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HOW TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE: Reference n Style
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Published: 2014-06-08 22:37:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 147536; Favourites: 6753; Downloads: 0
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Description
To all my fellow artblocked, stumped, and confused artists, here's a kinda long guide on how to work around your stumps! And it's also basically the answer to why some artists are good/awesome and how you can work your way to become as good/awesome/even better than them!Some works used in this aren't mine and are used for reference purposes and are credited as such.
Keep practicing yo! and excuse my writing
EDIT: Holy man, thanks so much EeNii and Elandria !
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My HOW TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE Series:
Color and Harmony
Contrast
Flow and Rhythm in Lines
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Comments: 455
but where is the line drawn at "referencing" and straight out "sampling" xp haha
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THANK YOU!
For a long time I've felt like I'm cheating using references, so glad to know that they are real tools, not a cheat!
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I use a lot of references. I have some folders where I printed them out and stored the pages. I use mostly references forΒ poses of my drawings, sometimes Landscapes for Backgrounds. Its a great help for me. When I used a reference, I mostly tell it in my drawings.
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as I say to ploopie.deviantart.com/ about this "tuto" : Exelent in fact. Simply simple, simply logical, so simply brillant
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I definitely agree that references are great, sadly I do not usually work with them even though I should. My drawing teacher made similar points the other day. She had us draw from memory an eye and then had us take a mirror and draw our eye so we could see the differences between the two. Using a reference will definitely help in the long run. I have never thought of making a folder of references though, I'll start doing that now.
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Advice for people reading this: if you think it's cheating, use references for your personal studies only and don't show the results to anyone. Then use your new skills to create something without a reference.
You can't create anything realistic if you've never used any reference. As long as you don't redraw a work of somebody to get praises (that work will be at most 10% yours, so you steal the praises from the artist), it's totally OK to study everythingβreality, photos, style of others. Just use it as studies, not a material to boost your artistic ego (drawing a horse from reference doesn't mean you can draw it, but draw 50 horses from 50 references, and you should get the skill)
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Oh my gosh. Thank you for making this.
First of all, school was giving me serious stress. DX This gave me a good laugh.
Second of all, I kind of lived thinking "referencing is the same as surrendering your style/self-reliance." But now I see I was wrong. X3 Thank you.
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very wise words, and nicely done, thank you)
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Thank you for reminding artists THIS IS OK!!! You are my hero today 
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Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for this. I have no idea why but I never used references before... But then using tips I soon made this ( klutzyninjakitty.deviantart.coβ¦) and I'm actually proud about it! That almost never happens (or then the pride wears off over time and I realize that the thing I drew wasn't that good). So... Yeah, thanks so much
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This is exactly what I needed! <3
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Congratulations on the DD!
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I love this one! Very humorous and unlike other tutorials, but it still gives out the right point. I am fairly sure I like to use references.
HOW COULD YOU BE LAZY TO USE REFERENCES
I AM LAZY SO I USE A REFERENCE
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This is a great tutorial, I love the rest of the series
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these are literally the tips my illustration teacher keeps giving us x3
Nice tutorial
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shit, you realize this getting a dd is going to encourage people to steal even MORE stuff from real artists and photographers, you basically just said 'dont do work copy shit' and deviant said 'yeah, listen to this guy'
v____v this is a super irresponsible 'tutorial' and does not help any with the complicated and difficult issue of people stealing art wholesale without any regards to the original creators and in fact makes it even more difficult by encouraging it with no explanation of the right and proper way to reference something and a rather blithe knock against actual effort and respecting artists' desire not to be stolen from
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I believe the point of this tutorial is to inform people to STUDY their references, not to directly rip them off by essentially tracing them. I see nothing irresponsible about it, if people misinterpret 'reference' as 'steal' then they obviously aren't playing close enough attention to the comparisons IN the tutorial, showing that, while similar, the image looks only like the reference in COMPOSITION, everything else must be constructed from scratch.
If you want to address the differentiation of 'reference' to 'trace', then go right ahead and make a PSA or disclaimer tutorial to go along with the message here. Don't vilify/malign the artist or the tutorial just because he didn't get super specific about what's referencing and what is stealing. After all, people on DA should KNOW the difference already, the real issue is they just don't CARE or they seem to think people can't tell the difference between a gallery full of re-posts or stolen image references.
