the second book of the arts

tipper (july 2016)

it was so
so hard

to get herr in a pose for the reference photo lmao

i had to pet her tummtumy

and

when one pets tippers tummy

she will vigorously lick them instead of biting.

so i met this guy named bruce for the second time while up in maine. hes a proffesioanlal artist who makes very realstic hooman faces that people request (they pay fer it ) he also draws animals but not all the time

and he was showing me how he uses bristol board and graphite powder and that stuff

his art is very nice and detailed but he told me that he leaves some details out intentionally from the reference photo because he doesnt want to do them? and he roughly traces the outlines of the faces using a light box? and i lost a little respect for him for those two reasons

i just wanted to say to anyone reading this who wants to draw realistic things very well

that if you want it to look like a photo

you gotta do what the photo says.

if the photo says put whiskers above the eyes,

put whiskers above the eyes

if the photo has weird shading that makes the left eye of a face completely darkened

dont put in the pupil and iris

because then it wont look like the photo.

so yes i do promote referencing because i do not understand how it is bad? it is healthy for an artist to reference because it trains them to identify real shapes and helps them be able to draw without a photo later on if that makes sense because the artist is observing the photo and putting their observations on paper..

my opinion of tracing onto paper is that

(trying to word this right..)

while it can teach your hand muscle memory and drawing realistic shapes, its not really real? its like using instant cake mix instead of mixing the flour and eggs together yourself

oh my gracious this was looong

i do hope no one was offended because i do not wish that upon anyone it is jsut a potato wedge's opinion nothing serious