Why I Always Use Reference when I Draw.
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 05. 2024
- Take a look at the difference it can make, absolutely unreal.
MY NEW ARTBOOK: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
✨ Monthly tutorials on my Patreon: / samdoesarts
🤩 my Prints: www.inprnt.com/gallery/samdoe...
⭐️ my instagram: / samdoesarts
💫 Gumroad shop: gumroad.com/samdoesarts
I remember someone said once "Drawing without a reference is like tryimg to cook without a cook book". That alone freed me from any guilt for using references
some ppl cook w/out cookbooks but their food still lit
but congrats!
true, but I also understood this as "everyone learns from a cookbook before they can cook" (it's not always the case but usually you either learn from written recipes or your relatives )
thats honestly such a great example because its only after you learn how all the ingredients work together that you can mess around with them.
@@Sorvenda they probably remember the recipe by memory, same thing with drawing, is a waste of time figuring out something thats already been discovered you just need to follow the steps and create what you want in your own way. Every artist is basically copying from the real world, no one can paint something they haven't seen.
Honestly i dont really feel guilty for using references im just really lazy, too lazy to find any references i can use
Sam's intros are just getting better and better.
fr
FR🫡
god loves u sm u know that even if u don't believe he still does (I'm not forcing you to believe in my religion just sharing something nice to someone)🙂💞💞
Really? I honestly hate his intros😭 love sam tho
Sam's outros are getting better and better
I feel like asking an artist "Why do you use references?" is like asking a chef "Why do you read recipe books?", or a Martial artist "Why do you Spar?"
Or like asking a translator "Why are you using a dictionary?". It's all nonsense no matter how you look at it. References are a must-have in any trade.
It would be like asking a chef why he’s using the recipe off the back of the box or a composer why he only does remixes of twinkle twinkle little star.
It would be like asking a martial artist why he can only perform rehearsed routines but loses in a street fight, or asking a translator why he needs to look up every single word in the dictionary and constantly reference his grammar books.
@@angmatalv’it would be like if a plumber showed up at your house and then spent the next 3 hours watching CZcams videos of how to fix your sink or if you boarded an airplane and the pilot had sticky notes all over the cockpit saying what all the buttons and levers did.
@@reginaldforthright805 Not really. Every artist until a few decades ago used references, including old masters. The whole "UsInG rEfErEnCe BaD" thing is ahistorical and arbitrary gatekeeping. Also, your examples are bad. Every airplane has manuals of the plane's systems in the cockpit, and most cockpits also make extensive use of sticky notes and notepads, and there are many martial artists who can't win in a street fight, in fact most martial arts are useless in actual fighting because of how formalised and rule based they are.
I want everyone to take this time to remember the late Kim Jung Gi. He's really one of a kind that graced this earth. Hearing Sam explain all about references magnifies how Jung Gi was really a master of his craft. On top of great memory was his crazy perspectives.
He’s incredibly overrated, but yes there are many many artists who don’t need reference. Any good 2d animator for instance - milt kahl , Frank Thomas, glen keane, Eric Goldberg.
@@reginaldforthright805 KJG is not overrated. None of the artists you mentioned could draw objects in perfect perspective with correct details, in any position, any angle, a range of cartoony style to more realistic style, more expressive to less expressive, with great lighting, inking effortlessly without reference. The guys you're referring to are great but they specialised. Stop the nonsense.
@@noahfletcher3019 no, look at kjg’s comic art. Not good at all. Can’t draw action, movement, or emotion. These are the most difficult things to master and understand. He can’t give a character performance, so instead he turns himself into a performance act. Basically just 🤮 onto the page with no sense of composition or logic. None of the individual elements are great, but there are a lot of them.
@@reginaldforthright805 What is this rubbish you're talking about? Goodbye bro. I couldn't take you seriously even if I tried.
you have to be shitting me
Literally Sam encourages me to do digital art even when I only have a Android Phone and NO stylus 😂. Like SERIOUSLY his videos do have a great effect on me. Hats off to you man❤❤
I would recommend drawing on paper for now, you need at least a stylus imo. You can kinda do rough ideas for composition with your fingers but I don't think you should be drawing that way seriously (unless you're a masochist lol).