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Well said!
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except they basically ripped off an image in one of their examples and took a quote out of context that, without such looks like an indicator that to steal is to be a great artist. they made very sloppy work of it and misinterpretation is pretty much inevitable. you are not looking at the tutorial very closely yourself if you do not see where an issue can arise
by the by though, a couple times a week a kid tells me they did not know they could not copycat something directly off of a search engine. assuming that people know something just because YOU know something and i looked at a few of the source images and i SERIOUSLY doubt the trotroy had permission to use some of these images. personally i am doing checks with the artists since i have seen things like thisΒ before and i do not feel comfortable with this image
the issue here is that this 'tutorial' basically excuses theft through misinformation, omission and neglecting to understand the audience
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I just re-checked the tutorial and the artist attributed credit to all the original artists of the work he displayed, so in a sense he's using an educational disclaimer and is in no way attempting to gain revenue or views this way. That makes you "without permission" statement moot unless any of the artists listed feel threatened by this tutorial and ask him to remove them.(Only then is he obligated to remove them, but most likely not.)
And also, the Picasso quote was not misquoted either, it just wasn't explained as to what the actual context of said quote was. Therefore it is not meant to encourage actual art theft.
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except it does not matter if they make a profit, if it is against the creators rules or wishes they cannot do it, saying WHERE you stole it from makes it no less stolen and unless they got permission(and with the dog photo also paid for it) then they cannot use it even with attribution, legally this person can be sued for theft, copyright infringement, and misconduct, surprise but stealing is illegal in most of the world
it was indeed, not only did pablo piccasso not actually SAY that it is a quote that is misattributed to many artists and poets by persons trying to discredit the art community through dismantling of the honor system. to give it proper context you need to know that steve jobs said it, steve jobs was talking about the shame of theft in computing technologies and that he was basically making the same argument i am making. that is misquoting for sure
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Ok, so picasso may have been misquoted, but if you want to play art thef police, then I'd suggest tackeling not just DDs, but other submissions as well.
Anyway, good day to you.
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i do and i do get stolen works taken down
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I just looked into your gallery and I have to ask: Isn't it a bit hypocritical of you to say that someone who re-sketched the composition of an image using a photograph is a ripoff and is encouraging art theft/irresponsibility when you yourself favorite bases(which are literal re-traces of copyrighted material) and you sell recolors of your own art?
And by and large, these children who claim they didn't know the rules really shouldn't be on DA if they didn't tread the submission policy. That is not my fault, its their parents/guardian's fault for not teaching them basic logic and moral values. Its not this person's job to teach them what SHOULD already be obvious.
While yes, uneducated and young members of this site may misinterpret the messages in this post, others will deliberatly continue to steal with or without being misinformed about submission policies. However, don't you think DA staff would have witheld giving this post a DD if they believed it would create as serious of an issue as you believe may occur?
And to counter one of your other comments with an adapted version of your own words: "Why not hear it directly from the author of the image?"
You know, that way you can stop and thin instead of claiming that this person "basiclly condones art theft".
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you are the stupidest fuck ever, have you actually LOOKED at the base? you will see that all the base i use and make are made without the use of any material that is copyrighted, all sources are either with permission from the creator or made whole-cloth from the basemaker my own works included
recolors are not relevant to the conversation but be assured i have permission to do them and the consent of everyone involved to do them
shouldn't but are, and it is not this person's job to purposly mislead them. you seem to be under the deluded opinion that people are responsible by default, many are many are not and you being willfully ignorant does noone any favors
DA has, on several occasions DD'd images that violate it's own polocies one of which i personally had to notify staff on to get it removed, art theft is something that does occasionally slip through the cracks and must be watched out for by all users not just the staff. remember, features are given by volunteers not paid workers
i am, which is why i am asking the creators about this tutorial
yeah but twits like you will still be idiots and keep trying to talk out of your ass instead of looking at the facts and making educated opinions based on said facts
ignorance is said to be bliss and from the starry-eyed look about you it is true
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So again, to paraphrase you're saying ignroance of the law excuses people of taking responsibility of their own education and correction, but anyone who does not clarify the message behind something is willfully encouraging ifraction upon the law and needs to be corrected. That makes zero sense, and you know it, just gonna leave things as simple as that.
