Alright you lot.
It’s Saturday it’s half-one o' clock and today on The Underpainting, I thought we could
delve a little into I think one of the most divisive debates that I’ve seen in the art
community.
Is it wrong to use references for your work?
For those of you who have been with me a while, you might recognise the style of this video.
I decided to rename the series ‘Drawing All the Time’ which to be honest was never
gonna be a permanent name for it, to something a bit more fitting.
I mulled it over for a long time, had a good back-and-forth with my patrons- thanks guys-
and I finally settled on ‘The Underpainting’; a chatty drawing series where we make art
together, fit art into our daily lives to in order to create as much as possible and
try to tackle those unseen obstacles that you come against along the way.
Just drawing and experimenting and learning, one layer at a time.
At the moment, I’m working on the final drawings in my Mexico travel journal, one
of our last days in Mexico City, when we visited the Centro Historicó to see some of the iconic
sites; the main square, the cathedral and the palace of fine arts.
I’m going to be using my Faber-Castell pen in ‘fine’ for inking because it’s the
finest point I have still working in this collection of pens.
And I’ll be colouring the page with WH Smith’s watercolours that I’ve dried into half pans
in my portable painter palette.
So, grab a cup of tea, or a capri sun, grab your sketchbook or anything else you’re
working on, and let’s talk about references.
So, here’s something you might not know.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the painting ‘After the Bath' by Edgar Degas, it’s
a woman with her back to us, reclining on a chair, stretching to dry her back, or ’Two
Tahitian Women’ by Paul Gaugin, or ‘Paulo on a Donkey’ by Picasso, a painting of little
kid in a cute matching outfit and hat just sitting on a donkey.
I mean, big names, huge names in the history of art.
And Iconic pieces of work in their own right.
Work that was drawn and painted, not from imagination or even live subjects, but from
photos.
Yeah.
All those artists, and countless others, have used photos as reference for their work.
Pretty much since upgrades in the developing process in the late 1800s made taking photos
accessible to the masses, it actually became quite a commonly done thing among artists,
to use photography as a step in their painting process.
And you know what, even before all that, there are theories of artists like Vermeer using
a tool called the camera obscura, which is an invention that would project whatever you’re
looking at, like a far off, sweeping landscape, take in the light and project the image onto
a wall or the paper in front of you,potentially to be traced.
Maybe to capture difficult perspectives or complicated composition.
I read that even Leonardo Da Vinci commented on its potential use for artists.
So, we’ve got artists- famous, world-renowned artists- using image capturing tools, to help
them capture the image they had in mind.
Which is funny when you think about it.
Because I get so many comments from people who feel awful about using references for
their artwork.
They think it means they’re less of an artist, it invalidates their work…
They use photos as a crutch to support what their creative ability lacks.
They feel like cheats and frauds, and they cant see a way out of it.
Because when they stop using references, they’re lost.
They don’t just KNOW how to draw that thing.
That person in that particular position, its not something that they can just conjure up
in their minds.
And if they can, somewhere along the way, getting it from their imagination onto paper,
something gets lost in translation and in the end even the original idea gets jumbled
in their minds.
And I can understand that turmoil.
That torn, guilty feeling.
Because on the flip-side, you’ve got the people that argue that yeah, using references
is cheating.
Because it’s copying, essentially.
And copying isn’t creating.
And that isn’t art.
So… what does that say about the worth of Frida Kalho’s painting ‘My Grandparents,
My Parents and I’? , should we be taking ‘The Bather’ by Cézanne down from the
walls of the MoMA?
By the way, we haven’t even covered this yet.
What even is a reference anyway?
I mean, I google searched it and came up with ‘Reference; the use of a source information
to ascertain something’.
So basically, something you use to figure something else out.
How does that apply in an art sense?
I was thinking, maybe you could say; ‘A picture used to gather information.’
or 'A picture used to confirm ideas.’
I like that.
What a reference is not, is a picture that you copy to create a piece of art.
The point I’m trying to make is, there’s really nothing wrong with using references,
if you’re using them right.
The best thing you can do, if you want to use a photo for reference for your art, is
take the photos yourself.
You want to give yourself as much artistic control as you can, dictate the framing and
the lighting, the position of your subject, the composition.
It’s really difficult to resist the temptation to just google image search, but do yourself
a favour, don’t be lazy, retain as much authenticity and originality in your work
as you can.
Now obviously, taking your own pictures isn’t always gonna be possible.
