Reference Thread?

Mine is 14GB

It's not even all my references because I have several huge folders in other locations. But I'm the opposite of you, I mainly draw from imagination and don't use em. I really need to use ref more often

>goal is to be able to draw portraits
Not at all. If you're gonna draw portraits you're gonna have "reference" at all times. It's good that you're building on that skill. Try asking others to pose for you (or draw yourself in front of a mirror), people love being drawn.

>>3070999
you should draw from imagination right after your study to test what you learned from it.

>>3071012
>Mine is 14GB
Holy, could you recommend me a few sites where i could find good references? I am actually struggling a little bit finding HD photos of people, i am using dA photography section for it atm

>Try asking others to pose for you
I can make """decent""" portraits but i feel like i will mess up so hard i will end up losing the few friendships i have, i think i will go with drawing myself until i "git gud" enough to ask other people

>>3071013
I actually do this once in a while but then i chicken out and go back to using reference, the main issue is that i am struggling with reference and using reference material gets rid of that since it's right there, although i guess this helps me to slowly build up my visual memory if thats how it's called

>>3071027
>the main issue is that i am struggling with reference
PERSPECTIVE, i am struggling with perspective, fk

>>3071019
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21APXa9KeUpBIoyWY&id=F9815D5579F67656%2111600&cid=F9815D5579F67656
http://www.artmodeltips.com/poses/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sudoksa/
http://www.proko.com/art-model-poses-for-artists/ (some of these photo packs were shared here. Maybe in the artbook thread. There are also a bunch of reference books like Hyper Angle that might help you, check some of the links over there >>3053283)
http://www.fineart.sk/photo-references
http://www.characterdesigns.com/

>>3071059
Thanks anon, i really appreciate it

Another tip: if you find a good stock gallery on dA you can download it with RipMe and have it stored on your HDD.

It helps when you don't want distractions.

>>3071063
I see, although it is rare for me to find an entire gallery worth saving, thanks for the tip tho

>>3071019
You should invest in a decent camera, for your own references, and have friends and family sit for pics. If your friends stop being your friends because you messed up a painting, you're either worrying way too hard about nothing, or you have shit friends.
Portraiture is a different headspace, you really need to start working with a model in person, and taking reference shots. Most portrait artists these days will do a rough in person, to establish the composition and color and such, and then take reference shots (lighting is incredibly hard to recreate), then go back to the studio and use the sketch/painting and photos to do the final.

Working from imagination can come later, if your focus is portraits. Again, it's a different headspace, and has it's own challenges and focus.
Also, don't hoard. That's a good way to make sure you'll never see it again. My morgue is small - mostly reference shots I took myself with my DSLR. When I'm planning a painting, I go take reference shots, like trees, hills, roads, buildings from far away in specific lighting, like dusk. The rest, when I find something online, I book mark it, and I have an organized bookmark tree with specific catagories, so when I start researching, I can easilly drill down to what I need - and I don't have to worry about losing all of it, because a bookmark file is small and easy to back up. The only time I download anything now is for desktop pictures.

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and im still ass. been collecting since 2013

>>3071409
>172GB

What the fuuggggg

Let us see some work, you clearly must be drawing a lot

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Ignore the create date of the folder, that's just when I got this computer and I've been saving images longer. This is just paintings with no photos/books/videos in this folder.

>>3071428
>http://nhkc.tumblr.com/
sticking with doing shitty loops now

>>3071019
>i feel like i will mess up so hard i will end up losing the few friendships i have, i think i will go with drawing myself until i "git gud" enough to ask other people
people goddamn love being drawn man

>>3071409
That's obsession, not reference.

>>3071436
Nice, i like it

>>3071482
obsession is good right?

>>3071252
Right now i am using my cellphone to take pictures of anything, i have a HTC M9, i dont know if its me taking shitty pictures or the camera not being that good, do you have any recommendations of a "relatively cheap" camera?

And yeah, i dont really like to hoard on reference material, i only save stuff that i really like and i know i will use

>>3071409
Holy shit anon, aren't you afraid of losing all of that? I am OP and i feel that i would go crazy if i lost those 360 mbs that i have

>>3071462
Even if its not perfect or close to perfect? Thats the fear that i have, i am the kind of person who is soft with others but harsh as fk with myself so i am way too selfcritical about it

>>3071589
I believe it's good depending on the subject, i myself used to have an obssesion with videogames, LoL in specific, wasted like 5 years to get into challenger (the highest tier), now that i found art i barely play videogames

>>3071656
80% of the gb is mostly process videos i got from gumroad and patron rewards :/

>>3071666
Oh, i see, i should save process videos too now that you mention it, to get better at stuff like shading

>>3071656
>even if it's not perfect or close to perfect
even if it's not perfect. I've drawn some art that I thought was shit for different people and they all genuinely liked it. They appreciate the work put into it and that you cared about them enough to draw it, not about the artistic skill itself.

>>3071589
Nope. Sorry.

Be honest. How many times have you looked at everything in that folder? Maybe once, when you downloaded it.

If you save anything, it should be stuff that speaks to you directly. If you look at it and go 'meh" - dump it.

All you're doing is rat packing a bunch of stuff you'll never look at again.

>>3071656
$500 for a decent Nikon or Canon DLSR, with kit lenses, best case. They will shoot in RAW, and the large sensors will give you images with plenty of detail. Most of the time, the auto setting is all you need, unless you have challenging lighting. You don't need all the bells and whistles, so an older model is fine. I have a Nikon D3200, and more than what I need - and a solid camera. Something like this is ideal, you get both kit lenses, so you have a bigger range of zoom covered:
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product/CNDRT5185575300/Canon-EOS-Rebel-T5-Digital-SLR-Camera-w-EF-S-18-55mm-IS-II-EF-75-300mm-f4-56-III
If you can't afford that, a quick-shoot camera like a Coolpix, or Powershot is fine - smaller sensor, and you're locked in lens-wise, but they're better than a camera phone. Older models will run $150. Something like this:
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product/NKCPL110KRB/Nikon-COOLPIX-L110-Digital-Camera-Matte-Black-Refurbished

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>>3071409
>>3071429

Tell me your mistakes, so I can avoid them.

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>25 posts in
>not a single reference has been posted

>>3072467
Sorry if the tittle is misleading but the point of this thread was actually about the folder where you save your references, like how many GBs, where to find more, etc

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How do you copy a composition idea without stealing it? Any good examples?

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>>3073542
Look up Jama Jurabaevs older work and how he approaches his compositions, then do as many as he does.

>>3073542
I usually use references images to get proportions right since i am as good as i would like to, after i get the proportions from a reference i add my own idea, basically you take all the interesting stuff away and only """steal""" the base? I am not saying that its okay to trace, i do traditional art so i dont even have the option to trace

inb4 you could print it and trace it

Then where is the fun?

>>3073588
>>3073724
Interesting.