What are your resorces?

[Loki]

Any good artist draws from a pool of resorces. List some of your favorites here so we can all benifit from each other. I'll start with a cupple very useful ones.

Gray's Anatomy Gray's Anatomy is a big thick medical book full of drawings of the human body. It's an indespencable resorce for preportion. This website hosts the entire book, and for free too!

Getty Images Much better than Google image search for finding reference photos. It's subscription to download and use the photos, but free to browse.

Comic Letters A useful cheatsheat on how to make good looking comic letters.

Okay, those are mine. What are yours? I'm eager to see what you guys have found.

[BIOHUNTERZ]

Re: What are your resorces?

most these people dont draw....

[Kefka Jr.]

Re: What are your resorces?

Ha, cool find with the comic lettering. That's pretty much how I write usually, anyway.

Well, I'm mostly doing sketching and cartooning, so mostly I just cop off poses and ideas from Atomic Toy and o_8's archives and try to put my own spin on them.

My best practice comes from crossing fan-art together. Like for that Sephiroth doodle I did a while ago, I essentially copied of Sephiroth's appearacen and simplified it, but I got the pose from a sprite of Dio from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

[Nixon]

Re: What are your resorces?

Back in the day, instead of everything being electronic or on a CD, companies would actually send out big stock photography books with pictures of just about anything. Most of the time, they were themed or at least seperated into sections.

They had a ton of these old stock books in our art building, just collecting dust. So I lifted a few of the good ones and I still use those sometime. Most of the books I have are of nature scenes and buildings, since I always have trouble drawing those without reference.

Since I also need science equipment reference, Rodak suggested that I order a few catalogs from the companies that manufacture lab equipment and the like. I plan on doing this once I'm done with my latest project.

So, in conclusion, I'm a stone-age artist with stone age resources. What else is new, huh?

[Caciss]

Re: What are your resorces?

The new age, is overrated.

Keep it in the stone age.

[Nixon]

Re: What are your resorces?

I never said that. So no.

[Funk]

Re: What are your resorces?

I used my college-level intro to drawing book to get better aspect on human proportion. Other than that, I pretty much just draw it as it comes.

[DK]

Re: What are your resorces?

That Gettyphoto site is amazing, so much different poses and everything.

I'm still a fledgling, trying so so hard to try and develope SOMETHING while going to college as well. I don't really want to say anything cause I'm sure I'll get some flack for just being some poser that wasn't gifted at birth with the ability to draw but I've been spending a lot of my time doing exercise after exercise over and over from the book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain and had picked up a few of Burne Hogarth's extremly well done books on anatomy.

[IRC]

Re: What are your resorces?

I find that the tools that let you draw shapes in MSPaint to be my most highly used resource. That and a nice little copy, flip, and past techinque that I picked up on the fly.

[Magus]

Re: What are your resorces?

Any interesting poses I find in comics or art online though I often keep a few Eva mangas around as well as How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema.

I've only been sketching stuff.... I gotta get back on the art saddle again.

[Nixon]

Re: What are your resorces?

Any "how to draw the _____ way" books are usually not that great. Notice the endless "how to draw in the anime style" books that have turned a generation of artists into a generation of artistic clones. I would advise against anyone using books like that when they start drawing, since it might have a big (sometimes negative) impact on you and developing your own personal style.

Reference is useful when you are stuck, it should not be a constant crutch.

[Alex]

Re: What are your resorces?

Corpses.

[Magus]

Re: What are your resorces?

I absolutely agree. But this Marvel book is the best of its kind in that it's actually helpful.

Those anime-how-to books are laughable.

[Loki]

Re: What are your resorces?

I gotta defend Drawing the Marvel Way too. It's much more than a "how to" book. But it has gotten a lot of flack for saying that the only good comics are comics drawn this specific way. Also, it's kinda dated.

99% of the "How to" books are terrible, but I found one called "Action! Cartooning" by Ben Cadwell. I'm constantly returning to it for insparation. It's really really REALLY good.

[Magus]

Re: What are your resorces?

Sure it's a bit dated but it's so simple it works. Plus it looks great on my bookshelf!

Next time I'm at a bookstore I'll check out the Ben Caldwell book.