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DarkmaneTheWerewolf β Using Reference (On Youtube)
#drawing #guide #reference #tutorial
Published: 2014-10-23 01:32:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 4723; Favourites: 107; Downloads: 0
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A video on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UYyQEβ¦This may sound like the most obvious thing, but people often don't realise how important this is. Especially with young animators/ artists, I see a lot of people believe they don't need to and take pride in the fact that no reference is used in their art.
This is wrong.
I've been drawing all my life and I've been a freelance animator for 6 years. I'm not the best at what I do, I'm quite happy to admit that I often make mistakes and there are times where Referencing has not only been helpful, but necessary. Mistakes are how we learn after all, and the sooner we stop trying to weasel out of it, the sooner we can fix it.
Consider this if you are serious about a career in something Art related. You will be competing with millions of like-minded people who do use reference and use it all the time. These people will always produce immaculate work while you're boasting that you used no reference. Who do you think an employer is going to choose? Obviously the one who is getting the immaculate results there and then. No heap of excuses about only doing it from memory will pass, the proof is in your work, not your pride.
In this example and the video linked above, I've shown that even on a subject I am unhealthily obsessed with... one that I incessently bombard my friends with and one that I've devoted more time to than I should ever be proud of... I do not know what I think I know - Thousands of combined hours in total over 8 games and early access to the Japanese versions of 4 and 4G and I still can't draw a Reus properly (Or a Goa as per the example in the video - make sure to watch as I draw it from scratch).
So I want to change this mindset and have prepared an exercise for people to try.
-After watching the video, get a larger blank version of this from my Sta.sh here: Using Reference
-Pick a subject you are familiar with and draw it from memory.
-Now look up some reference(s) for your subject and make it better!
-Proudly show off your results and show that you are awesome at drawing.
-[Optional] Link back to this so people can try for themselves and/or link me to your work in the comments section so I can see how good you are too
Note that referencing does not involve taking a piece of work to trace over and pretending its your own. As I show in the video, it is taking the elements of the real thing to improve upon your own piece of work. Referencing off another person's artwork means you also reference their style traits and any mistakes too, so its best to look at the real thing or the closest you can get.
More tutorials and guides on animation: darkmanethewerewolf.deviantartβ¦
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Comments: 18
I totally agree. Using reference helps lots. I like to look at pics, draw them, get good at it, then draw it without the picture.
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I hate to see(e.g. on livestreams) artists drawing for other people, especially commissions!, without checking the character ref regularly...
many just take a look, switch it off and draw without getting back to the ref :/ And simple characters become unrecognisable, complicated ones are very much messed up and miss a lot of elements or have them drawn wrong... That's extremally unproffessional! If a person commissions you for a drawing of their character, they want to get their character, not just some random character resembling their character more or less... I see a lot of examples of this aroud.
Artists, work with the ref!
I suck at drawing and all I can do is to color, but even I can apply all the markings and other details - because I do try and I compare with the ref a lot and triple check on everything. If I miss sth it's mostly getting lost.
E.g. even I could transfer all(or at least most of) stripes of this charater: fav.me/d5jrxe7 to this coloring I made: fav.me/d7n3jtn They are not exact, but at least all are there and their positions between others are kept and more or less the shape type. This is probably the only way to make this tiger not just an average/generic/random white tiger...
And you can find much simpler(in terms of details and making the character recognisable among others) characters drawn like e.g. my character has a little marking that is placed in 3 areas: behind the eye, on the arm and on the thigh, and loosing theese is loosing my character, and they will be if the artist didin't compare to the ref at all.
Or if eg. a realistic artist changes unrealistic fur colors into those that exist on the animal irl, e.g. a blue wolf becomes grey, trurly red(like scarlett or ruby) fox becomes orange, a cat without whiskers receives them, a dragon with wings that don't follow the given artist's beliefs on dragon wings gets the wings changed (even if the ref states clearly these wings were to be like that on purpose! and was already intended to be for realistic styles) etc.
