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Can you draw without reference?

What you drew must have reference – you must know in advance what it will look like in order to copy and duplicate it effectively. If we can’t know the details of our drawing, it doesn’t matter, because all that matters is that it draws well and you will be able to reproduce it easily.

When you have to draw with reference, you are actually drawing on your drawing board when you have to draw the exact same thing. If there’s a mistake, you can’t get it back. But if you can get it back when we have to try and replicate in the end, then we have drawn something that isn’t just “bad”.

Drawing is like a game, we are always trying to improve. But it’s good to make sure that those improvements have been made at some point in time and not just when we are just starting out. That’s why this whole process is really difficult.

“Can you give me some more specific examples?”

Sure, and we’ll try to do our best to give you a bit more specific examples. Let’s start with an example of a mistake for a first time user or an experienced user.

Let’s look at the illustration below. It might look like the user has copied it or has just tried to draw something similar. It’s an easy mistake. Just draw something like this then copy and paste into Photoshop.

However, the problem comes when you try and duplicate what you saw in your original drawing.

If you are a new or experienced user, it’s often the case when starting out, if anything, that you have to get your first couple of mistakes down before starting. If you haven’t been drawing your own stuff for a while, try and practice drawing the things on your old drawing board.

However, if you were doing this kind of thing even before or you can do it, you will find that there can really be a lot of difference.

If you can only draw something close to what you saw in your copy and you still do it badly then chances are that it really is a mistake, and you will learn and improve as a result. Your drawing board will become something to which you will draw and copy and reproduce in a much more professional and effective manner.

To make sure that you don’t just copy from other work that you have drawn before, it’s important to look at your work even more closely so that you don’t forget the original style that you are drawing from.