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waywardgal — how I stay out of trouble with referencing.
Published: 2014-07-09 04:46:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 12438; Favourites: 533; Downloads: 37
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So I've been seeing a lot of people getting flamed for "tracing" or not changing the reference material enough when they use other works to draw art.I personally believe that if you upload anything online, it is fair game for someone else to be inspired by it and use it to create their own works. At the same time, we should all be respectful enough that if we do use another artist's "artistic" photography or drawing/painting, we should either let them know or reference back to them.
We do not all have amazing imaginations. I NEED references to make even mediocre drawings. Referencing is something we all do. All in all, be nice, guys
*Edit: I didn't specify why I added tracing to this conversation. I'll do so now. A number of people have been blindly accused on other art websites (I actually haven't seen it much on DA) for tracing. However, when I saw the source material, I realized most of these people were mainly just referencing. I even used photoshop to check out the dimensions and it was an obvious "reference." However, people don't seem to understand that referencing is encouraged in the REAL art world. In cartooning, maybe not so much. However, that is only so you will be able to build your own style. To become a good artists, we all need references. I find it a bit harsh to attack people for doing something that we ALL do.
*Edit2: found another referenced drawing.
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Comments: 145
People just don't know how to use references i guess.
That's also why I can't agree with this submission here :/
This tutorial got it better, in my opinion:
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That's a really good tutorial, indeed! Thanks for sharing
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I don't think so. That tutorial is pretty off actually. Studies will always make you better, and many professional artists who don't have time to study, incorporate them right into their pictures.
Take this for example. www.deviantart.com/art/Inspiri…
No one is going to accuse that guy of "copying," I guarantee it.
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I completely agree with this comment. That tutorial is dead-on.
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Completely agree. I really dislike someone who “ trace” some other`s artwork and then take it as their own work.
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Yes, completely unacceptable.
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This is something tgbat really needed to be posted.Thank you so much for speaking up on this topic! I am glad I am not the only one who has noticed bashing for refferencung. I bet the ones who do the bashibgb reference from pictures, themsemselves!
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Exactly. They bash people for referencing and claim they are tracing, but all these people are still favoriting the work of people who "render" aka cut out the original artist's work.
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Exactly! It's just ridiculous. And that goes for designing, too. Once I made a character that was a deer with feathers on the shoulders. And this famous artist accused me of stealing their design simply because they had feathers on the shoulders. The two characters looked absolutely nothing alike and their only similarity was the fact they had shoulder-feathers. They did not even have similar color-palettes. It gets ridiculous sometimes XD
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Wow. That's ... ugh. I'm speechless. I can't see myself ever attacking someone so vehemently for something I can not even prove! If I was in that situation, I would have called that person out on their shit. NOTHING is original anymore. We all use recycled ideas and try to better them. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that crap.
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EXACTLY. Sadly since this person is so famous on DA, they possibly would send so many white knights after me if I called them out, no one would even care.
This person even called me retarded when I commented nicely on one of their pics.
And accused me of stealing a name of one of their characters (I had a blue cat named Neela and she had deer with a human face named Neela, too.) Which is a name meaning blue in India. :I
I swear, some people need to get off their high horses lol
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I kinda wish I knew who it was so I'd make sure not to support them lol
You don't have to tell me though.
Exactly. They put themselves on such a high pedestal. It's ridiculous.
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I might show you, anyways XD
I think that it is the case with many famous artists. You're the only one I've met that wasn't too stuck-up and prideful to respond to comments lol
She even threatened me that if I joined the forum of the game her character is based on, she'd attack me with her friends. :I Like wtf?
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Ah this is soo important and interesting ouo! I totally agree. Nowadays I need it for humans but when I was 8-12 I would use pictures of dogs and draw over them and reference them. Though I'm not amazing I have developed my own style while getting much better. If that makes sense :c
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Yes, it makes perfect sense!
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One of my old art professors always used to tell me that if anybody came at me saying "hey, you copied my picture", just take a picture of yourself in that same pose and say "nah, I used this as a reference" 
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I'd like to know where this reference bashing witch hunt came from. It's ridiculous! My teacher, who happens works at DreamWorks, straight up told my class to use reference photos. He would post his speed paint videos using photos he found on google, and he would superimpose the images into his environment piece.
