darkmagistric

Boy...have I neglected my DA account or what...

Now lets see if I can at least get my gallery up to date.

For quite a while I've been working on improving my base drawing skills, with things like perspective, anatomy, poses, hands, etc

However, in learning to draw, I've come across a rather controversial aspect of art. Is using Photo Refrencing a cheat?

I bought countless "How to Draw Books" and just as many "Anatomy" books, but I still find myself using alot of photo refrencing still.

I'm sure everyone is aware of the controversy surrounding the Art of Greg Land. His art sure is great looking, but there are websites devoted to exposing his art. Comparing his art to actual photo's he used. And despite a great refrencing job, he gets alot of flack and negative slang for doing so.

So I started looking into what my favorite artists do.

Mike Choi (Former Witchblade Artist) has a very realalistic pencil style. And he did a variant cover for a witchblade issue with a naked pregnat Sara. Its a great cover, but I later found out that for that cover he had refrenced a magazine cover with a naked pregnat Demi Moore. (I think it was her) As far as refrencing goes, it was a top notch job, quite easily matching Greg Lands art in terms of how acurate the refrence matched the art. But he didn't seem to get any negative feedback about it.

Then there is Francais Manipul (another former Witchblade artist) who has a really cool adult cartoony/manga type style. He recently did a mini-series called "Iron and the Maiden." On a message board, the whole photo refrencing issue was brought up in regards to a cover he did. The cover for issue #3, apparantly has a similar look to the poster for the movie "Ultraviloet." The characters were sort of facing the same way, but honestly the cover did not look like it was refrenced from that movie poster. But some people were bitching that it was. And on that board, Francais Manipul himself replyed with a "Yikes" and denied he refrenced the poster and claimed that the pose is a common one. Everyone agreed, and it was end of discusion.

But "IF" Manipul did indeed use a photo refrence, would it really even matter?

Two of my favorite artists clearly use photo refrencing, one gets flack for it, and the other doesn't,  and now a third artist is almost scared to even be accused of doing so.

So, is there some kind of double standard on when photo refrencing is allowed? or is there really no set answer for this delemia?

I question this because I'm refrencing alot of my work to learn how to draw better, and all my "how to draw books" okay using refrencing. I even have a book dedicated to photo refrencing, and of course that book say's its okay. And online, I seem to find a ton of different camps, some that say it is, it isn't, it is in certain cases, etc..etc....

I want to become a good artist, but I don't want to go about it the wrong way.

Now, I know refrencing other people's art is a definite No-No (unless its fan art or a spoof) since your copying someone else's art.

But photography is considered an art form too.  

So if I google a image or do some sort of online search for a refrence, is using someone else's photo making my art esentially a cheap rippoff of their art despite the difference in medium?

I know its one thing if I take the picture, and for some previous works I did (way too inappropriate for DA) I was unable to find photos to refrence what I wanted, so I got some friends of mine to do the poses for me and I took the pictures.

And I remember a few years ago Joe Jukso did a really awsome Tomb Raider Comic that was painted by him that took years for him to complete. And in the back of the book, he has a how-to explaining how he did the art. And what he did was, he hired Models that looked like the characters as he envisioned them, and had them do all the poses, which he then used as refrences for his work.

Awsome planing, but I sure as hell don't have the money to pay profestional models to pose for me. And while I have some nice friends who have posed for me in the past, they are not always around to do so, and alot of my other friends are horriably camera shy and refuse.

So more often then not, I'm kind of forced to use the Victoria secrets catalogue, google, and movies and tv for my refrencing.

But then with refrencing from those mediums, as Greg Land, Mike Choi use and as Manipul was accused, Where exactlly is the line drawn? Is it only allowed untill you get caught? Is it considering unfair to the photographer? Is it only good in moderation like a cover and not the interior pages? etc..etc....

I have a art friend who spent years studying the human anatonmy for college so he could essentially do the art for medical books. It took him I think 5-7 years, but he reached a point where he knew the human body inside and out so well and in depth that he doens't need to refrence. He can esentially draw the body in any pose he could think of since he knows exactly how the body would look in any pose, direction, etc.

And another of my favorite artists, Stepan Sejic, he mentioned online that he's been drawing for 10 hours every day for the past 10 years and he as well reached a point where he didn't need refrencing as well.

But still, 5-10 years, in the meanwhile, they must have used refrenced as well to get that good. I wish I was talented and skilled enought to go at it without refrencing, and while that is my goal, I'm a long long long way from achiveing that level. So in the meantime I use refrencing. Which gets all sorts of Yay's and Nay's.

ugh, what a vexing subject.

What do you get when you mix Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dead Like Me, and my own unique brand of weirdness?

Why the "Demon Ass Kisser" of course.

After spending 3 years working on a failed webcomic involving a bunch of killer clowns, I decided to a different type of story.

The Clown Comic (which I may post many of the 100+ pages I completed for it) failed for alot of reasons, so with this comic Idea I'm doing alot of things different.

First and Foremost, I am getting my art to a steady art level for consistancy.

My clown comic went through alot of art changes in its unfinished..but still 100 page legnth, with lots of art exparimentation, multiple (and horrific) style changes, etc..

I'm trying to create stories that will be more self contained, or more like individual TV eps. That can stand on their own, but also build up to something bigger if it lasts that long.

And with the clown comic I made the mistake of not really finalizing character designs and scripts before cranking out the pages.

So this Dev Account will have alot of my peliminary work. Full character designs, art expariments, and all my pre-production work for the comic.