@@atom8248 I draw in my phone 😀....but I don't do full portrait...I do just study's and trying a style. Just draw on what you want to in a phone can be hard at first if you are used with a table but I have been drawing in my phone for years.
@@atom8248 Yaa thats what I do coz whenever I try, it turns out pretty shitty 🤓. Then I disappointedly returns to the pen and paper 🙂
To add a different perspective, you can do digital with just a phone and your finger for a stylus. Its not the tools but what you can do that makes it work. I do digital art successfully with juat a phone and my finger so its not impossible.
@@ember__idk your making it like we're in a competition calm down. Like I said I have drawn in my phone for years so it quite easy for me to do it. I don't take art too seriously and art shouldn't be taken too seriously as it ruins the fun. I like my long process it's calming for me to some people it may be annoying.
References are really important and I’m glad you made this video. Even Van Gogh used references. Sure, it is well known he did for starry night and his bedroom in Arles, but he also used references to paint his Sunflower painting. This is shown when he is a reference of the painting “The Painter of the Sunflowers” by Paul Gauguin.
where do I find references
I’m still growing as an artist and when I started using references it made my work a lot easier, I still struggle with imposter syndrome but I guess that feeling is something I have to deal with as I keep on growing. 😊😊 It’s always a good day when Sam posts 😊😊
The truth is Sam wants to feed his art village, but sometimes runs out of ideas, and therefore uses references so he has enough ideas to feed his village :D
This is one of the most brilliant “why” explanations I’ve ever seen. I’m definitely the type of person that needs to understand the “why” behind doing something, and your examples are so clear. Absolutely loved this video, very impactful 🎉
Yep, 100% agree. I was raised in the 80s and 90s on the idea that using a reference was "not art, just copying" and that if you want it to look " real" just use a camera.
Stopped doing art to raise a family, now I'm getting back into art, and relearning a lot of it. Just did an orange in colored pencils and mixed medium, using a reference and it was the best peice of art i have ever done in my life. Now i am building up a reference library of subject matter i want to get into more.
Thank you so much for confirming what i had to find out the long, hard way, and passing it on to young artists so they dont waste 2 decades not improving and quiting like i did.
Love your content.
❤ 🇧🇿
Hang on, I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around this. Who was it in the 80s and 90s who was saying that using reference was "not art, just copying"?
@@kjgoebel7098 my school teachers, They were big into post modern art, and I swear this really happened, my grade school saw me do a drawing of a lion, saw my photo, and said disappointed " oh, you just copied it" and years later my high school art teacher really said " if you wanted it to look real, you could have just used a camera" that was in the mid 90s.
(That was in Canadian schools, maybe other countries didn't kill children's creativity this way, but mine sure tried)
This idea always confuses me, because the most recognisable and infamous art pieces were all painted using references, not just from real life but other artists as well. Are people really claiming that Da Vinci's work, Monet's, Vermeer's, etc... are all just copying? It's like people don't really know what a work of art actually is and how it was made.
@@zanleekain117 Yikes. Sam has mentioned the "using reference is cheating" concept before, and there are a bunch of comments about it, so now I'm convinced that it has been a widespread idea. And that's just mind-boggling to me, 'cuz my art education before CZcams was a grandmother who was trained the traditional way ("Life drawing is the True Path"). Well, I'm sorry that happened to you (and others), but rest assured that the proscription against using reference is a mere historical blip, a strange perversion of the late 20th century. Absolute madness.
It is such a shame when we get led down the wrong path for so long by the wrong people with creating. I first met an instructer in my teens, around the same time you were raised. He advised and taught me casually for two decades, he pushed his very narrow definition of art, also not to copy to learn, unless it was his work. I learned basic composition and colour well, could paint decent landscapes in oils, but there was always something missing. I always wanted to express a story.
I moved far away from him a few years ago and really realized I wanted to learn how to draw people, to tell a story. I started teaching myself digital art over a year ago, mostly to use a new medium to forge a new path, to teach myself how to draw people.
