I'm really bad at using references :)

[smokesalty]

When I say bad, I mean I do not use them 90% of the time even when I should. I will bs my poses and only when I cannot make it work will I use a reference. Is this a good strategy? Absolutely not. I should be working from reference!

For me setting up 3D models, searching for a reference or taking one myself are super tedious so I don't tend to do it unless it's an important scene that needs good anatomy or has difficult poses. But for scenes that are less important I'm honestly not too worried about super accurate anatomy.

I used to constantly reference for digital paintings (since I work on one image for hours, it's not a pain to set up a couple references) but like when I'm making comics i'm usually making 10-20 panels a week and I am just lazy.

Oh well.

[Fafnir]

if you can draw a panel with no ref, then its all about drawing fast anyway. Save the ref for when you need it. Which you seem to be doing, so... i agree with your obvious statement i guess lol.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I dont think you really have to constantly use references, im not sure where that comes from

And i mean, we use references to learn, for studies, to understand more so that we dont always have to use it, at least thats how i see it.

I dont use it for 90% of my comic either, only if some difficult poses pops up etc

[Lensing]

Maybe you are simply happy with the reference which is stored in your brain.

Drawing without reference is not possible by the way. We always draw from the memory of a reference,
combine it, try to invent something "new" with the memory of how things look like.
It makes sense to learn how to draw standard poses without having to look up how they look like
because it´s time consuming

[MarMarTche]

You don't have to use them at all really if you're happy with how the stuff in your brain looks on paper.
If you wanted to use more you could also find faster programs. I have this one app on my ipad I whip out to double check anything too dynamic. Magicposer - it's like a janky fremium but it's good for quick set up / checks.

[Zhengo]

I think references help a lot when you're starting out in art. Once you get better at art and have gotten a generally good grasp of understanding of stuff like perspective/proportions/anatomy etc. from studies from references, doing poses and drawing humans end up being more like solving a math problem. You won't need references all the time, because you can work out logically how the body will look.

However, just like a math problem, you sometimes might need some help solving the problem if you haven't had a lot of experience doing that type of problem, i.e. no experience drawing a specific thing , so refs can go a long way for that.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

When I say bad, I mean I do not use them 90% of the time even when I should.

Ugh, I'm the same way...I want to use references more; I'm even collecting reference images on my computer now (hoping that I will be more tempted to use them if they're easily accessible). I recognize that I can't keep improving without examples to learn from and strive for...

...But I just don't. ^^; I dunno, I look at them and I feel inspired for all of 30 seconds before I start thinking, 'oh, but that's too hard; I don't wanna' and give up.

Or, I'll be desperate and search for a reference because I have NO idea what to do, and then I'll look at it for 30 seconds, go 'OK, we're done here', and draw something kinda-sorta based on what I kinda-sorta saw.
Which isn't a bad thing; at least it gave me an idea, but also...I feel like it wouldn't kill me to actually study someone's work and draw what they drew. ^^; Y'know, leave my comfort zone a bit more...

Generally, I don't see this as a big deal-- most of my art looks good regardless, and there are many skills I improve naturally over time, even without study.
But every once in a while, I run into a recurring problem: a certain panel setup, or a certain article of clothing that I struggle with (e.g. SHOES) and I go 'hm...maybe if I had actually studied this, I would know how to do it by now' and it's a little frustrating. :T Like, I don't lack talent or ability, it's just the discipline to sit down and learn instead of always doing my own thing...

[darthmongoose]

When I know I need some tricky perspective in a shot, or I'll need to draw the same room a bunch of times from multiple angles, I'll do stuff like 3D models and photos and the like, but if I just need to draw like... a tree or something or a shot where it's one person and a basic table, I'm just like "nah I'm good". I am a lot better at natural environments or older, wonkier buildings than stuff with very clean lines and hard edges though.

I also almost never use reference on expressions or poses. Very occasionally if it's a tricky hand position, or the pose needs to be some kind of specific technical form (like say I needed it to look like somebody was doing a specific Judo throw), but mostly I just like to feel it out.

One of the main things I've used reference for on characters was when I worked on a Doctor Who book called "Women Who Lived" and had to draw all these characters from Doctor Who, some of them from episodes long before I was born and one even from a lost episode where only odd photos survive. Everything had to go through the BBC branding team so it was really important to get the characters accurate to both the actors playing them and the costumes. I remember one tricky thing was trying to find out the hair and eye colours on actresses who only appeared in black and white episodes; I had to look up later photos of the actresses from after colour photography became a thing to check I ended up with massive folders of reference on that project full of images of the characters, props, outfits etc. I almost never draw from just one photo of a person; instead I grab a bunch to get a sense for the overall shape of a person's face and try to imagine a cartoon version of that, simplifying and exaggerating the key features.

[Shanny8]

I dont think references aren't for you to use all the time- only when you need to. For those that do use them a lot, there's nothing wrong with it...for those that dont- nothing wrong with that either.

[RocketAxxonu]

Always the eternal struggle with references lol. Sometimes I'd really like to have a good reference for something I don't know how to do, particularly settings that need to have a specific design, but I can't find what I'm looking for or from the angle I need. (It's like, often the reference just isn't right for what I want, but in the rare case I'm drawing something exactly from a reference trying to duplicate it, I lose motivation because the original probably looks better than what I've drawn anyway.)

Yeah, I hate references, lol. Like, they're important for building your visual vocabulary, but most of the time it just feels like too much work and/or they aren't usable for the specific context I'm trying to use them. And that doesn't even begin to cover the issue of getting a little too detailed with following a reference and it not matching the rest of the style of the art.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I look at them and I feel inspired for all of 30 seconds before I start thinking, 'oh, but that's too hard; I don't wanna' and give up.

Hahah I'm the complete opposite; I think 'I don't wanna go hunting for references, that's such a pain' but if I actually get past that and get some references, sitting down and working with them is the easy part Basically this:

searching for a reference or taking one myself are super tedious

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More generally though, I get why you'd want to use more references if your main goal is to make a good-looking comic with no weird mistakes, but if your goal was to learn, I'd in fact argue it's better to not use a reference is you have some idea how to draw something and only use references when you have no idea. It builds your intuition for how the thing you're drawing works, and you don't want to rely on references as a crutch and feel the need to pull one up at the slightest hint of uncertainty XD

I'd say try drawing the thing from your head first, and then if it still looks unacceptably wonky/weird, pull up some references to see where you went wrong :]

[system]

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