Why do people recommend drawing from life over drawing from photos?
I keep hearing this, usually from the more experienced and credible artists. Can anyone explain the differences to me? Confusingly, I see many contemporary artists rely on photos for studying.
I'm really interested in hearing Polycount's perspective on this matter.
Thanks
I'm really interested in hearing Polycount's perspective on this matter.
Thanks
Replies
A drawing is always an interpretation of source material. Seeing it in person opens up your brain more to an objects existence as a three dimensional object, rather than a flat photo.
So life drawing is the end all? Nude models? I guess my new question is, how often do you go to figure drawing classes, or what type of life drawing do you do on a regular basis?
I love this community.
Of course photos are by no means bad however, there are many illustrators who shoot their own reference photos to help them on figuring out a piece of work. That's more towards production however, whereas the general consensus on purely improving drawing is you'll improve a lot more and have a better understanding of form and anatomy by supplementing your current drawing habits with life drawing as well. Basically any time you practice is good practice, but drawing from life comes highly recommended and you'll be able to see things a photograph can hide.
Some artists like Alex Ross use the frozen in time look of drawing from photos to good effect.
Why travel half way across the city to study a Fire Hydrant when there are 1000's of fire hydrant pics online? As long as your drawing displays the fundamentals, most wont care or tell if you drew an object from a photo compared to real life.
There also is kind of a funny point in that it's always better (in an ideal situation) to shoot your own photos if you are going to be basing it off of one. It's for the same reasoning why people are able to spot if someone used the default settings with dDo, the default grass brush from photoshop, etc. which usually ends up detracting from the work. As an example, there were a few times in illustration class where we were able to tell 2-4 students had ended up using the exact same reference photo from google when we had to illustrate something like a poem about an elephant. It's not necessarily bad, just humorous. And something to keep in mind when you want your work to stand out on it's own and have some fun with the composition versus running into someone who did the exact same thing better.
IMO figuring out the composition and exploring the shapes is probably one of the most fun and creative parts of drawing. And just so I don't dig myself into a hole, there's also a large difference in drawing from a singular photograph in a sense of 1:1 versus using multiple photographs of the same objects as reference.
While it's not necessarily the same as drawing, it's sort of for the same reasoning that companies with a nice budget send people out to the real world to explore and take references as they're creating a game. You're much more likely to gain a better understanding of an object's form, or the details that make it up when taking a chance to explore it in real life.
https://youtu.be/zvm0CN3tQFI?t=13m16s
An interesting exercise is to make a photo of a given object, then draw a picture of the object from life, then take the photograph into a painting program, and paint from the image. Then compare the two images after you are done.
You will find that the first picture is far more stylised, and this tells you a lot about yourself. For example, maybe you paid a lot of attention to the plasticity of the material, or perhaps you got the silhouette exactly right, but the shading is kinda... there. Artists make these choices because they have certain things they find important. Fashion illustrators for example are all about silhouette and force, while a typical marketing artist throws dramatic lighting all over the place.
By discovering what you find important, you identify what realism means to you, which is pretty important I think.
And when you train by doing something harder, you'll invariably get a lot better at it.
My collage (I went to AAU) offered free drawing workshops, like, every day. Some nude, some cloth. And the teachers/professors were presented in all workshops as well to help you if you need.
When I was there I would join these workshops at least 3 times a week. Some weeks with not a whole lot of assignment I went every day. Today I only do quick sketches from random pictures on internet.
For example if a novice, I wouldn't personally recommend drawing from life initially, simply because without the ability to draw in 2D, it would be counter intuitive too say the very least, a beginner will be able to interpret and/or execute in 3D by drawing the nude human form [ typically ] in its complex entirety.
So that being said, as mentioned by others, I'd suggest gradual progression through image references in combination with still life objects, to not only practice hand-eye coordination but also build confidence. As someone with three decades experience as a traditional 2D painter/portraitist, I can think of nothing more traumatising than a complete noob attempting too depict a nude rendered sketch in a life drawing class setting.