~southpawdragon

Alex Ross does his beautiful artwork based on models. Plenty of pro comic artists use reference for stuff sometimes, I'm sure. I know I do, even if I don't count as either a pro or artist.

--
100 Themes Commission project! Click me for details!

That's exactly how I felt about the situation. It's ok to use references often, because if you didn't do that, then you'd have to rely on your memory and be very observant and not all of us are professionals at that. But it's always best if you don't rely on them or use them very sparingly sooner or later, but you don't have to go into that stage un-prepared, just use them as long as you need, until you have a good understanding of what everything should look like, but always practice to make drawings with none.
How you draw is your style, even if you used a reference, the drawing itself won't appear as the original and have it's own sort of "spice" added to it, and that is your style.
Once your understanding of how to draw everything is well developed, you won't need references and won't have to, and from then on your style will truly develope because you characters will look correct and your style will truly show.
It's something I noticed, I just started drawing, and I knew how everything was supposed as far as the face/body goes, and my creativity came out.
That's just my opinion of course, there are others who will disagree, but this is something I have put much thought into myself.

References or no references, I still find a way to make it work and I only consider myself still learning. Peace.

--
Remember, remember the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should Ever be Forgot

I argue. I draw a lot without references, yes... but very often, I use a reference for a pose. No one can ever completely understand the human body--even if you're really good at it, there'll still be awkward pieces in your pictures. I like using myself as reference... I want a large mirror...

In my opinion, reference photos are very easy to alter enough to make into your own style. I have a book for comic action poses and stuff. I hardly copy them. You'd never know I use those pictures for reference. They're just there to get the foundation right, and once you've got that, then you can go nuts and do your own.

The best artists use references. The best artists keep FILES LOADED with pictures for reference. At least, that's what most tutorial books tell me. And for me, even though I can draw comfortably without, other people's art is so inspiring I couldn't not use it to oogle over.

I see no problem with using references and still drawing your own style. People should really be only using them to get the foundation. From there it's easy to move around pieces and change expression and warp and distort.

This is just my opinion, of course. But I taught myself to draw without references and regret it greatly, as I spent a year trying to fix the flaws I was naturally drawing... heads too short, eyes misshapen, noses too large, mouths far too small and warped... had I been using some references then, I would've gotten that right almost immediately.

But... Have fun with your art! That's all that matters, in the end!

--
I know you stay true when my world is false
Everything around's breaking down to chaos
Stalking Skywalker at *bishie-stalker-club
The Category Challenge

Drawing using a reference or indeed several is all fine when you are going for the realistic look but very often in comics/manga something unrealistic comes into play ... be it a still shot of a jumping scissor kick, or of a serious injury ... anything along those lines using reference becomes a little harder to use and to come by ...

I have this trick that I use in these kind of situations.

If you can visualise clearly, not nesseserily in detail, the pose and/or work you would like to create and keep that in your mind whilst you are drawing then it flows easily, as you can copy it from your mind...

There's nothing wrong with using a referance, some people create marvelous works out of reference entirly, such as this artist who lives around the corner from me, he uses photographs, small photographs and pieces of them, to create a bigger picture! And he makes his living from that ...

Another thing that helps when you are drawing is to find a position and environment in which you can concentrate and get into the drawing mood, so things just flow naturally.

I know I can't draw a fingernail unless I'm kneeling, crouched over on the floor, if I'm doing a manga/comic orientated pic then I'll have some Rock music on in the background ... if not then I'll have complete silence/annoying background noise ...

I know my art teacher used to hate me for it as I took up quite a lot of her floor space, lol. I even did my art GCSE on the floor ...

Either way, it's up to you. I only use reference for my portraits and I do very few of them as they can take up to 6 hours in a single sitting because I won't wanna stop.

For everything else I just use the visualisation technique, it basically tells yourself that you can acheive these kinds of results because you can see them in your mind and yourself doing them so the task becomes less daunting and drawing becomes easier than public speaking for a hermit ...

I hope this helped, but you do have to find your own style and what you are comfortable with, but one day you're going to find that you don't have reference to hand for a spectacular idea so it's best to develop your style without reference ...

--
My sister is so stupid; she thinks Homo Erectus is a gay guy with a hard on!

Who say's Hobbits don't exist?! I'm living proof to the contrary!

*Points at you* COUGHSAKUJOCOUGHCOUGH Sorry, had a Kira in my throat!