LOL, looking at master paintings, I always think (and have heard many other artists say) that they prefer the artist’s drawings to their paintings. Personally I can only look for so long at the Sistine Chapel frescoes, but can look at the preliminary drawings for hours. 
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Drawing is the first thing I do every morning seven days a week <> I start drawing put on a pot of coffee when i take my first break and so forth and so on <> I always draw a couple of hours usually more <> here are few of the coffee stains!
A couple of more caffeine creations:::::starting to concentrate more are unity of line and tone::::::working them together instead of one at a time:::::::this is the way we see things and it seems we should try to work the way we see!
not that I don’t completely adore the other new pages, too, but that last page is especially wonderful. So warm, vivid and shiny, yet at the same time so idealized - stunning.
I am always looking forward to your new posts - it’s as if my favourite gallery added a new drawing in the showcase.
This mornings coffee stains <> few random thoughts >< some thumbs from memory <> and a coffee of quick ref om studies.
BTW when I work from reference I almost always draw everything flopped (facing the opposite direction from the original.) This way I make sure that I am not copying what I see without filtering it though my brain first.
Thanks Mu <> a little encouragment goes along way
Good Afternoon…Dr Bone…
Great Drawings. and even Greater Thoughts…really like the thought about …the painting
should relect the joy that the artist had in creating it…NICE…
Maybe you know the answer to a puzzle that has always plaqued me…still can’t figure it out.
Why does a painting look corect to my eye, …until I face it to a mirror, where all of the distorions become crystal clear in the image that is reflected back and veiwed by me in the mirror.
Was wondering if that has anything to do with why you flip the image when you work from refference…been driveing me nuts for years now…LOL…:banghead:
TAKE CARE
Glenn
When we are looking at something we mentally make the correction <> in other words our mind convinces our eyes the what we are looking at is OK. This is because we have looked at if for a while and our brains fill in the gaps in the drawing/painting with information based on other experiences and we believe what we see and think it is fine.
However when we look at is in the mirror we start all over again and see the problems before our brains have time to adjust.
The reason I draw referenced material reversed has nothing to do with this phenomenon
It is more about making sure that I am analyzing what I as looking at and interpreting the elements into a different visual.
Dr Bone…Thanks…that makes sense…it was bugging me, because I never worked from photo’s until I joined Rebecca’s forum, and when I reverse my painting, it looks different, couldn’t figure out why…but now I know…Thanks for taking the time out to answer my
question…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
Photos have a whole set of proportion problems that are totally different.
The camera sees with one eye we of course have two <> there is a difference in what the camera sees from what we see <> space are flatten more in a photo than what we see <> we can reverse a photo are it will look ok but when we reverse and image we have drawn and compare it to the original photo we see all the distortion from a different point of view.
Again we convince ourselves that the photo is correct when in fact it contains a great deal of distortion which is even more complex with different focal lengths.
As Rebecca knows I am not fond of working from photos and certainly less fond of working from photos the are not from natural light source.
I think they are good resource for illustrators and painters who work direct from nature.
I think it is a bad idea for beginners to work from photos and professionals need to be fully aware of the limitations.
They should be used by painters after a painting has been started and the initial color study has been done. Landscapes and other works done from photos alone usually have a terrible quality about them that makes them very obvious.
Sigh
I think it might be useful to offer suggestions for people who do not have access to live nude models all the time instead of saying that people shouldn’t work from photos. Should artists without the financial or artistic resources to draw on a daily or weekly basis from a live model just not draw at all, or never draw nudes?
I’ve always maintained that drawing from life is best. However, drawing from reference, when there isn’t a live model lying about, is not such an evil practice. 
Anyway, people should do as they choose. Draw from life, draw from reference, draw from master works. Telling people what they might do instead of saying what they shouldn’t do I think is always more useful.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Photography is a very useful tool, we can’t hope to capture the detail the a photograph can.
As I have said often, photos are very useful when they are the only way to get information, they provide unlimited access to many things that would be unaccessable without them, exotic animals, foreign lands and yes nudes. Of course we all have one nude model available if we own a mirror. The problem is not the use of photography but how it is used.
The camera sees far to much and captures an overabundance of detail.
Every photo is full of unpleasant detail and every photo has the possibilities of something charming. We must study hard to decide what shall stay and what shall not. If the values and planes go in well, if the softness and sharpness are taken care of, such irrelevant detail well not be missed. We can beat the camera, because the camera cannot choose nor subordinate, thank Heaven.