I loved these little "buts" about references like the example with Myazaki - sometimes you don't use references and it's really individual. Like, yeah, sometimes in order to make it less familiar you don't look at the refernece, but you do it deliberately and you already know that in case you cannot imagine something you better not run from your responsibilities and learn how to do it. To break the rules you learn them in a first place
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😅
THANK YOU FOR TEACHING ALL OF US ART BABIES WE LOVE YOU SAM!
I love drawing from references. My drawings come out so much better when i draw from reference. For a while i felt bad but after awhile i got over it. Simply because when i draw from reference i get to study my subject. Then when i draw from my mind later on it comes out better. References are a great starting point.
okay, sam, thanks to you, I'm finally gonna step up & start using references! I love your artstyle & it's absolutely gorgeous! thank you for inspiring us art babies haha! (also i love your intros & outros xD) :]]
“This is a no reference chicken” Epic quote! 😂😂😂 love this video! Even for the most stylized drawing, a reference can give tiny clues that make the drawing come to life.
I also love your drawings, especially the ones from memory. The Shiba, the turtle and the surfer guy are particularly awesome!
You know it's a good day when Sam posts.
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!
I started art really recently, and seeing this video made me realize a lot of mistakes I was making and I'm really grateful for that. I realize now that I've been rushing my work too much, and I haven't been putting in the time to understand the structures behind things like faces or body parts. I'll use references more now, thank you!
Hi, I’m an art baby
Thank you for helping me on my art journey Sam, you inspire so many of us. You are the person who encouraged me to start digital art even though I have no stylus and am drawing with my finger! 😄I only recently started to use references and already I can see the improvements in my art❤ your videos are so helpful, keep up the good work!
U should make comics with characters like those, It would really be amazing😂
Learning about observation and a using references helped my art so much. Seeing the visual progress over a year makes me so happy.
I'm glad that you came full circle by the end of the video because most of your non reference drawings definitely have more charm as you say. Maybe the key is if you don't know what something looks like then STUDY reference then draw from memory.
sam, do you think you could do a video on GLAZE and Nightshade? they’re both pretty important tools for combatting AI stealing art, and i think that it would be really cool to get your perspective on that.
Probably my newest favorite video of yours; I love how you not only encourage people to make art the way they want to but even explain how a method different from yours might help your audience. You're one genuine dude, Sam.
My problem with reference is I get too fixated on the reference and it gets hard for me to do "my own" version I just end up trying to copy the picture 1 to 1 which isn't my goal.
I am not sure how to go about this I think it's a problem of auto pilot but then again I always catch myself doing it, unlike other artists I see, where they take what they want from the reference to help their vision and accuracy.
Turn that into an exercise. For example: "I'm gonna draw this same object from a different angle", "I'm gonna draw this person but in another pose", "I'm gonna paint this landscape but at sunset instead of midday". That should help you get used to taking what you need from a reference instead of trying to copy.
Get lots of different references for the same subject it will help you not get fixated in one. By my experience this will pass. You are doing this because you're not confident enough and it's normal. Keep insisting, you eventually won't feel like this anymore 😊
Appreciate it , yeah I really always rush to start my sketching session without being thoughtful of the references I do believe it'll get better when I practice more
o7
@@chika8461
This was a great vid, it's so awesome to see a side by side clear comparison proving that even the most skilled artists benefit from references. It really did make a huge difference to the quality of your drawings. Thank you Sam!
All of your content is so great and helpful. Keep doing what you’re doing man
9:18 this is so true. I am a perfectionist, so whenever I see some thing that is slightly off I need to fix it and I won’t like the art piece until the things that I can see are wrong are fixed. but sometimes you’re right, that I don’t have that information in my mental library and that’s when I go to Pinterest! Thank you so much Sam you’re the best.
I used to be like that and now I’ve started to not care as much if something is perfect and try to just have fun making art. ❤
It's so true! There is such an underlying stigma about references!! It's such a hard voice to shush in your head when drawing - but it's good to hear it from one of the best :) Keep up the great work Sam!