What if you wanna draw a Pacific viper fish.
You might be able to find models in museums, and if you can I’d totally recommend that,
remember that the closest you can get to the real thing the better, but if not, yeah fair
enough your next step is gonna be to find pictures online.
So study your subject from various photos, not just one.
Look at different angles, different positioning.
Watch a documentary about Pacific viper fish and draw them in motion.
Get a book on the anatomy of deep sea creatures and look at it’s skeleton, it’s structure
and anatomy, see how it all connects and make it make sense in a way that transforms it
from a flat idea to a living, dynamic thing.
Think about how many times you’ve draw a face, you probably even know quite well what
a skull looks like underneath, so to draw someone at a 3/4 angle with their mouth open
and one eye closed…
you kind of start out with an idea of how to do that, you know how the face moves, because
you’ve drawn faces and you’ve studied faces and you know whats going on under the
surface.
Build the same knowledge of your viper.
Put in the work to learn your subject.
It sounds like a lot, I know.
I’m gonna keep saying this, and its more for my sake because this is one of my biggest
weaknesses, but don’t be lazy.
Art is work.
And if you’re not working, you just might be cheating.
Another thing to say about your studies from photos, I would keep those private.
We’ll talk more about copyright in a bit, but remember that you are essentially copying
someone else work, even if it’s a photo.
Even if its on the internet, that doesn’t make it public domain, even if it’s in a
reference book, it’s still the property of the photographer or the books publisher.
Remember that that photographer framed that shot, they positioned their subject, photography
is an art in itself and, THEY the photographer had a vision.
To parade your studies of their vision masquerading it as something that’s your own, yeah it’s
legally wrong but also just morally, as a creator, something you should be wary of.
Okay, so you’ve drawn from your photos, you’ve used your references.
With the knowledge youve gained from that, create your piece of art using as little help
as possible.
Use information youve picked up from multiple images, not just one, and be selective about
the things you include in the piece and the things that you don’t.
Remember you’re trying to create an entirely new piece, not a copy of a photo.
Your work will never be as accurate as a photo or as interesting or engaging unless it brings
something new and unique to the table.
Someone I think might be worth mentioning quickly is Norman Rockwell- I’ll have info
and pictures and links on everything I mention listed below- but he’s quite known for how
he created these paintings based on photos that he had staged himself.
He’d have an idea, or be given a brief by a client, he’d then set up a set, get models
and wardrobe, assemble this whole image of what he wanted, down to the lighting and accessories
and then have a professional photograph it.
Craft it like putting together a painting.
And then paint from the photo.
And even then, even though he’d assembled the whole thing to his liking, he’d make
tweaks in the painting process to convey a certain thing he wanted to convey in the artwork.
Add character with exaggeration, warp the hues, add and take away to dictate his own
message and his own unique perspective through the piece.
When you’ve got referencing right, it can be the most invaluable tool at your disposal.
It opens up a world of opportunity when it comes to the subject matter you show in your
work, you can draw scenes from all around the world without leaving your house, you
also have control over things like pressing pause on the changing light of day to capture
a certain light, zooming in on intricate details or zooming out to perspectives the eye normally
can’t see.
Those are the pros but I think it’s important to talk about the cons as well.
To start, theres always a risk of getting lost in the minute details of a painting,
rather than seeing it as a whole or seeing it for the message you want it to get across.
On the technical side of things, you’re limited to the references that you can find,
and what you can do with them legally.
And I think the biggest setback is the risk of settling, compromising your artistic vision
and putting your creativity on the shelf, making do with the pictures you can find,
barely adding your own flare or uniqueness.
And it is quite easy to get referencing wrong.
The main way of getting it wrong is to not use the method for getting it right, and to
just find one image, somewhere on the internet and draw directly from that.
Not only is it a less valuable painting experience, no vision, no creativity, no innovation, and
no lessons learned, its actually something you can get in a lot of trouble for.
Even if you’re only using an element of a certain picture or heavily stylising it.
Take for example Andy Warhol, and I’m not in anyway invalidating the worth of his work
here, I mean, it’s all subjective.
But he actually got himself into a lot of trouble for his screen printings of famous
faces, getting sued by photographers for unauthorised use of their work.
I read about one case where he offered the photographer, Patricia Caulfield, copies of
the work he’d created using her photo without permission.
She declined, I think I would’ve too, and she took him to court.
