/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>2806226
Its a basic skill all artists develop. It helps boost your observational skills, provide you information about lighting/values/color/form/anatomy etc, so you aren't working blindly. You can work with reference and practice construction conjointly.

>>2439754
>If you underlay "reference" under your drawing layer it's not the same as just doing what you want to.

That is a load of horse shit.

>>2026218
Smaller brush. Focus on small features at that point over general colors/shading. Note the onion. A smaller brush was used to apply the crack, define the lines in the skin, put more definition in the top and bottom pinched ends.

>>2026236
You're right. Working from scratch in most contexts is difficult. Hopefully studies like this can help you learn the patterns of color and tone you can expect when drawing that subject. Even in completed works, many professional artists still refer back to reference. The more experience you gain, the more you can break free from reference, the more you can extrapolate from it, and if you want, build things up from scratch.