I don't know what the big deal is...
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tell me about it. I think it comes from people who have never been in a formal art class.
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The reason Poser was written originally was to be an artist's reference. Eventually the program developed to the point it's output could be used as its own works of art.
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Considering how long ago Poser 1.0 came out it's more like progress...lol
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lol I guess... Manga studio has something similar but the interface is choppy and impossible to use.
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I've used Manga Studio to assemble 3d comics and it's absolutely nothing like Poser. Honestly, if I knew of better comic creation software I'd use it.
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Same. I gave up on it. Hopefully something comes along.
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Wow, cool ! The woman who have brown skin is you ?!
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lol no! that's Beyonce!
I'm no where that pretty!
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Omg, sorry i thought it's u !
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lol no, I'm flattered you think I'd be so pretty lol
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I agree with this strongly. Tracing or referencing is one of the natural ways to learn how to draw, and it's natural to do this. Evenually you do more of your own stuff if you can (:
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But actually. When I see people getting flamed for tracing that they admit was tracing... the first thing I ask is, "how old are you?" Because at any age before 12, I traced a lot. I remember I would pause the tv screen of a movie then put my little paper over it to trace sailor moon in her super cute poses.
Eventually you grow and learn how to utilize those things properly, but until then, we need references. I mean, let's be honest, even life drawings are references. They are just references that move while you try to draw them.
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I agree with ya!! I've seen people use references correctly and still get bashed for it and being told it's still stealing wbut you can't own a pose/expression so what the heck.
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right! I love that statement, "you can't own a pose/expression."
Especially the people who put out pose references. Like dude, what did you expect? You put out these things so people will use them. Don't bash them when they do.
It ends up discouraging young artists who end up thinking that everyone just is able to draw from their head and they themselves are just untalented.
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Yes exactly. I felt untalented when I first started and I was told to not reference pictures even though there would be several pics with the same friggin pose and the artists said it was ok. My hubby and I now reference poses from random playboys and pics off DA as long as the artist is ok with it.
It really is discouraging since new artists need help if they want their anatomy right and not looking flat.
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Idk where this new "don't reference" idea came from. All of the greats used references/models. Any art teacher I ever had told me to use references until I'm good enough to just draw emotions, poses and all of that on my own. Even after you become good, you still need things like lighting. I'm sorry, but it's hard to know where light will reflect without a reference. You can only use yourself as a reference for so long until things start looking like "same-face syndrome."
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I have no idea either, it came in a wave when I noticed. I've seen one really good artist (watch too many good artists to remember her name) but she was attacked for having her ref right by the pic she drew and also how she color picked. I think a lot of these people who think referencing is wrong didn't have an actual or proper art teacher. And oh dear lord, lighting... I always need help with that :c same with if I want the nose or something to go with the color palette I'm using... I've seen people get that same face syndrome where their art doesn't interest me anymore. It's why I only use myself as a ref now and then >.<
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Yeah. I still consider my self a self-taught artist since I learned how to draw on my own. However, I am double majoring with visual arts in college so I get to learn a lot of really interesting views on art. Referencing is not something that anyone frowns upon. In fact, some professional artists will just skip referencing all together and just trace the photo XD
So when I see people getting bashed, I just cringe a bit.
You can still use yourself for like hands or feet and even expressions. But it's good to check out a multitude of faces
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Yeah, my highschool wasn't great art wise (Agriculture or sports was what they focused on)... they didn't care if the person didn't teach properly so we went through art teachers a lot since they were lazy and students would report em. I'm self taught as well since yeh, my school lol. I think referencing is good. Even tracing cause it helps you get the feel of the pose you're trying to do.
Same, like if they're blatantly tracing and it's someones stock and they only wanted credit but the person who traced was rude to not even bother doing that, they deserve a good talking to but not bashing. A lot of tracers on here don't understand what to do correctly.
Yeah, I use my hands for ref a lot but it gets awkward lolol I enjoy using others faces as reference, the variety helps me a lot more than just staring at the same face.
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