Why do people recommend drawing from life over drawing from photos?

DataDragon

I keep hearing this, usually from the more experienced and credible artists. Can anyone explain the differences to me? Confusingly, I see many contemporary artists rely on photos for studying.


I'm really interested in hearing Polycount's perspective on this matter.

Thanks

DerekLeBrun

The most major issue I find is that Photos don't self-correct perspective distortion like your eyes do when you're looking at something in real life. The more experienced you get with drawing from life, the more you can recognize these issues in photos and use them as reference without copying the bad parts into your drawing.

aesir

As it was explained by one of my life drawing professors - as you're looking at something in real life and your head is bouncing around as you draw causing tiny perspective shifts (not to mention having 2 eyes for depth perception) you get a better feel for the object in space then you would if it had already been flattened by a photo.

A drawing is always an interpretation of source material. Seeing it in person opens up your brain more to an objects existence as a three dimensional object, rather than a flat photo.

DireWolf

In real life you get to see the real forms of things. Forms can be really deceptive when you looks at still photo. Especially if you haven't got a good understanding of human anatomy, you can misinterpret blood vessel into a much larger form for example.

slosh

Amounts of color, value, shadows are always lost in photos to a certain degree. Plus life drawing usually consists of quicker sketches as well as longer ones so you train to see forms quicker and not the details.

DataDragon

Okay, it's nice to see there is somewhat of a consensus on the matter. I think I've always been biased towards whatever is convenient to study over what's actually profitable to study. (I didn't know any better!)

So life drawing is the end all? Nude models? I guess my new question is, how often do you go to figure drawing classes, or what type of life drawing do you do on a regular basis?

I love this community.

kanga

When people start drawing they draw things as though they are flat. Copying from a photo as a beginner makes it harder to see the underlying primary shapes. You can see it in Byzantine art, no perspective or depth suggestion. People who draw well search for underlying forms and can use photos as reference because they translate the scene into imaginary 3d in their head.

soulstice

One important thing drawing from life develops is your ability to gesture out things quickly, whereas if you were to just copy from a photo you can just sit there forever.

Deathstick

Other than what other people said, a lot of decisions have also been made in the photo already which would probably influence you differently than drawing from life and figuring out certain elements on your own; such as the composition, lighting, angle, and pose.

Of course photos are by no means bad however, there are many illustrators who shoot their own reference photos to help them on figuring out a piece of work. That's more towards production however, whereas the general consensus on purely improving drawing is you'll improve a lot more and have a better understanding of form and anatomy by supplementing your current drawing habits with life drawing as well. Basically any time you practice is good practice, but drawing from life comes highly recommended and you'll be able to see things a photograph can hide.

easterislandnick

A photo has already processed the 3d to 2d which is what drawing generally is, it has already done the interesting part of the process. When you draw from a photo you are not exploring the shapes in the same way as drawing from life so the drawing is generally less dynamic.

Some artists like Alex Ross use the frozen in time look of drawing from photos to good effect.

JordanN

It's nice to look at a real life reference but I don't think you have to do that for EVERYTHING.

Why travel half way across the city to study a Fire Hydrant when there are 1000's of fire hydrant pics online? As long as your drawing displays the fundamentals, most wont care or tell if you drew an object from a photo compared to real life.

ZacD

Also with a photo your ultimate end goal would be to have a drawing that looks exactly like the photo. With a drawing of something from real life, you have to figure out the composition, how the colors translate onto the paper, what's the most important thing for you to capture, etc.

Deathstick

JordanN wrote: »

It's nice to look at a real life reference but I don't think you have to do that for EVERYTHING.

Why travel half way across the city to study a Fire Hydrant when there are 1000's of fire hydrant pics online? As long as your drawing displays the fundamentals, most wont care or tell if you drew an object from a photo compared to real life.

