No reference challenge

Artist statement and introduction to the gallery:

In the art community, there exists a "debate" over the usage of direct reference materials. Its a tale as old as time. Should we use them. Is it "cheating" to draw from a model. Is it "lazy" to use a photograph of an apple to draw an apple. Yes and no. It depends. 

Beginners everywhere, say, at nearly every beginning, "I want to pull these images directly from my imagination and put them onto paper." And I wanna turn the sky purple. I know I did, many many years ago, when I first began my journey as an artist. Nearly everyone does. It's practically tradition.

Now, I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil, and I even went to school for art. But I think about this debate nearly every time I start a piece--usually while I'm figuring out what I want my reference to be. 

I use references nearly every time I sit down to draw or paint, in one way or another. Just a doodle? It's probably of that building over there while I wait for my coffee order to come out. Just a miniature? It's probably of a photo in my phone. Self portrait? Definitely gonna need a mirror. You get the idea by now, I'm sure: I don't usually just dream up a thing and put it on paper. Steve sure made it look easy on blues clues, though. 

So, to the questions I touched earlier, is it cheating, is it lazy? It's only cheating if you're infringing on copyright for the most part, such as while referencing the works of another artist. That's where the waters get the muddiest, but you generally are okay as long as you use that for practice only and don't put it out there for money or notoriety. Lazy? Honestly, you're usually substituting one set of steps for another, to do anything in life that's lazy, and, quicker doesn't always mean lazy. Even professional animators draw from live people in the studio. Just be mindful you're not always gonna get the same results. Two paintings referenced from the same photograph, one traced, the other drawn with observational methods, are gonna look and feel different, just because of that alone. Methods matter. 

Methods will vary, but referencing from life or from photographs in order to compose a work of art, is generally not cheating. In fact, it's standard practice. One is not actually expected as an artist, to render realistically anything they are not looking at. In class we usually drew from live models in studio, while, for homework we were simply required to use our own photographs. What most artists do is just use references creatively, such as with a moody pallette and non-local color. 

So, is drawing from imagination attainable?

If so, how attainable. 

What are my limits? What will be my challenges?

These are the questions I hope to answer. 

My challenge, to myself, is to make art without directly referencing the world or having a photograph at my workstation. My challenge is to make these pieces from memory and imagination. 

Do I expect I'll give up the practice of using references in my work? The short answer is, no.

Drawing from observation is always going to be valuable and I dont expect that my imagination can replicate that. Honestly, I probably won't get past what looks like a nice thumbnail in quality or legibility.

I expect that I'll say "this was a great exercise and I'm glad I did it" and ultimately I expect I'll conclude that working without a reference can only take one so far. 

Generally, I find that these discussions tend to conclude that as an artist, you're not really gonna get away with using just your imagination. I tend to agree, myself. I dont expect I'll change my mind about that but maybe I will learn something, or improve as an artist.

Will I change my mind in the end? Who knows? But this gallery is my entry into the conversation, one that I expect will keep going, well into the future, in one way or another.