Since I already uploaded one thing including nudity, I thought I may as well embarrassingly upload more as I make them!
It really is important to understand the nude figure in order to understand how to draw people, after all.
When I was 'younger' - or rather, until very recently - I used to think that using references was 'cheating', in a way... so I avoided doing it. My art really suffered as a result of this, because it's so very important to paint or draw things while actually looking at them, rather than just from memory or imagination or whatever.
This is only maybe the second or third thing I've done now where I use a reference directly and then try to draw it... I don't TRACE it or anything, but I try to draw by eye. It seems to be an excellent way to develop observational skills, so I think I'll try to do it fairly frequently.
I wish I could say where the reference photo was *from*, but I don't know! I downloaded a huge folder full of naked photos a while ago, and I've been using them as references for a while now, but I've no idea where they came from originally! I assume they're all porn though rather than classy art models or anything like that.
Anyway, there are some significant anatomical flaws in this, but I'd like to think that they don't completely ruin the image... It's rather exciting to be able to see results like this so soon after starting with this approach to learning.
Hmm... I feel hesitant about clicking the 'Submit' button, because it doesn't feel like 'my own work' since all I was doing is copying a photo rather than coming up with anything original... Oh well. I suppose it'll be an interesting way to track my progress or something, and I can always move it to Scraps later or something?!
`ChewedKandi has certainly gone out of her way to keep the vector community on the right path. Always making sure that her talents are infinitely scalable, Sharon has put her bezier curves to excellent use, and firmly anchored herself as an inspirational leader. We're absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for June 2013 to `ChewedKandi. Congratulations, Sharon! Read More
Sta.sh
You are right! It's great to use photoreference. i too try not to trace, but I end up doing it anyway though x_x so I don't do it often. I for one am inspired to use photoreference to improve (:. You did a great job on this doing it by eye!
Like in case someone says "hey, that's my favourite porn star!"
I've found that it's really interesting and useful to trace a photo first, THEN to try and reproduce the same lines by eye... so then you get a feel for the forms first and it's easier to reproduce them later. But you've probably already done this kind of thing...!