I need to embed this in my head. You truly are so right. Every time I open up a canvas, i just mindlessly doodle, but in order to actually come up with ideas and drawings I gotta look at ALOTT OF reference. I want to be inventive with style and I'm definitely not going for realism, I'm going for believability and imaginative. But reference, that's the only way I will build up my library for that imaginative approach im always going for. Thank you so much Sam. The best advice seriously!
Ive been watching your videos a lot and its help me with my art a huge amount, i'm thankful.
This was such an awesome exercise and I love that you took it a step further to draw from reference and compare. Always amazing work!
Oh my! Thank you so much! I needed this video and everything you said. I have been feeling like an imposter whenever I needed to grab the reference. And like you said, mostly this kind of attitude about references comes from old-timers. This gives me motivation to expand my mental library and to grab a notebook to just practice drawing whatever I want to learn to draw better. My art mostly has been stylized this whole time. I love it, but I really want to take it to the next level and this thing about references and feeling like its cheating has held me back a lot, I mean. You have no idea how much it held me back! Thank you so much 100x!
0:01 justice for birb and Sams enemy ❤❤❤❤
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
9:33 that is why I have drawn too many hands on my math book. Wherever I'm bored, i look at my hand and do a pose that I'm not familiar with and just draw it or try to. My hands are improving so much from this.
Glad you did follow that comment's suggestion and created the reference versions! One thing that stood out to me is your 'from imagination' drawings feel like cartoon/ comic-like. Stylized and not quite realistic but has personality- but also stiff. Your 'from reference' drawings were a lot more dynamic, in pose, feeling of movement, angle and in many of them weight. Definitely a great exercise for many to try!
Honestly one of the best videos you’ve made in a long while. Not saying your other ones are bad, far from it. It’s just that this one hit’s different because of how passionate you are with this topic.
I certainly wouldn’t mind more videos like this. But of course release what you want and enjoy.
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 think this video hits at an even deeper meaning. You don't necessarily improve at something by spending more time at it. Sometimes you need external help to improve.
Man I’ve been watching Sam for so long now and my dog literally love the ending when ever I watch you haha love u Sam!
The reference ones have character. Riding the balance is key. Reference for understanding of the subjects stucture, but then bringing back in those elements of character and charm.
Thanks for your professional advice on references! Love your videos! ❤
All famous artists in history used references, the painting process is about depicting the real world, getting the main idea, making composition, and getting rid of unnecessary things, from classical art like Leonardo to modern like Boris Vallejo. It is all based on references. And only little school kids think that references are cheating :)
Thanks for the great video!
Thanks for the video and your experience. Honestly, I would make that into a challenge instead of Inktober. NoRefember or something. One day you draw a sketch from memory, the next day - from a reference, and third day - from your memory enriched by the ref experience. Or maybe all in one day. Quite a challenge, honestly
I LOVE side-by-side comparisons. This is such a great lesson.
this 12 minute video just convinced me to not be afraid to use references, seeing your raw before ref sketches remind me of my drawings, sometimes stale, then ref drawings look more full of life, bro im gonna be using refs more now
"It looks edible"
🤣
Bruh i really love your videos and yourself. You're great
You helped me alot!
Using references is(for myself)a form of methodology to make an accurate point of what it is I am trying to convey,without a reference I'm uninhibited by boundaries,and that's a great thing.
❤ the intro sam
Sam's intros are just getting better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.
Please do more of this!
Sam you're great.i've learned so so much from you
Thanks sam ❤❤❤ cant wait for this months patreon tutorial just got an old tutorial on stylized lips and noses too was def worth it❤
I was literally just using a reference rn to help me understand a pose I was trying to draw, great timing Sam!! XD
Your style is great but I love to see these sketches and raw-like draws such as u gave us in this vid. 👌🏻
I was a very useful video for an artist like me. I really found that using references really is helping me to build that library of information to use for my art. Right now I’m working on some studies and drawing from screen caps from my favourite show to understand difference head posture and anatomy.
