(In part one I’m going to talk about Reference in general.  In part two I’ll get specific on how to use it as a step in the process of creating a painting.)

It seems most artists are ashamed of it.  They keep it hidden away afraid the viewer will pull back the curtain and realize that the Wizard is just a homely little guy with a paintbrush.  Let me start by saying loudly and without restraint.

REFERENCE IS OUR FRIEND!

Let me tell you a little story about my beginnings with reference.  I didn’t begin to draw until I was 18 and was heavily influenced by a really good artist (and personal friend) at my local comic book shop who held the mindset that any type of reference was blatant cheating and a crutch for a lack of drawing skills.  That stuck with me for a long time and sadly delayed my progress as an artist for many, many, many, many, many years.  Yes, it was at least a five many stretch.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  Reference fills in what you don’t know.

Even the great and powerful Wizard had a few tools behind the curtain.

Use reference with abandonment.  I would strongly advise tracing too.

Whoa! Hold up!  Did I just say it was ok to trace.  Well, yes but there is a caveat.  You are allowed to do it if you learn something from doing it.  Trace to understand what you’re drawing and to memorize it.  Do it with a goal of being able to draw it if the reference disappeared.  I recently listened to an interview with Greg Manchess over at Sidebar.com (fantastic site by the way) and Greg said that while working at a design company in his youth he begrudgingly begin using an overhead projector in his work.  He said that he learned more on how to draw from that machine than any teacher he ever had.

You’re also allowed to trace if you already know how to draw and it helps you reach your goal.  I’m working on a 20″ x 30″ inch painting right now and I’ve used a lot of reference.  I have the ability to draw if freehand but it’s going to take much too long to get the drawing to the level that I want.  I’m using a grid transfer method to aid me in getting my drawing done faster and to keep the details that my mind would omit if I tried drawing it out of my head.

But, Bryan, why don’t you just trace it?  Because there are some pretty big pitfalls in doing that even when you do know how to draw.   From inherent distortion problems with photography to the fact that I’m not trying to just reproduce the photograph. I’m using the reference to hit a degree of realism  that my mind is not able to achieve on it’s on.  To supplement what I already know.  It’s a balance.  Reality is filled with so many subtle details that your mind can never remember them all.    And that’s a good thing.  It’s the mistakes or choices we make that go against reality that make our drawings so unique.  It’s what makes up the vision of an artist.

It’s a fine and sometimes confusing line, I know.  It’s very easy and common to see an artist just trace a picture with no skill to base it on.  To let the tracing substitute for his creation.  Reference has to be an aid to your creation not the creation itself.  It should be the means to an end not the end itself.   People and especially artists get so bent out of shape over this subject because they think reference is a substitute for skill.  That if f Joe Blow off the street with no drawing skill what-so-ever traces a picture and people are impressed that it’s like spitting in the face of an artist who has put in long hours of practice and dedication.  What they fell to realize is that no matter how well Joe copies it won’t equal or come close to what the trained artist can do.   It like comparing a memo from your boss on recycling to a great American novel. Here’s a great clip from the movie “Chasing Amy” that illustrates my point.

Reference is a tool.   It’s when it’s your only tool that it’s a problem.   So, go out today and trace a picture, than draw if out of your head.  While you’re at it draw from life too.  That’s better than anything.

Finally finished.  I’m happy with the result but as always the picture in my head was 10 times better.  That’s progress as I can remember a time not so long ago with the pictures in my head were easily 1,000 times better when what my hands produced.

After the inks were dry I broke out my acrylics and threw down some washes of color.  I like a messy, let the color do it’s thing, kind of painting when water is involved.  You can get some great color intensities and effects.  After I laid in my initial washes I started to actually paint opaquely in spots careful not to over paint the inks.  They still had to show through.  In fact, I considered this finished when I approached the point where I could no longer keep going unless I started to paint over the blacks and if I did that this would quickly turn from a commissioned sketch to a full painting.  There wasn’t the time (or the budget) for that.

When I was finish a piece I alwasy let it sit a day or two because after some time away from a painting I alwasy see glaring things that I missed.  In this case it was some cool colors in the shadows.  I had such a warm intense yellow light hitting all that green that I really needed to cool my shadows.  Remember what Richard Schmid says in his wonderful book, “Everything I know about painting“.

If there is one rule about color it’s that “warm light produces cool shadows and cool light produces warm shadows.“

I didn’t want to paint over the blacks so I put strokes of blue and purple in lower light areas and areas of my halftone where the dark meets the light.  I think this really helps the color harmony and add a lot more visual interest to the piece.

The most important part is that the client loved it and has already commission a second piece.

I’ve always wanted to be an art teacher.  Then I looked into the salaries that most teachers make and it wasn’t a pretty picture.  The past few weeks I’ve been working on projects that I can’t post yet and might not be able to for a little while and I thought what can I do to keep my blog rolling that won’t stray to far.  In comes “Getting your learn on”, hopefully a weekly post showcasing a particular art technique, concept, idea  or even a review of an art related material like paint brushes or sticks.  Yes, you can paint with sticks.

Stay tuned.  I’ll post the first one tomorrow.

I stumbled upon a post over at Penciljack.com by Caanan, a wonderfully talented artist.  He was messing around, with some fabulous results, in Adobe Illustrator.  I’ve heard and read some things over the years about being able to ink comics and do some wonderful vector illustration with the program and while I use it daily, I don’t use it to draw with.  I’ve tried but just couldn’t get the program to respond like I wanted.  In his post, Caanan directed me to comic artist Brian Denham’s site, www.illocraft.com, who is an expert on the subject.

After some time reading up on the subject I now have just an little bit of understanding on how to draw and ink in illustrator.  Here’s my 1st effort after about an hour reading the site and playing in Illustrator.

Simple, I know but it’s a start and I can really see how inking this way can be very addictive.  I was also surprised to find our much (potential) control and freedom I had.  While I’m in no danger of throwing out my nibs and microns it’s nice to be able to try and keep up with the always ongoing digital revolution.