Drawing from Reference

I always have a lot of characters floating around in my head, and as I've mentioned in earlier blog entries I like to unwind drawing people. My passion for concept art is about telling a story - usually I like to do that through an environment, but characters have very personal stories inside of them and that makes them pretty fun to draw. I suppose I enjoy drawing women because I am one, and I identify with female characters more personally. I have nothing against drawing men!

While my pencil drawings are usually pretty standard poses and come out of my own head, sometimes I like to get references and often there will be an image that really jumps out at me. I was browsing around this afternoon and found a couple of cool images that inspired me, so I used them as the basis for some quick drawings of one of my characters:

Image courtesy of Tigg-stock

Look at that awesome cape!

Image courtesy of ec-stock

This particular character of my inventing leads a dual life as a noble woman and a warrior. They are simple line drawings with minimal rendering, but taking a break from environments and doing something different from time to time has a recharging effect on me.

I've seen lots of people struggle, and I think it's important to remember when working with reference not feel married to your reference. It can be easy to feel trapped by a reference photo, but it's just an aid in making a drawing. Costume, facial features, even the pose can be changed... the photo is just there to serve as a reminder of what the natural form looks like.