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that is not at all what i said, ignorance of the law is no excuse either, i am saying because some people are not diligent things occasionally slip through the cracks that should not and it is up to EVERYONE to make sure the community is safe and good
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I think it's sort of a joke.
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is it? they gave no indication of it being a joke(i will not count the picasso comment as an indicator since the set-up was straight and he was being a dick when he said it), it's mostly set up as a straight and legitimate tutorial with the recommendation and feature also supporting it
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How did anything else imply that you should steal?
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they said to go to google images without mentioning anything about making sure the images can be used and they have several pictures that are private images not stock(and the one stock i did come across was a copyrighted pay-to-use one with restrictions) with no mention of respecting individual artists
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I think it's fine if the owner gives permission for them to use the private image as a reference, as long as they don't claim them. Maybe they have permission?
I see your point, however. That certainly isn't fair to anyone, and if this is the case then it's a shame this tutorial happened to earn a DD at all.
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if the owner gives permission then there is no issue at all and more power to them i am just worried about not having permission, it is why i went ahead and looked up the original creators, i want to know for sure it is legit and to make sure everyone is ok with this, you know?
yes, and over the years i have seen it happen a few times that things have gotten dd's and were not entirely legitimate, of course we just have to wait and see
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Hmm.. the key is using copy for practice and after enough practice you develope your own style, didn't it?
You can't draw realistic without references.
Also nice ideas are flying everywhere and everyone, everyone are jumping catching this or that idea. Sometimes one idea got caught by many artists, nothing surprising.
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yes, to a -point- i agree unfortunately there is a smart way and a stupid way to do it, instead of encouraging people to seek out those who who would benefit them(ideally stock providers, models, family/friends and institutions that cater to those wanting to learn)Β they openly said to just take things from the internet whole-cloth with no mention of the repercussions of using something that may not be able to be used(such as copyrighted photographs, advertisements, screencaps and private works). i have nothing against references i do however have something against stealing from others
could you reiterate what you mean by that? i am afraid i do not understand
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I think what he was saying was is that references/ideas can inspire people to create similar works, IE a group of people sees a reference of an iguana and a butterfly and thing "OH! I should make a fairy dragon based off the combination of these two creatures!". The result is several dozen people making fairy-dragons. Nobody 'stole' the idea from any one person, they just happened to draw a similar conclusion.Β
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i hope you don't find me rude but i would like to hear it from them dear
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Well considering that you let other people comment to you when you had directed your initial comment towarda the validity and moral value(or lacktherof) at the image, yes:You are being rather rude. Especially since you assume the artist essentially condones art thef and is sending out a bad message while simultaneously not asking them directly about whether or not he has permission to use said art. (Also, he may have used images from a cc licence, therefore he's using them for purely educational purposes and is not breaking any laws.)
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fine, i will be ruder;
fuck off, i did not ask YOU i asked THEM
t is breaking law when you take something that is commercially sold without paying for it regardless of how it is used, also this does not fall under the fair-use act, by the way i am asking the actual creators, this person can lie through their teeth if they want and it will get nowhere, asking those who made the images used if this person got permission is much more reasonable and much less likely to cause a scene
also they used the images for private and commercial purposes, just because a copy of the images is here does not excuse flagrant violation of copyright infringement, if they did not get permission then they have a serious issue
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You...missed the point entirely then. Ah well.
And unless you can proove exactly without a doubt that they DID violate copyright laws and can show me which ones that apply(excluding ones that a cc licence or a fair use policy), then I have no reason to believe that you know anything about fair use disclaimers and that your claim that they have broken the law is legitimate.
I'm done, not gonna bother arguing this point further with you.
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//notices how the person referencing his hand has 6 fingers
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Do you have any suggested reference collections or something similar? My problem is I never find poses that make sense for my drawings.
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Lots of references online like posemaniacs. Using a mirror also helps too when doing poses so you can understand form and perspective
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these two are a good place to start;
senshistock.deviantart.com/
felixdeon.deviantart.com/
they both have very diverse poses and allow people to use their stock for poses, you are very likely to find something that helps(much better than stealing images off of google images)
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