The Importance of Using References for Drawing | Improve Your Art Skills

Sam you're great.i've learned so so much from you

You are such a cool dude, I feel like you’re a cool older brother or something. I feel so much better about the idea of using reference now!

where is shrek? damn i was so anticipating a shrek with and without reference comparison to really hammer home the point at the end of the vid

This is fantastic advice. I like to break it down to around an 80/20 split of using reference versus not. Break the rules but know them first!

I barely can draw withot a reference even very simple things
So I must use reference

Now this really motivated me to stop using my imagination when drawing start using refrences actually help my atamony way better and improvements in my own character design improved alot

Thank Sam you truly art Sensei

I realised that the poses i draw are more stiff when i ise references

The first bear you draw was a white Bear wihea neck a bit to short the second one is a grizzly bear

Just found your channel, appreciate the content! 👍

Happy new ear o

I like the no reference drawings better because they seem to have personality and character

this is the video that finally made me actually want to use references! I always thought I'd do it "later" once I'm better at drawing from imagination (which??? makes no sense) but now I understand, I need them NOW

Its funny how Americans call some random drawings "art". Spoiler: it's called illustration.

I’d love to know what brush you used for those sketches it looks amazing!

Okay, I know this sounds bad, but the drawings without reference almost look like an AI generated sketch. Little things not quite right, but mostly recognizable. Makes you think a little bit.. is an AI just someone that doesn't know how to use reference properly? (despite being trained entirely off references) Makes you wonder about how people and AI develop.

for a second there…i thought sam was going to twerk

Drawing with references are really helpful. I usually find that when I use references for facial expressions, my art looks a lot better. Some objects really do need a reference to draw (for example, musical instruments. References are more like a launchpad to work from and is really grounding.

i took reference from u and look at my pfp i made it thank u so SO much <3

I have a question. So I found a picture of a model that wanted to use as reference. I loved everything about the picture so I decided to basically draw this in my style. Like it has the same pose, hair and outfit. I didn’t trace at all but in the end it’s just the picture drawn in someone’s art style. Is that wrong?

I loved that non-reference chicken, it had some great shapes.

Cant believe you didnt do Shrek woth reference

Personally i hate references, i just prefer to improv when i draw, making a thingy from a line and letting the drawing grow instead of be constructed

References, drawing and practicing from references is what everyone should do. But I also think everyone should draw from their imagination and memory. Not because it works by itself… But because it works when combined with observation. Basically as you did now. You go and compare your drawing from memory to an actual photo of the thing and think "What makes these different? Oh this and that and those are different. This is actually a more tubular shape, oh this is in different angle". It basically helps you fix the mistakes in your memory library, as you can compare your memory to the actual thing. It is hard to "fix the mistakes" without knowing what they are, drawing and then comparing can help to identify them, forces you to observe the difference. But I agree, using references is a great tool both when learning and when doing full on art works.

“It looks eatable”

I'm planning to use references to draw the face, but instead of drawing it accurately, i'm doing it so I can stylize the faces. I can look at the face anatomy and try to alter it to find an art style. I think references arent just for drawing something accurate, but you can also use it to break the rules a little bit and it could also extend your visual library even more than just copying the reference 1:1.

people who say that using references is cheating clearly don't know shit about art, that's all i gotta say, people's should stfu when they don't know what they are talking about but no it's too much to ask of them

I JUST REALIZED THIS WAS POSTED ON MY BIRTHDAY 💀

I’m not much of an artist, but knowing that even Sam uses references is so comforting. It’s always felt like such a cheat to me but I guess I just have unrealistic expectations of my brain😅

7:15 one of the best things you've ever said

Just wanted to say something. This video is one of the best art videos I've ever seen. I've seen a LOT of them.

My father (an artist) taught me how to be one when I was a child. Well, all he really did was repeat the phrase "Draw what you see, not what you think you see"
For years i struggled with it. I fought it, because I wanted to draw my own things. Then when I finally embraced it, I became SO MUCH BETTER.
Now I'm a full-time (disabled) artist, working on my etsy right

I haven't even finished the video yet because I was too excited to say something about it. AMAZING VIDEO, Sam!