Opinions on referencing in art?

[Dragoncat]

I'm kind of a novice artist, and if I don't use photo references or references in general, 9 times out of 10 the end result looks like a kindergartner drew it. I always try not to steal. I look at the reference and draw from scratch, although sometimes I might go into an image editor and trace over it to get a good idea of how everything connects to everything else, then I recreate those lines on paper. For example, my latest will be of an OC couple of mine, so I looked up some couple pose references and picked one. BUT because I've reversed the typical size/height differences I'll have to trace the crap out of it and hope for the best. The male is shorter than the female and kind of scrawny. Hope I can pull it off.

The reference pic from Google was clearly from a Deviant Art artist judging from the title but it was on Pintrest. And reverse image searching didn't bring up the original. If I just use this reference and draw from scratch, do you think I should still track down the original artist and let them know? Am I still required to give credit? What's your opinion on this in general? Should we always give credit and ask permission if we can, no matter what, or does it not matter if you're not tracing or modifying the original image?

[May]

You can always ask for permission, but, I think, most artists would not want their art copied from and published online for someone to take as their own. Honestly, I think it's better to use other artists' artwork to practice from and to be placed inside your files instead of online. 

If you want to create artwork based off a pose or a picture, that is totally okay, as long as the owner gives you permission for using their photos as such. You would usually credit them wherever you are publishing. 

You can study from art books such as Michael Hampton's to improve your anatomy or portraits. 

[sirmola]

One way to deal with problems like this is to look for images in "royalty free image" repositories, or other places where the author is explicitly stated and attached a "copyleft" lisense giving you the right to use and modify the work. Wikipedia is great for this. Most of my art is based off of "picture of the year" contestants. As for credits, give them unless it is explicitly specified that you don't have to(some images on wikipedia have "no atribution required" lisences.) Credit is less common on physical art because there is often no obvious way to do it, But things like tags and image descriptions pervide easy ways  to give credit.

[BrandedCharmer93]

I have a fine arts degree focused in drawing/illustration and when I was in school everyone was constantly researching images on Google and reading up on the topics their work was going to revolve around. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using reference material when learning how to draw something. When a suitable image couldn't be found for what we needed, we would create our own references by asking each other to pose while someone took pictures. 

I'm a big fan of using photographs for references but there are times it helps to see how another artist pulls off certain textures like scales/grass/ etc and I don't think that would require permission. However if your composition or another aspect of your drawing is going to strongly reflect another artist's original work, you should ask.

[Dragoncat]

For more clarification: only the pose and anatomy is being referenced, the characters will be replaced with my own.

Wikipedia for art references is something I haven't tried. How easy is it to find a certain pose? Like say you want to draw a wolf running, front view. Would Wikipedia be able to do that or would it just cough up all the pictures of wolves it has? Google images seems better at giving specific poses but I know a lot of them aren't going to be free use. I also know you can click an option on Google images to just get free use pictures.

I'm thinking I'll tell the artist anyway once it's done, it can't hurt. Just "hey I referenced your image to draw this from scratch, thanks for making it, it really helped"

[Freezerburn]

I was an art major for two years, until this winter when I switched to writing.

References are not cheating. Countless professional artists use references. References are best taken from real life images. There are countless deviantart profiles and tumblr blogs solely dedicated to providing references. There are a lot of artists who prefer to take their own reference photographs, which certainly can be helpful! I'd suggest doing that whenever you can. There are also reference books for anatomy, costumes, poses, animals...  really anything you could want. References are tools for creating art, because not everyone has a photographic memory. References are artistic tools, just like a pencil, pen, marker, etc!

Tracing is cheating. Copying someone else's artwork directly is also cheating (in my opinion), because their drawing is their artistic vision. There are artists who create/draw "bases", which are also really useful. I suggest only copying artwork directly if it is meant to be copied. Art like THIS is usually meant to be copied. Art like THIS is not meant to be copied. 

I always suggest using photos, rather than using drawings. There are plenty of good stock photo accounts on deviantart, tumblr, etc. Using actual photos usually makes the anatomy easier, too.

So, use references. There are plenty of great places to find them. You just gotta do some digging.

SenshiStock is a great resource for human poses.

[Dragoncat]

2 hours ago, Freezerburn said:

Tracing is cheating. Copying someone else's artwork directly is also cheating (in my opinion), because their drawing is their artistic vision. There are artists who create/draw "bases", which are also really useful. I suggest only copying artwork directly if it is meant to be copied. Art like THIS is usually meant to be copied. Art like THIS is not meant to be copied. 

It appears I should clarify the tracing bit.

Normally I don't, but in this case I felt that I had to, because I was reversing the genders. Reminder: the male has scrawny boy syndrome. His lady isn't too much taller than him (exactly 5 feet and 5'3), but it's still a noticeable size difference and I think it's kind of interesting/funny, normally the female is smaller. Pisses him off when she ruffles his hair and comments on how little and cute he is in her eyes...lol.

So I traced over it, very roughly, to make it closer to what it should look like with these two. And then I'll use both these images as reference. Basically I only trace if the character I'm drawing has a different enough build than the one in the reference and is in a complex pose.

I've heard of Senshi Stock. I think I saw some of their stuff on Deviant Art.