For an installation piece at the Aichi Triennale, Japanese artist Kohei Nawa used foam to give visitors the sensation of walking through the clouds at night:
Here’s a lovely series of swimming figures painted by Colombian illustrator and painter Pedro Covo.
Covo splendidly captures the obscuring nature of water as splashes are
rendered in frenetic splatters of paint, and the sinuous lines of bodies
seem to evaporate into brush strokes. The artist most recently
exhibited at Río Laboratorio, and has also worked as an illustrator for the Walt Disney company. You can see a bit more over on Instagram and at the Colagene Creative Clinic. Thanks Colossal
Draw at least five of these characters into your compbook. Take about three or so minutes with non photo blue. Ink at your leisure. Color at your whim. Give each of them a full page with a frame. But before you start, pause to consider them all. What the hell is going on? How can I get into this nightclub?
Sincerely,
Prof. SETI
I thought this must be a modern parody, butno: this is a classic woodcut appropriately titled ”Octopus Games” by Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, made circa 1840–42.
Why do artists refuse to use references why why why.
It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.
You don’t get stronger or better by pretending. Nobody is impressed by the awkward whatever-it-is you just drew. Use references.
I don’t think a lot of people know that it’s not cheating. I recall seeing so many piece of art called out because they referenced a pose, someone recognized it, and then proceeded to shame them for it. There’s this belief, both by creators and the audience, that artists should just be able to translate the ideas from their head to paper, and if they don’t, it’s plagiarism, or not true originality (spoiler alert: there’s no such thing).
I myself didn’t start using references until very recently, because even I was under the impression that it was frowned upon. And that belief has seriously crippled and stalled my ability to improve as an artist.
As a restarting artist, I can confirm. I just never knew. I thought you were just supposed to know how to draw the body correctly and if you didn’t you had no talent.
(( I am going to say this again, loud and clear for everyone:
USING REFERENCES FOR ART IS NOT ‘CHEATING’!!!
If you can draw/paint without references, great! But if you need to use them, and feel that your art can be bettered by using references, please, use them! This is one of the biggest tips I can give to artists, is USE REFERENCES!
Anyone who would dare to attack someone for using references after ‘recognizing a pose’ is a dipshit, who doesn’t know a thing about art.
Do you know who else used references for their art?
Norman Rockwell
Alphonse Mucha
Gustav Klimt
Toulouse Lautrec
Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Gauguin
Edgar Degas
Gil Elvgren
Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso
Disney Studios
And thousands of others! So, artists! Go forth, and use references!!! ))
What do you think artists do when they ask someone to stand infron of them for 6 hours and then they draw this person. Do they cheat? Or when they place a still life and then paint it, cheating again? LOL
Soooo. I made this post originally on my personal blog (I’m eliciaforever), and it was nothing more than a little rant about a specific incident that I deleted after five minutes. But before I could delete it, it took the hell off on me, and now it has all these notes. And LOTS OF AMAZING INPUT.
And I just wanted to add in response to the above tags in particular, that shaming people for using references is something that happens to so many of us SO OFTEN. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are. People think art is supposed to be magical or whatever, and anything else is a crime. The reality of course is that art is a thousand times more deliberate than a lot of people think it is.
So yeah. Good info to pass along. Use references, kids. <3
Reblogging because I think it’s important especially for young artists to gain the confidence to use references.
Seriously, references are esssential! Use them!
You know what I do when I need something?
Trace.
I use Pose Tool a lot; it lets me manipulate a model doll, I take a picture, I trace. Making the model takes hours when it doesn’t crash and I’ve gotta restart.
If I want a landscape? I’ll usually draw that from memory but sometimes it’s fuckit, go out, take a picture, image manipulate.
Or sometimes I’ll ask people to stand in front of me so I can get the photo and I’ll work from that.
I think it comes from coming from a family that’s all about the photos.
But honestly. I’m a person who colours things in. Am I cheating? The references I use I go forth and create in the first place.
The Hesitant Betrothed by Auguste Toulmouche (1866)
I have always adored this painting. Having the central female figure stare with awareness at her viewer is a very powerful move, and something not often given to women in paintings. It creates an engagement with the viewer, she sees you and she knows you are watching her. She is no longer an object in an image, she is a person.
You know she gon’ kill the man she has to marry
I like how everyone else is totally excited the women are congratulating her, the little girl is so into being a flower girl.
And she’s there in middle going “THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT.”
“the hesitant betrothed” there is NOTHING HESITANT about that expression
Whoa. This is really dramatic and unexpected :)
The “Fuck This Shit” Betrothed
This is the ‘Isn’t It A Tragedy She Was Widowed So Young’ Betrothed, is what it is.
