How To Use References and What I Mean By "Practise"

So no one actually taught me how I was supposed to use referrences (and I have an honours degree in digital art from an acredited university)! I figured it'd be a good idea to hand down what I had to learn myself. This is useful whether or not you are finding your own references online or if you are using the ones I intend to post up at a later date.

There are three ways in which you can use references. You can trace, copy and, of course, reference.

TRACE: That's right! You heard me! Trace that shit! For beginners who are picking up a pencil for the first time (or a tablet pen), you might not yet know how to make the lines on the page you want in order to make an image. You don't know the gestures and movements required to put what you have in your head on to the page. So you can practise those movements by tracing a photo or other artwork. This is how children learn how to draw. Do not deny yourself this effective method of learning out of embarassment! This is a valid way to practise. Now that doesn't mean that you can trace someone elses work and the post it up as if it is your original work. Likely no one will ever see your tracings. It's not for showing people, it's for your own practise so you can build the muscle memory associated with drawing and painting. (The only exception to this is if you are tracing a photograph or artwork that YOU created. Then it is your original work and you can do what you want with it!) You have my permission to trace any and all the references I share; simply create a new layer on top of them and practise.

COPY: This is the step up from tracing. Copying is recreating what you see free-hand, which is what most artists do to practise. Whether you are copying what you can see in front of your eyes ("life drawing") or copying from a photograph or other art, this will help you experiment and develop your eye, attention to detail and skill. A copy is often known as a "study". Unlike tracing, this you can post online provided that you follow these rules; post it alongside the original photograph or artwork to make it clear that it is a "study" and make sure that you get the original creators permission before you do. Once again, this doesn't matter if the original artwork/photograph is your own. The idea here is to see criticism by inviting commentors to compare and contrast, and give you pointers on how to more faithfully reproduce the effect you were trying for.

REFERENCE: Okay, now you're ready to create your own original artwork! Excellent! So you gather a whole bunch of references in a moodboard and pin them up on your wall or on your second screen or on a different window or whatever. This time, you're not copying; you're referencing. This means that you are using your references to inform perspective, angle, idea, colour, shape, line and/or tone, but ultimately you have your own creative vision. Unlike copying, your art will be influenced by your references. It will be the child of all of them, but not an exact clone of any of them.

Referencing is a normal and acceptable way to create art. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. The best artists in the world reference. Rembrandt, a classical Dutch painter, used acamera obscura to recreate an image on the canvas and then painted over it. This was how he created such depth in his work. It is not something you need to hide or feel bad about. In fact, it is extremely helpful and kind to share your references with other artists so that they have access to them as well!

Happy drawing!