I really want to create my own comic series some day so I want to get better and practicing my anatomy and backgrounds. Thanks Sam for your wisdom again. 👍
great video! I know I personally need to use references more, but I have a question. What if you have an idea for a drawing, and you want it to be the best it can be, but you can't find a good reference? For example, your whale. your pre and post reference drawings are in different poses/perspectives. What if you really liked the pose and perspective of the no ref whale, wanted it to be realistic, but there aren't any pictures of whales in that particular pose (or a similar pose)? what if every picture of a whale was from the side and not the front?
Basically, what if what you want to draw doesn't exist in reference?
I have a guess at what the answer might be, but I would live to hear your perspective on it.
SAM, please teach us how to draw like you, just listening to you speak shows how much knowledge you have and you don't complicate things.
Sam's the funniest artist in the world!
Love this video. Thank you very much!
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 love your art, man! I always sketch with no references at all, but when it comes to draw and to render, I always jump in with lots of references. The more the better! That's how it works for me! 🖤
I had no idea that so many people were discouraged from using references? Until recently I never tried to draw “seriously” from memory. Then I realized professionals who draw a huge volume of images clearly aren’t working off a reference for every comic panel, for example. I got jealous of that flexibility and have been obsessed with learning to draw human anatomy from memory. This video showed me I need to find a middle ground where I can use a reference to remind myself of the basic shapes, without needing to find a reference that captures the exact pose I want down to the last detail
I loved this video. Thank you.
This did help me out. Thank you.
i love sam !!
No último vídeo qdo ele pediu pra desenhar no finzinho do video foi esse exercicio que eu fiz, desenhar de memória apenas bichos verdes, primeiro sem referências depois foi olhar as referências e de fato ficou um aprendizado de formas, linhas e ângulos. Thanks Sam
These are very helpful!
I dont mind using references at all, but the most frustrating thing to me is when I have a certain pose or angle I wanna try to draw, and then I spend 2 hours trying to find a reference that fits close enough to what I already have in my head, and it just discourages me from drawing to begin with. That's what I don't understand. If you find a reference before hand and that reference *inspires* you to draw, then absolutely I always use that reference. But when I have something in my head that I already want to represent, finding references can be really really annoying, but I still want to be learning during that drawing. I never know how to approach that. Should I just draw without a reference and do referenced studies as my way of learning or what?
try to do the pose yourself and just find a different reference for the body type/ anatomy?
like the person above me said whenever i cant find a reference for whats in my head, i just take a photo of myself?
the more you do life drawing, the more you info will be in your wellspring of imagination. Life drawing is a form of using reference. That said, maybe you do that on a regular basis already, but the pose you want isn't in your wellspring? You could hire a model. Or even something simple like taking a photo of a friend or family member or even yourself.
Oh yeah! Jacked dude with a Surfboard Def looks more experienced now!❤ I'd love to see you only glance at a reference and then draw it from memory.
Such an excellent video, this has been fundamentally helpful ((hugs)) thank you!
references are so important ❤❤❤
Lessss gooooooo the king posted again
Thank you for being an inspiration, a reference lol. Ya but definitely very helpful for people out there trying to figure out how to make art their own thing and even in things outside of art.
This is really nice to know/hear, because for me, it never have worked with the "proper way of drawing" with the cirkels and the skeleton lines for me.
I headdived directly from paper over image, to drawing the image on the paper with the image on a window, to now i have a reference beside me and i eyeball the lines freehanded to paper.
And i have sometimes when i was younger been nerveus or not confident about my method because all over i saw the skeleton methode and thought is this how its suppose to be done.
But now im just like nah never worked for me so why bother, and im just drawing for fun and enjoyment, always have.
And the fun thing is i can see i am getting better over time with for eksempel determen how big/small the image has to be on the paper compared to the reference. Or im eksparimenting with the colors more now (like shadows in skincolor or darker/lighter colorlines on clothes)
Good overview of why reference is important. Drawing from memory is important, too, because it - hopefully - frees the imagination and, more importantly, allows one to focus on the act of drawing itself, something that many beginners overlook in their rush to become "great illustrators".
