Sketching from Reference Photos

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO250
“Reference Photo” Cedar Park, 2019

So, Inktober is happening and I have been keeping up with my digital version or the project. I did double-up on Saturday because I was too busy on Friday to draw, but other than that it’s been a successful first week.

One thing I started doing is working with reference photos, in which I basically look at the photo either in a split window on the iPad or on another monitor while I draw it. These sketches are really fun and I am learning a lot about proportion and seeing things as lines and shapes rather than people. I was actually a little worried that I’d have a lot of trouble drawing from reference photos because I got a bit frustrated when I tried that before with faces, and ended up resorting to tracing directly over the images (which looked awful anyways). So these drawings, while super-simple, are really encouraging me to do more.

Please take a look at my reference photo drawings and the time-lapse videos below, or check out my sketching Instagram account if you are interested. And there are more videos at my YouTube channel too!

“October 7, 2019 Sketch”

“October 6, 2019 Sketch”

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