How to use Reference Images in your artwork
Before we talk about how to use reference images, let’s start by talking about what a reference image is.
A reference image is one or more images that you’re looking at to help guide a work of art that you’re creating. You may have reference images that you took or ones that you found. Today, we’re going to focus on talking about how to work with images that you pulled from the internet or other sources.
The image above is from unsplash, so we aren’t dealing with any copyright issues. If your goal is to practice and better understand how to draw a figure in an interesting pose, you could take time and work to recreate this image, I would call that a study, or technical drawing/painting because you’re focusing on the technique. At this point, the image becomes less of a reference and more of a guide to copy.
Making it your own
You’re likely familiar with the idea of plagiarizing in writing. You can apply many of the same ideas to art. If you take someone else’s work, 100% copy it, and then say it’s yours, claiming that you came up with the ideas, made decisions, and created it, that’s plagiarizing.
Instead, if your goal is to use the image as a reference, start by asking yourself these questions to find inspiration.
- What are the things that I like most about the image? This could be colors, composition, or textures that you like. ( In the image above, I really like the pose of the figure and the draping fabric)
- Is there anything about the image that you don’t like?
- What are at least 3 things that you’re going to change about the image to make it your own?
While answering these three questions doesn’t guarantee that you’ve done enough to make your own, but this is a great place to start.
Idea Generation
A lot of times, we end up copying reference images, because we aren’t able to generate our own ideas, so we look to someone else. Sketchbooks and Idea generation is the perfect course to help you overcome your artistic blocks and develop your own creative ideas.