how do you use reference images i always find that my stuff looks worse if i reference something vs just making stuff up out of my head
That’s likely a good sign that you need to be doing it more!
The brain has a lot of little shortcuts it uses to figure out distance and trajectory and stuff like that. It’s how a lot of optical illusions work- taking advantage of those shortcuts to mislead the viewer’s brain into forming the wrong assumptions.
Drawing from the EYE, though, you bypass the ‘assumptions’ part and just copy what’s in front of you, and that serves the purpose of both strengthening your eye-to-hand communication AND teaching you to use those optical illusions yourself to enhance your work in other ways.
It says “this isn’t a pipe”. And it isn’t a pipe! It’s a DRAWING of a pipe.
The fact that it LOOKS like a pipe is an illusion. And that’s what representative art is: an illusion. Your brain assigning meaning to smears of graphite on paper, matching it to a shape it already knows from life and assigning it that meaning.
Thirdly, you don’t need to use the EXACT image you’re using as a reference and copy it entirely. You can use elements, or pieces- like using a picture of a cat to figure out the texture of a furry monster, or the patterns on a thylacine to add realistic stripes to a fantastical creature.
Most of the time, I personally use it like this: (and this will be frustrating, because I’m about to draw something realistic WITHOUT a reference, but…)
See, I KNOW what a hand looks like. Four fingers, one thumb, á certain number of knuckles and joints, where the thick palm parts go. But this still looks like a drawing. It takes a second to understand which parts are supposed to be which, ‘cause I’m not SEEING, I’m THINKING, and everyone’s brain has gaps.
Now here’s the photo I took to use as a reference:
And using this, I try again, substituting out the pen:
See the difference? Drawing with the mind VS drawing with the eye?
If I did this often enough, I could memorize enough of the image to draw a photorealistic hand from memory whenever I wanted, but I haven’t put that work in yet, and even if I DID, a reference makes it easier.
And if you’re working on something more unique and stylized? Do your sketch with the reference and then refine it from there. Use it for proportions and angles and foreshortening and colour and shadows and lighting and weight.
I cannot stress this enough, but using references and practicing from life are THE MOST VALUABLE TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL AS AN ARTIST. You will NEVER run out of tools and inspiration if you know how to look for what you need. I swear my life on this
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