Evaluating reference material
Please allow me a small aside while we start this portion of the chapter, as I want to "shake the cobwebs out" of some pre-conceived notions of reference and its relationship to art. I feel this is important to preface, as this will hopefully clarify the "why" of using reference before we get into the "how."
Destigmatizing reference in art
Reference in art can sometimes be stigmatized. Some artists feel that using reference is "cheating," that if we want to consider ourselves as artists, we should naturally know the visual and molecular properties of every item on Earth (and beyond), at every angle, under every lighting condition ever made, all the time, forever, purely from our mind's eye. That, if it isn't "from imagination," it's not worthwhile art, or the artist who created something based upon information from a reference (whether in person or a photograph) is "a hack."...
