I think I´ve mentioned before that reference is key, or king, and both is true. References are a great way to get the details right, like light, colour, anatomy, texture and a hundred other things. But sometimes references can be a crutch, something I´ve discovered the hard way. I realized I had been relying on reference pictures too much, which made me doubt my own skill as a painter. Am I good at this, or am I just good at copying references? Well, not copying-copying... I´d never do that. Anywho, less talking, more showing of examples!
Below are three pictures you´ll find in one of my many (MANY) ref. pic folders:
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| Kevin Durand |
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| Tom Hardy - from The Men of Warrior by Tim Palen |
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| Bettie Page |
And here are the three paintings I painted using these pictures as references:
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| Icarium from Steven Erikson´s Malazan Book of the Fallen |
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| Mok, the Seguleh Third, from Steven Erikson´s Malazan Book of the Fallen |
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| Tattersail, from Steven Erikson´s Malazan Book of the Fallen |
As you can see, they don´t deviate much from their respective references. This is a prime example of going too far in your use of references, at least that´s what I think.
I didn´t like where I was headed, and I didn´t like the feeling of being only as good as my references, so I decided to draw stuff completely from my own imagination, and do a painting with as few references as possible. I´m hoping it will be good. In fact, I´m hoping it will be better than my previous stuff.
If you want to see for yourself, stay tuned!
- Tattersail, signing off.
