Mary's Knife

I always avoided using references, but couldn't point out what exactly made me avoid it. I have finally realized that due to being unfortunate enough to be surrounded by people boldly claiming "real artists draw everything from imagination without any references" [now i know it's bullshit] in my early years of artistic journey, I developed fear of being too dependent on references and fear of being completely unable to draw anything good without "copying". Any ideas how to overcome that fear?

It's not something I hear at all in professional spaces. We've straight up traced weird angles of our arms before. I use lots of references. You will naturally get better at drawing intuitively with the more references you use since we learn by example. I draw intuitively much more accurately than I did many years ago, but I still use references because my idea of a polished drawing is a moving goalpost.

Jason Rainville is one of the best of the best, paints MTG cards and he often posts his references. You can see how closely they mirror the final image:

If you want to get good at art, you have to look at things and that's all it boils down to. Those who say it's bad to use references are either 1) never getting good at art, or 2) are insecure and are posturing in front of other artists. Hope this helps!

Goofball.

Any tips for panel layout for pacing? I feel like yours really lends itself to the stories u tell.

thank u. its random comic tips which may or may not answer your question time, cookie edition

did that help

sketch of my character Snack Party because I haven’t drawn her in a bit

fart fight attack for @snippit-crickit

Head hunter sketch

El-Hazard: The Magnificent World (1995)

Piedmont's my favorite.

Moby, Desiree, and Piedmont

moooooooore donqui on mspaint from when i was playing hells chicken ^_^