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And I'm not talking about differences that are purely about individual style or level of realism, but things like shapes of horns, colors, markings, body type (fat-muscular-stocky-neutral-slim-skinny), decorations are definitely not a matter of style - they define the character!
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Very well said. An artist's commissioned work is called out for missing or wrong markings? I wouldn't call it nit-picky because someone paid for it to be correct! It is very unprofessional to be commissioned to draw a specific character and then end up drawing something else. When it comes to referencing, I feel like so many people fall into a habit of just not doing it at all and just in general, may reference a new thing once or twice until they think they can draw it.
In truth, real artists in a professional field will reference constantly for every piece and this is why they produce the insanely top quality pieces they produce - Concept artists for various games, Environment and Background artists for Games and animations and animators themselves get where they are because they reference all the time.
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Yes! I wish more popular artists would spread this sort of idea working with references for pose, anatomy, even to try out styles are some of the best ways to learn, but so many artists refuse to do it because they somehow think it is an inferior way to draw. Even the pros, esp in concept artists and animators (most common stuff people seem to want to be going for on DA), pull up references all the time.
For Lion King Disney got in real lions for the production team to study and draw from to learn, same for Bambi, and this is so often overlooked!
I will save this to draw later when I finish up my request list so I can spread it around
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Exactly! That is the exact sort of mindset I want to change! Referencing is completely normal and is the preferred way to draw and learn. Much too many people overlook this and for some reason, there are people who boast that they don't need to use reference as if thats something to be proud of. If these people went for a job believing their "Natural Talant" to carry them through, they're going to have a tough time when their competition has artwork full of life and inspiration from real life sources.
I think a part of the problem is that people don't see the problems - they don't see what their art could be and don't think to push themselve a bit. It's a difficult thing to show people something they don't believe exists.
By all means, if you can share this around as much as you can, please do! Hopefully a popular person can pick up on this too so it can spread and promote some critical thinking.
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I'll have to leave this in a tab so I can check it out after I get some sleep. I will say on the subject of using reference, though, that it's not as simple as it should be. Whether it's cosplay or drawing etc. finding good reference can be difficult in more ways than just digging up good images. Often times there will be fairly large discrepancies between production artwork and in-game models, plus certain designs change from one generation to the next, such as Rathalos and Rathian. The change-over from Portable 2nd G to Tri came with a graphical overhaul that did more than give the same design back in higher resolution and detail. They actually changed the monsters' design by a rather exceptional margin. They even have different at-rest postures. That said, trying to draw one from memory may pull up contradictory remembrances of those details, and even WITH the reference materials, you may find frustration in deciding what version to use, or how to mitigate the differences between the available resources.
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"Good Reference" is subjective. Just like in the real world, animals of the same genus can be very different - If you try to draw a Dog, would you consider a Bulldog or Chihuaua "Bad Reference" for being different to how you want to draw it? Or with similar dog breeds, would you consider both a Malamute and a German Shepherd "Good Reference" because they're similar?
My thoughts are that all those dogs are "Good reference" because even if i'm not trying to draw a dog with a smooshed bulldog face, I can still see where the "Dog" in him is and learn from that for another time or use that as a basis for how I can form my own "Dog" breed if that was what i'm doing.
We're only human, we can't be 100% accurate and there is no definitive or exact way anything should be, especially with so subjective a thing as Art
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Thank you for this darkmane, it's a useful tip.
I might try this sometime.
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No problem
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Okay I've been done with this for like 2 weeks but I don't have Photoshop on my Windows so I just haven't put it on the the thing yet ;;;
It'll happen I promise HAHA
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No worries XD I'm hoping to do a better example than the one I have here too to show what referencing can add to a picture.
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kerlasia.deviantart.com/art/Usβ¦
This took way longer than it should have
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I'll remember to do so!
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Lol XD Well good for you 
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