you can’t take the photo yourself, here are some online reference resources to check out.

Reference Photographs for Artists

WetCanvas’ Reference Image Library

10,000+ Free Photos By Dennis Hill And Friends

MorgueFile

Reference Photos

Free Reference Photo’s For Artists

Totally Free Images

Public Domain Photos

If you know of any free resources for photo reference, then please include them in the comments below.

to be continued…

read next -  How to Use Reference Correctly
previous - Body Measurements

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What Are The Ideal Body Measurements?

The below diagrams shows how different height measurements can be used for adults and children in drawing. The normal figure measures 7 1/2 heads in height. This looks kind of dumpy and why this measurement isn’t used much in comics. The ideal figure measures 8 heads in height. This was used in most Renaissance paintings. The heroic figure measures 9 heads in height. Most superheroes are drawn in this realm.

Difference Between Men and Women

Men’s shoulders are wider than their hips. The crotch is located exactly at the halfway point on his body. His knees are located hallway between his crotch and the soles of his feet. Men’s muscles create more bumps and angles. With women shoulders and hips are about the same width. The crotch is located exactly at the halfway point on her body. However, there is some leeway to move it up or down to create long legs or a long waist. Women are to drawn with soft, flowing curvy lines. We will discuss drawing women in a lot more detail in the future.

Children

Realistic proportions for kids never look good in comics. So let’s skip that and get right to the idealistic measurements.

Andrew Loomis: Figure Drawing for All it’s Worth

Smooth fat layers cover their joints and may have dimples. Keep face features small in relation to head size. There a certain heights that people are accustomed to seeing in figures and make assumptions about them. These assumptions can be used to your advantage. To communicate about your character or to go against type to give your audience something unexpected.

to be continued…

read next - Do Artists Use Reference?
previous - How to Draw Figures in Rhythm Nation

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Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

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How to Draw Figures in Rhythm City

Rhythm

Rhythm for artists, is the ordering and arrangement of lines, tones and colors to affect the viewer. It is your form of artistic expression. 

Science show us that sound, heat and light are rhythmic forms of energy. You want to give your figures energy and a sense of life. Figures are composed of contours and masses. The power of your drawn figures are due to the arrangement of your lines, tones and colors and affect the viewer on an emotional, visceral level.

Unity hits the emotions. The oneness of concept that controls your art. While variety is where the artist charms the viewer. The vitality that gives life and character for your figures. As you have no doubt heard, “Variety is the spice of life.”

Don’t search for perfection in your art, search for the individual, search for the life. The subtle variety in your drawing is what creates vitality, not perfection.

Unity and variety will always walk together and unity leads that walk or variety will run buck wild, like a child throwing a tantrum. Too much variety becomes ugly. The right balance of unity and variety creates beauty.

We have art software applications that allow you to draw the face in prefect symmetry. Yet the result is not very appealing, because real faces are not symmetrical. Real faces have variety because of subtle variations.

Your drawing style derives from the “mistakes” you make consistently. Variety in unity.

At a casual glance, our limbs may seem symmetrical. Let us look at the leg as an example. each side seems symmetrical, yet has it’s share of variety. A variety of symmetry used by a variety of opposition.

When there is a concave curve on one side, there is a convex curve on the opposite side.

You will find this rhythm throughout the figure.

My diagram on the left. Bridgman figures on right.

to be continued…

read next - What Are The Ideal Body Measurements?
previous - How Do I Keep From Looking Goofy?

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copyright 2016 H. Simpson

How Do I Keep From Looking Goofy?

Center of Balance

Image from Bridgman's Complete Guide To Drawing From Life Copyright George B. Bridgman 1930

Your figures should always have a center of balance. It may be more beneficial to think of it as the center of mass. A distribution of the figure in space. The distribution of the figure is balanced around the center of mass.

A figure’s center of gravity is the point around which the resultant torque due to gravity forces is zero. The center of mass is the same as the center of gravity. This where we draw our center of balance line. So if the figure moves past that center of balance line, it will fall over. Even with a figure in motion, it will not fall over when it has the center of mass drawn correctly. Figures look off balance when they move pass the center of mass.

A figure’s center of mass is always changing because it is not a fixed, static shape.

to be continued…

read next - How to Draw Figures in Rhythm Nation
previous - How Do You Make it?

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Remember…  Just Create!

copyright 2016 H. Simpson

How Do You Make it?

 Construction - Circles and Blocks

art copyright 2016 H. Simpson

When you are drawing the human figure, there are two or three ways you can go about this. You can construct a form using circular motions, which is a balloon form of construction. Or you can use a block form of construction. Or combine the two. Use whatever method is comfortable for you.

It really doesn't matter, as this is something that usually only you will see. The whole purpose is to create an animal or human form. You can be as messy as you want at this stage. While constructing the form, there are considerations in play such as muscles, proportions, liveliness and creating a figure that has substance and weight.

You can only express an outward figure correctly when you have a knowledge of the internal structure. You need to know the bones, and the muscles and tendons which connect and make action possible.

This will help you to construct figures from imagination, whether they are human, animal or insect. This will reduce your dependence on models in reference, so that you can greatly speed up production time of your work.

Learn the bones and muscles, then test your knowledge by making memory drawings. Your knowledge of anatomy will also greatly enhance the quality of your figure drawings when you're using a live model. You will be able to analyze the musculature with the understanding of how the form is created. Your observation skills will be increased, as you approach the figure more intelligently and become better at drawing it.

to be continued…

read next - How Do I Keep From Looking Goofy?
previous - Hands are Handy to Draw Dynamically

Follow and subscribe to me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Please support me making video tutorials on Patreon

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2016 H. Simpson