sstrungis wrote:I have got to protest some. You mean to tell me that artists here NEVER use a reference or a livetrace? Or is the trick to make it look like a live trace never happened? Artists of any stripe use refs all the time.
Reference means "I looked at it to make sure it looks right." While many artists create things straight from their mind or memory, many artists will usually use many of these. It is called a reference because you "refer" to it.
Copying an image, whether freehand or, worse, through live trace, isn't really art in any viable sense. Art involves creation. Xerox machines aren't artists. But then, neither are forgers. It's great if you can replicate the Mona Lisa. Good for you, skillboy powerhead. But you're not DaVinci. That's why museums don't regularly have high profile forgery galleries.
To put reference in a clearer contrast: I can't write a book on the civil war by picking and choosing parts of Shelby Foote's trilogy, quoting them, and linking them with conjunctions and short phrases, even if I cite every quote. I need to add my own commentary, make connections between sources, and create a new book. I "refer" to the earlier ones to enforce my individual argument. I do not simply handwrite someone else's words in a different script.
