dresdencodak:

lexxercise:

joannaestep:

escargod:

ugh, exactly. that’s why i draw with my eyes shut. just to keep out all those horrid outside influences, you know?

and when i get jury summons. i make sure i’ve got my mp3 player in with me to drown out all that relevant information so i can make my judgement based on absolutely nothing at all. same thing when i’m voting. i just drop my pen onto the ballot paper and hope it makes a tick in one of the boxes. heck, i’m reblogging this post with commentary and i didn’t even read it. i have no respect for people who put any research into what they’re doing whatsoever. they’re just gross.

Reblogging for amazing comment.

OP, how…. how do you think master painters work? Illustrators? Do you think professionals at Disney or Pixar or Ghibli work without references? That they’re just magically able to accurately draw architecture and animals and natural looking movement without references?

Using a reference doesn’t mean copying an existing piece of art; that’s just copying. It means researching your subject matter and using your research (often visual) to create stronger, more accurate work. It’s not just “okay,” it’s necessary to attain the level of skill the artists you admire exhibit. These artists don’t generally rely heavily on references for every piece, either. They look up what they need, learn from using it, and are able to absorb that knowledge for use in future work.

This may not change how you and those who share your sentiment feel about it, but I urge you to look a little deeper into what using references really means, as it would appear your understanding of the subject is fairly shallow.

Exactly. I’d take it even further and say that “reference” is just one particular incarnation of what artists should always be doing, which is taking reality and making it their own. Art is a digestive process in that way; there’s no such thing as a vacuum in nature or in the creative fields, and the fact that you can trace where something comes from has no bearing on the quality of the work. If it’s a shameless copy of some sort, then the quality will speak for itself, and so on.

May I say I actually think it’s adorable that the op thinks using references is cheating somehow?  Dare I say charming?  I don’t see how anyone could get offended by something so innocent and ignorant at the same time.

I remember when I first got interested in animation I thought using lightboxes was cheating!  I just assumed animators could draw slightly different but nearly identical pictures in the same spot without the aid of any outside device.  I thought I could never hope to be anywhere in the same league as the professionals because of their magical abilities.

When I found out that using lightboxes was not only cool, but EXPECTED?  It was like a veil was lifted from my face whole new world opened up to me.  I could hear music and taste food for the first time in my life!

(Source: artist-confessions)