Greetings Artisan!

One of the most common questions I get is: "How do I draw without reference?"

I notice a lot of artists get stuck with this. The two major patterns I tend to see are:

1. Artists who want to draw without reference but aren't sure how to make their work feel solid and authentic. They know they need to reference the world, need to understand anatomy. Reference is going to be one of the major sources for understanding the world... but they're not quite sure how to use it.

2. Artists who already draw with reference as their major way of creating ... from photos, from life, or even just from copying other people's art. These artists are often stuck or handcuffed to the reference. They need to have it there or they really can't draw at all.

There's a big misconception that if you draw from reference and practice long enough, eventually you'll just be able to draw without it.

I made a video about this, where I break down how I see this working from my own experience and from teaching hundreds of students to draw from imagination:

You can Check it Out Here:

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​Watch "Why Reference Won't Teach You to Draw From Imagination"​

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It's worth talking about what drawing from imagination actually means, because a lot of people have very different ideas about this.

One of the things I point out in the video is that there are many ways to make art and almost all of them are totally valid.

Some of my favourite artists, like Robert McGinnis, create art with heavy photo reference (often tracing onto the canvas).

Other artists, like James Gurney (of Dinotopia fame), have a heavy reliance on the photographs he shoots and the physical maquettes he builds.
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This harkens back to some of the best illustrators who have used heavy photographic and physical reference. A lot of the classic science fiction book cover artists would make spaceships out of water bottles combined with bits of paper and photograph them.
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But personally, I always liked the idea of just drawing from imagination with nothing at my side.

So this is the skill I built.

There's a spectrum here though. Even artists who primarily make things up in their head will often include mood boards, reference boards, anatomy books as part of their process.

So how does this actually work?

The critical thing to understand is that "practice makes permanent." You get better at doing the things you actually do.

In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi famously said: "You can only fight the way you train." I think this is critical to understand for all human endeavours.

If you want to draw from imagination, you have to practice drawing from imagination. And understand exactly where reference fits into your process.

A big part of this for me is building visual library. I do a lot of sketching. I mess around and I make a lot of mistakes, even when I'm drawing professional illustrations.

Part of those mistakes and sketches is me understanding in my mind how to draw these things. The more I do it and the better I get, the less I need to make mistakes.

One of the things I teach in the Line and Colour Academy is the five-minute reference grab.

Once I've sketched out my drawing and figured out a good thumbnail, I do a five-minute Google or Pinterest search to grab reference for the key things I need. Animal reference. What a saddle actually looks like. A couple of photos of a particular type of tree.

Just make sure if I do need reference, it doesn't suck up a lot of time finding it.

A lot of artists love building a mood board before they get started. It really is just a matter of how you like to work.

But if you want to draw from imagination, you've got to practice drawing from imagination.

If you want a more in-depth take, check out the video.

Otherwise... remember:

• Practice makes Permanent.
• You can only fight the way you train.

-Tim

PS: I'm going to run the 8 week Line and Colour Intensive again in mid-April. I'll send out an announcement email so you can sign up to hear more soon.

PPS: The first run of the Intensive actually went really well. I'm making a bunch of changes to make it even better. It was interesting to see that a lot of people had a really challenging time drawing 20 thumbnails. And that many artists, despite being quite skilled, hadn't fully developed their construction phase. Some of the results we got at the end were really amazing.