Getting the Best References

As a wildlife artist, I do a lot of sketching, whether it be at my local zoo or out in the wild. Sketching hones your drawing skills and makes your final pieces of artwork much fresher and more believable. However, for those final pieces I do tend to work a lot from photographs. When I first started out, I would use whatever references I could find, since I wasn’t selling any work. It didn’t matter that I may have used a photograph from a magazine because the art was purely for my own pleasure. However, since becoming a professional artist, I’ve made some rules for myself including that I only use my own photographs.

Let’s first deal with those people who can’t get their own references for whatever reason. Some people may be housebound; others may not live near wild places or a zoo or be too nervous to ask people to pose for photographs. I never think these people should be excluded from wildlife or portrait art simply because they can’t get their