Dichotomy
Did I spell that right?
We are artists who love to draw and paint people. At the end of the day, we are all doing the same thing - processing visual information through our eye and translating it through our hand.
The
quality and consistency of that visual information is what is important.
Where it came from is really a matter of personal preference.
BUT, what is also important is our integrity as artists. I don't mean integrity as in ethics, but the whole fabric of your ability to process and translate visual information into beautiful art.
Drawing skills are the foundation of that integrity.
And that, I believe, is where much of the dichotomy is occurring. There are many of us who use photo reference.
The majority trace the image, or project the image, or have the image printed on the canvas itself....and then we render.
But for many of us...if we had to sit down and look at the photo reference and draw it out freehand...
We would be lost...
And so we call it "a concession to speed" and try not to look over our shoulders very often.
It is a case of the emperor having no clothes and we are all pretending that there is nothing wrong.
Wrong.
BUT...there are those who use photo reference, and do it very well. Marvin Mattelson is an example. But you will also note that Marvin can also draw what he sees from life very accurately.
His integrity as an artist is not broken.
He has developed photography into his process and he teaches it and does it well. But I think that Marvin would acknowledge that every artist should know how to draw what they see and draw it well.
Other artists paint almost exclusively from life. Bill Whitaker and Sharon Knettell are examples. Both have painted from photos and may still in the future - and they too have developed drawing and painting from life into their process and they teach it, and they do it very well.
Their integrity as artists is not broken.
Where your visual information comes from is a personal preference.
We make portraits for money and most of us are not wealthy. We have busy lives and schedules and dogs, etc. Many of us need to paint in order to keep painting and not go off to be a barrista at Starbucks.
But it is not a decision of photography OR life.
It is photography AND life.
Take back your integrity.