teal dome
I genuinely don’t know where to start when it comes to referencing and studying from photos. I feel overwhelmed when trying to draw an image. Sometimes I’ll trace it and it still looks bad. I don’t know what to do or where to start I wish I could send images for reference but I don’t have any because I delete all of them due to embarrassment 😭🙏
I’ll add some my art just to show in general because I swear I can draw I just have this problem
late pier
I think usually drawing with references will make your attempt look bad in comparison, but that's kind of the point. It's like doing a math test and comapring it with the answers and realising you have more mistakes than the answer sheet. Like yeah that's what the answer sheet is for
also if you're feeling overwhelmed, it might because you're focusing on too many aspects at the same time. When you're doing a study, it's usually better to focus on 1 fundmental. For example, doing a colour study doesn't require you to perfectly match the proportions of the reference since that's not what you're trying to study
another reason why it can be overwhelming to draw from reference is because you're looking at someone else's finished work, or even a real life photo and that gives you no information about where to start. This is where you need to start following a general process you're comfortable with. Like for example, sketch structure > base colours > basic shading > detail work
real life reference can be especially tricky because quite often, there's so much visual information, especially stuff like street photography. You'll need to break it down into major, simple shapes until it's manageable and only worry about smaller details later