Not drawing from life is cheating. Really.

Drawing from life amounts to copying... It is cheating too!

We've got opposite philosophies, it seems.

I say that true drawing is the transferring of what the eye sees onto paper (with or without modifications) so that others may experience it. Thus, drawing from life is the height of the art.
You say that true drawing is about knowledge of the human (or whatever) form such that you can copy its image without reference. Thus, drawing something you have never seen before is the height of the art.

Well... yeah.
I don't want to make myself into a human-camera.
Creativity is a valuable thing.

Ofcourse drawing from life is a good thing and it's uber important for learning to draw, so is studying references. I should've used more smilies there, because I was being ironic. It's just that I preffer not allowing reference to dictate what the piece looks like.

Hrm. The neck looks odd.... almost equine? Dig the small of the back/butt

I imagine a well developped trapezius on a longer neck with the head cocked backward would have that kind of bulge. Just a theory though. I seem to like how it looks, too often i make the neck straight.

I wonder if it's playing mindgames with me and making the head look smaller, and it makes the proportions look strange to me. Eh, who knows. I like regardless.

Not cheating, it's learning. If you never stop, then you're cheating. But copying and paying attention to what you're copying is a really good way to learn.

That's what I do, I spend lots of time sketching studies of photographs, copying anatomy books so i can memorize the stuff. But when I'm working from imagination, I stay away from references and only stick to what's in my head. It's for training purposes mostly. but not allowing reference to dictate what the picture looks like is sometimes useful.

Naw, vheating would infer that you're cutting corners or trying to get an edge in a way that is not allowed. Using references is allowed, so long as you're not making a carbon copy with slight alterations, and then claiming you did the entire thing. If drawing from life was considered cheating, then we wouldn't see still-lives in museums, and figure drawing classes wouldn't be taught at colleges and universities.

I know... I know... Still, I preffer keeping studies and making works sepparate - i sketch alot, do plenty of studies from photos and anatomy books, but when I'm making a picture from imagination I stick to only what's in my head. Sort of like Degas did most of his works from memory. Reference is sometimes too distracting.

How in HELL is using reference cheating? Unless you've absorbed the physiology of the human body, which you surely haven't because you're using reference in the first place, there is nothing wrong with using reference. Michelangelo used reference. Da Vinci did. Were they cheating?