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

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and robots have taken over but let’s not go down that dark path okay we’re not going to talk about the robot uprising right now but thank you for listening to my Ted Talk and I’ll see you in the next video.

30 COMMENTS

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  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?

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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!