[ceenda]

Hi there.

I don't have a camera, and often the photographs in newspaper supplements aren't that great.

Does anyone know where you can get good reference material. I thought about subscribing to National Geographic as I am mainly looking for nature/geological/wildlife material.

However, National Geographic subscriptions in the UK are waaayyyyy pricey (like everything else Mr Blair & Mr Brown ).

Can anyone recommend good books/magazines etc...

[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Rinaldo]

National geographic is really good for reference. I usuialy get mine from an old crusty secondhand bookshop. The old ones are just as good, but a lot cheaper.
If you go to discount bookshops, you can get books on foreign contries and animals for a resonable price. they aren't that good but they do the job.
Do you want it for copying/tracing from, or to use as a knowlage base for working out how particular things look?

[ceenda]

Thanks for the quick reply Rinaldo!

I really just want reference photos that show how light falls on rocks, cliffs etc.

Occasionally you look at a photo and think "yeah, that's cool". NG is sometimes full of these kinds of photos.

[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 06, 2000).]

[ceenda]

Francis: That's a really nice sketch. Did you do that to get inspiration for a character you were doing?

Right now I'm currently using the travel supplement from The Sunday Telegraph (Tory-graph ) which is _okay_ but is only about 8 pages in size. This sketch is based on one of the photos I came across in there.



One of the reasons I would like to practice from reference is so that I can do imaginative work better.

Rinaldo: I just read one of your posts in another thread. I've already put this sketch(well, a previous version) in 2 other threads. Kinda bad practice, I know.

[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Rinaldo]

I was reffering more to making a new thread for something small. say if you have two pics you want to show, put them both in the same thread as opposed to making two. (if that's the comment you were refering to). Some people like to start a new thread for stuff that could have gone in another. It's not all that common or important now but if more and more people are going to come here (as they no doubt will) it could become unmanagable. I mean if there get to be heaps of people on here and they all start a new thread every day.....you know what I mean.

I didn't say anything in the speed pics thread but that pic is fucking amazing. No BS tha rock is totaly belivable. I think it's one of the best examples of suggestion I've seen, and I remember you saying that It didn't take that long either. Top notch.

[ceenda]

Thanks for the complement Rinaldo!

I see what you were referring to with regard to people posting on different threads. Ther e seems to be a lot of new people here - including me.

[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Mergatroid]

Ceenda,

National Geographic has a CD set that you can buy that has all their issues up to a certain year. You can preform searches on whatever your looking for so you don't waste time looking through a bunch of stuff that doesn't apply to what your doing.

Stock photo books can be another way to go. The images are pretty small but sometimes their okay. The one I use the most has thede great panaramic images of landscapes. I think if you get on some amiling lists then you should be able to get these books for free cause their really only catalogues.

Late,


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Mergatroid

[WildMyth]

I took this kid for reference form National Geographic and did it in markers.
I used to collect them then I ran out of room.

[Muzman]

my folks have 30yrs of the things stored away; f'n invaluable for reference material for absolutely everything! Wildlife, land forms, underwater, people, architecture, painting; you name it.
Try jumble sales and school disposals. it's true the old ones aren't quite as well produced as ones from the seventies etc; but if you ever need a reminder of what *something* looks like it can't be beat

[Francis]

National Geographic is very cool for reference and inspiration. Plus it's pretty easy and inexpensive to get back issues.

Here's an old sketch from my site where I used a photo from NG (only the turban guy, not military guy on the right).



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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[Fred Flick Stone]

I'm bad for answering this thread, Francis can back me up with it. I own just about every friggin book and magazine on the planet. Really, you never know where you are going to find inspiration. I am cutting up magazines at the doctors office, buying mags, books, anything, and everythng that inspires me. I also found tha alot of the photovault.com type places are amazingly useful and resourceful.
Just one reminder on this topic, don't get too stuck in a crutch with using photos. Use them, as practice, for color schemes, or maybe interesting layouts. Copying photos and calling that original art can get a bit tricky.
First, if you aren't familiar with drawing from life, you are going to run into all the pitfalls the photo has in it. One of them is values lost from the print process, from the exposure of the shot, etc. Know how to invent.
The second problem is that if the photo is already published, it is someone elses image. Not yours. So, by saying this is an original by me, you are forgetting the person who really did the peice in the first place. He may, if you publish in prominent locales, i.e. well frequented magazines and periodicals, etc. he may see his photo copied, and hunt your ass down. I ran into this problem all the time when doing skateboard graphics. Many of the pros want copies of things already published. If it isn't altered at least 20% fro the original, you are in trouble.

FInally, copying from photos for too long stiffles a big part of your artistic endeavor, your creativity. There is no creativity involved in copying a photo, just a lot of thinking involving technical issues, values form, lighting, color, etc.

I spend a heap load of money on books and mags, but I try not to rely upon them too heavily. I used to all the time, but the little part of my brain that wanted to do my own original work said it is time to move on from these, let xerox be the copy machine, not me...

If you call magazines up, sometimes they will have archived their mags on cd. You might be able to get yourself a copy of the archives, at a price of course...

Good luck with your hunt...

[WildMyth]

I'm working on building my own set of references by taken my own photos. Still trying to find intresting subjects and textures. You should try taking photos and saving it on a disk for your self, it actually becomes an enjoyable process. Taking the photos I mean. Just make sure you have alot of memory because you quickly run out of it.
Fred-I'm not claiming the drawing to be original since I copied it from a photo reference to practice with markers and that picture was my 3rd try with them. Needed to get a feel as to how the markers reacted to paper since I was new to it. I will try and do more original things.

[This message has been edited by WildMyth (edited August 07, 2000).]

[ceenda]

Wow Fred, you know, one day I'm gonna go through each thread, cut & paste your stuff into a file and publish it!

Like I said, I really want to do reference stuff so that I can do the imaginative stuff more with more realism. In the last pic I did (the one with the flying machine) I was really kinda looking to do the icebergs more realistically. I figure that doing reference stuff from NG might help me to work out how to do rocks & plants effectively from imagination.

WildMyth: That pic is great!

Hmm... scary. We use the same smilie combinations.

[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 07, 2000).]

[WildMyth]

Thanx for the complement ceenda.
Same smiley... maybe your the artistic evil twin my parents warned me about haha.