While that parts true in that you don't need to see a real life counterpart for everything/reference is fine, I will say that if you apply to a traditional art school you'll find professors can indeed tell a difference in whether or not a student or applicant drew an object from a photo. They usually would rather see students who are drawing from simple still-lifes with form, perspective, and value versus someone drawing a more detailed work from a photograph. This is all from an academic perspective though, not from a production point of view when you're just focused on producing a finished piece in a set period of time and budget versus improving your skills. I believe there's a solid difference between what you're doing when your trying to improve/study versus what your doing in production.

There also is kind of a funny point in that it's always better (in an ideal situation) to shoot your own photos if you are going to be basing it off of one. It's for the same reasoning why people are able to spot if someone used the default settings with dDo, the default grass brush from photoshop, etc. which usually ends up detracting from the work. As an example, there were a few times in illustration class where we were able to tell 2-4 students had ended up using the exact same reference photo from google when we had to illustrate something like a poem about an elephant. It's not necessarily bad, just humorous. And something to keep in mind when you want your work to stand out on it's own and have some fun with the composition versus running into someone who did the exact same thing better.

IMO figuring out the composition and exploring the shapes is probably one of the most fun and creative parts of drawing. And just so I don't dig myself into a hole, there's also a large difference in drawing from a singular photograph in a sense of 1:1 versus using multiple photographs of the same objects as reference.

While it's not necessarily the same as drawing, it's sort of for the same reasoning that companies with a nice budget send people out to the real world to explore and take references as they're creating a game. You're much more likely to gain a better understanding of an object's form, or the details that make it up when taking a chance to explore it in real life.

https://youtu.be/zvm0CN3tQFI?t=13m16s

Wolthera

Adding onto the 'you have to make decisions about lighting and composition', by making those choices, you develop an ability to observe, as well as style and the ability to understand other people's styles on a more fundamental level.

An interesting exercise is to make a photo of a given object, then draw a picture of the object from life, then take the photograph into a painting program, and paint from the image. Then compare the two images after you are done.

You will find that the first picture is far more stylised, and this tells you a lot about yourself. For example, maybe you paid a lot of attention to the plasticity of the material, or perhaps you got the silhouette exactly right, but the shading is kinda... there. Artists make these choices because they have certain things they find important. Fashion illustrators for example are all about silhouette and force, while a typical marketing artist throws dramatic lighting all over the place.

By discovering what you find important, you identify what realism means to you, which is pretty important I think.

Equanim

One of my favorite exercises is to draw a referance from a different angle. Also drawing from life becomes much easier if you get over the shyness of actually doing it. Obviously you don't want to hyper-analyze a total stranger, but isolating something you like e.g. their face or clothing and putting detail into that can be great,, quick practice.

JacqueChoi

Because it's harder.


And when you train by doing something harder, you'll invariably get a lot better at it.

Ruz

life drawing is a pain:) i prefer photos. i was n't actually that bad at life drawing at uni, but I was much better at utiliziing photo reference.

DireWolf

DataDragon wrote: »

how often do you go to figure drawing classes, or what type of life drawing do you do on a regular basis?

My collage (I went to AAU) offered free drawing workshops, like, every day. Some nude, some cloth. And the teachers/professors were presented in all workshops as well to help you if you need.

When I was there I would join these workshops at least 3 times a week. Some weeks with not a whole lot of assignment I went every day. Today I only do quick sketches from random pictures on internet.

sacboi

DataDragon wrote:

Why do people recommend drawing from life over drawing from photos?

Well that depends.

For example if a novice, I wouldn't personally recommend drawing from life initially, simply because without the ability to draw in 2D, it would be counter intuitive too say the very least, a beginner will be able to interpret and/or execute in 3D by drawing the nude human form [ typically ] in its complex entirety.

So that being said, as mentioned by others, I'd suggest gradual progression through image references in combination with still life objects, to not only practice hand-eye coordination but also build confidence. As someone with three decades experience as a traditional 2D painter/portraitist, I can think of nothing more traumatising than a complete noob attempting too depict a nude rendered sketch in a life drawing class setting.