As for reference, it's indispensable for all representational art. And all representational artists use it (even if some of them vociferously deny it!). Reference involves drawing from life, either in a studio or en plein air, or using other artistic images, projectors or photographs. The artist's focus should be on the final result, and how that is achieved is nobody's business but the artist's.
Before photographic reference or light tables (for - gasp! - tracing) became available artists had other means at their disposal for ensuring accuracy in their artworks. For instance, the camera obscura, camera lucida, epidiascope, and mechanical grids. With the possible exception of the epidiascope, all these methods were complex and time-consuming and have been superceded by faster, more convenient technology.
Some of the artists associated with these mechanical aids to drawing include (but are probably not limited to) Caravaggio, Raphael, Frans Hals, Vermeer, Velázquez, Canaletto, Ingres, Durer, Holbein, Fox Talbot, Manet, Sickert, Degas, Warhol and Hockney. Is their art invalidated by the use of these reference aids? Of course not!
Just how much positivity can a person express😅. Love every bit of it.❤
Just found your channel, appreciate the content! 👍
I love...your content Sir Sam, Doer of the Arts.
Hey Sam! I just started doing digital art, I have only ever done traditional. I was wondering if you could make a video about the type of brushes you use for both colored and sketched pieces, and which brushes are good for what you want to draw. This would be sooo helpful, because I’ve been really struggling with that 😭
I love your videos! You always make me smile :D
Thanks!! I always felt like being not good because I have to use references, but this makes total sense!!!
I dig, sometimes I can even get information from a reference that is in a different angle or position.
I loved that non-reference chicken, it had some great shapes.
I'm definitely going to try this.
i've watched this video with my lil sis and when there was the new drawing of an animal we both went like : awwwwwwwwww. Thanks again to teach me new things over an over again pls dont stop it! love your art dont stop doing it
I clicked as soon as i saw that notification of a new vid of yours❤❤
I love how your mental library drawings are the same as my reference drawings 😭😭
I got thinking after watching the original video where Sam did the sketches without a reference. So many different people have mental libraries that are just stronger or weaker in different areas of the five senses. Some people have an incredibly vivid memory of things attached to scent, or sound. Or for some, they may struggle with that, but they have a very clear mental image. Not every single person can call to mind the image of something in the same way another person can, regardless of what it is (kind of how some people don't have internal dialogue and some do).
This is something I've learned about myself over the years, and only just recently started piecing together how that affects my memory. I've learned that the main way my brain holds onto information and memory is actually through sound, smells, and touch. Visual memory is easily my weakest link, memory wise. The faces of my loved ones are always foggy in my brain. No amount of studying them will change that. I can only memorize facts that I observe, that I then remember as information, but with no mental image to go along with it. But I can perfectly recall their voices, what their jacket smells like, what their hands feel like.
Realizing this suddenly made it make so much more sense why I've always struggled SO MUCH drawing without a reference. I used to view it as "cheating" or invalidating it as "actual art" because I thought if I was a real artist, it could all come 100% from me. But I'm learning to move past it, not only in general, but also specifically with the knowledge that my mental library may work differently from others.
yay I’m early ! references are just- ✨ YES ✨
Hello Sam👋 you’ve helped me improve my art so much as an art baby 👶🏼
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!
Great job! Love the first chicken though!
The fact that people think references are cheating, baffles me to my core. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT BEING CHEATING BEFORE YOUR LAST VIDEO!!! Some people do not have a minds eye and some can’t see what an image is supposed to look like. I cannot picture faces for the life of me, it always distorts in my mind. Not only that but, when I was a child and I went to a few art classes( out of school) THEY ALWAYS HAD REFERENCES! However, I live in a different country, so that could be why.
The reason why kimjunggi always be our lifetime fav illustrator. And even Gi himself tell us to see reference
i am the complete opposite when it comes to using references, i just always forget to use them and then get surprised when what I've drawn makes no sense anatomically
😂
Ah. Another day, another Sam's video. Nothing beter💅