Remember, lawsuits cost money, and we’re not all on Andy Warhol level incomes.
Eventually he started asking permission and using his own photos.
I think that probably actually played a part in how he got so into photography.
The same kind of thing happened with that famous Obama poster that went around during
his initial campaign, the three colour one that had bold letters underneath saying hope
or change.
As the poster grew in popularity, the freelance photographer who had taken the initial photo
used for reference surfaced and a legal battle began.
If you’re interested in that kind of thing, it’s an interesting case to read up on.
The long and short of copyright is, it’s just safer to assume that everything is copyrighted,
unless it explicitly says otherwise.
Something being on the internet does not make it free to use, it will almost aways be the
property of the creator.
It doesn’t matter how common the photo is, if it’s of a famous figure or landmark.
Think of it this way, you can take a picture of a red telephone box in London while someone
next to you takes a picture of it too.
You’d end up with almost the exact same picture, and I’m sure there are tons online
of the very same thing but theirs would be their copyright, and if you copied from theirs,
thats infringement.
It’s that serious.
It’s scary stuff when you think about it, I know I’ve misused references before and
misunderstood the law surrounding them.
That’s why the best thing to do is create something unique, either with your own photo
or a mental image supported by photographic details.
Just for some peace of mind, I’ll also leave some links below for some public domain resources
where you can find copyright free images to use without a worry.
Obviously I had to do a bit of research before coming to you with this topic, because its
a tough one, and like I said, it can split opinions.
But I’m grateful for the time I spent looking into this, cos its something that’s so relevant
to me.
Using references is something I’ve almost always done, but only recently started to
see as a problem.
For me.
Because I am fully dependent on them.
When I get an idea for a drawing, the first thing I do, rather than grabbing my pen and
paper, is open up my web browser and start searching for relevant images.
And even in that matter of minutes, the more information I consume from the internet, the
more different pictures I see, different impressions, the more my initial idea and the original
image in my head starts to fade and be replaced with outside influences.
And I know I can draw from references pretty well, even stylise from photos pretty well.
And my fear is drawing badly.
Starting with nothing, doing something I don’t know about and having to get it wrong, because
there’s no way to get it right right away.
Having to WORK on it.
But that’s a fear I want to get away from, and if any of you guys can relate, it’s
something I think we should work on together.
This month, I’ve made it my aim to draw more without reference.
And to do that I have a few basic action steps.
I’m going to come up with new concepts and ideas for interesting finished pieces.
And instead of turning straight to the internet to help me develop my ideas, the first thing
I’ll do is jot down a few thumbnail sketches to get the idea down on paper, in its rawest,
most original form.
And the thumbnail will be messy and scruffy and it won’t really make sense and it might
not really look like the thing I want to draw cos I might not even know how to draw the
thing I want to draw.
But I’ll have my idea down and it will be my idea; unique and uninfluenced other people.
And thumbnail sketches are small and don’t need time or commitment so you don’t have
to feel bad about how they look.
Only once its already down on paper will I start looking for reference material.
And I’ll do it right.
I’ll see if I can create my own, or go out and find it, before I turn to the internet.
The internet is the last option.
I’ll do my research and develop my idea, I’ll do various studies.
And then working from the original thumbnails and the lessons I’ve learned, I’ll create
my piece of work.
And that should be my method from now on.
I’ll let you know in a months time how I get on.
I’d love for you to try something similar.
In the meantime I don’t want you to feel disheartened by your use of photo reference.
It’s okay if you’re doing it legally, in moderation and for personal, educational
purposes.
And just remember, if cheating your way to better art was as simple as referencing from
photos, surely we'd all be painting like Delacroix.
That’s all I’ve got to say for today but I’d love to hear your take on this topic
down in the comments below.
Big thanks to all of you for watching, without you, this show, the time and equipment, would
all be non-existent.
And extra special thanks to my Patron’s whose support makes all the difference.
If you’re interested in supporting me on Patreon, I’ll have that linked below.
There you can see high resolution images of each and every page in my sketchbook as they
happen, plus a weekly real-time video of one of the spreads being put together.
You can also watch the full process of todays sketchbook page where I talk more about the
actual drawing and painting process, stay up to date with everything I’m doing and
working on and get the occasional bonus video thrown in there too.
It’s Patreon.com/semiskimmedmin, we’d love to have you over there.
For now, this underpainting is over.
So, I’ll see you soon for the next one.
Bye.