Degas, Eakins and many others used photos as reference. Of course they were master draughtsmen and did not learn to draw by copying photos. They used photos to help with composition and value and other design issues. Again a matter of understanding the way to use them.
Lighting becomes a hugh issue.
Ahead of everything else choose or take photos with very simple lighting, one basic light whenever possible for the best interpretation of form.
Nature takes care of that, outdoors. We mess things up when we take over inside.
Photography is a quick convenient way to record something to be painted later. It can also serve as a supplement to drawing/painting from life, as a reference for touch-up work, or as a record of detail for corrections. Photos are useful too for gathering ideas for drawings/paintings to be done from life, or as an informational tool used in the same way as a quick sketch.
Photos are often the only way we can have access to certain subjects as Rebecca has pointed out. Even though it is not an ideal access it is better than no access at all.
It allows us to capture things that are impossible to paint from life— thing that move too fast or exist as very brief effects. (like snowflakes) Often we would like to draw or paint certain things, but there is no vantage point from which to paint, or other circumstances make it impossible to set up our painting equipment. A camera brings those otherwise inaccessible subjects within our reach. Artists with special needs, the physically handicapped, the confined, could not experience certain kinds of painting at all without photography.
On the other hand…
Cameras are recording devices, not experiencing devices. A photo is the product of a machine that simply makes and impassive visual record of whatever it is pointed at.
Unlike us, it does not think or feel. They are technically smart, but life-dumb instruments.
They have no sensitivity.
Cameras do not give a true technical picture of what we see. They only record what they are designed to record, and that is both qualitatively and quantitatively different than what we humans see. Except for capturing detail, at which they are better than us, they are remarkably limited. The sensitivity of photographic film is trigling compared to our human sensitivity; its color and value latitude is only a tiny fraction of what our eye-mind combo sees.
Once again this the 21st century and we have great tools at our disposal we only need remember that they are mechanical devices and have no brain.
I of course have a great camera and dozens of lens and have drawn often using photo reference. It should be the last choice and not the first when ever possible.
Hi…Dr Bone and Rebecca…SORRY…was not my intension to open up that can of worms:scream:
I think that you are both right…FINGER PAINTING with mud on stone walles was once a new technoligy… finger got replaced by a brush and mud got replaced by paint pigments…
both finger. mud, brush, paint pigment, got relaced by a camera, which is now in the process
of being replaced by a computer…and the beat goes on …LOL
The one thing that will never get replaced I hope, is the third eye that you forgot to mention
That’s the one you see with; when you close your other two eyes,…AND IT CAN’T BE PHOTO GRAFTED…CALL IT THE EYE OF IMAGINATION…alllows you to make the most of whatever
is available …finger, mud, brush,paint pigment camera, computer, or whatever else comes along.
All I wanted to know, was the mechanics of this distortion illusion that happenes when an
image is viewed in a mirror, or reversed in the computer…got the answer…I think…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
Looked at your gallery and you certainly have the third eye which is indeed what this is really all about in the end <> the operative word for me is to create <> in the beginning we all copy, some make the jump to create and some never make the leap <> you certainly have made the leap.
A few coffee stains <> don’t like to reply to many times without posting a little something
I’m diggin’ the magic in a few of the later 90s posts (eg 92 and 98) crazy loose and wild. You keep on impressing me, good sir!
Cheers!
Dave
Hi…Dr Bone…THANK YOU VERY MUCH…MADE MY DAY…BRIGHTER …
Really have been enjoying your thread alot, and also really admire and am in awe of that
elegant line of yours, not to mention your mastery of the human figure, and for sure your
CREATIVITY…
Am really looking forward to seeing more of these great works and thoughts…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
Hi Michael,
Have been out of town for two days, but am happy to see more of your work! Very much looking forward to seeing more of your great contributions to the forum.
Cheers,
~Rk
Hi Michael,
I hope you’ve gotten a chance to see this thread:
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST: Best of Doctor Bone
Cheers for all your work ~ wow, I hadn’t realized how much you had posted until I copied it all to one place! :eek:
Cheers,
~Rk
Hi Michael,
Malanjo has kindly reposted his comment to your SPOTLIGHT thread here:
I had forgotten to Archive your thread as I had done to all the others…trying to keep the SPOTLIGHT threads clean so they’re just about showing off the images.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
I miss a day here and there so try to do more when I get the time <> the point is that I do thousands of these little dudes a year <> mainly from memory or reversing ref.
Here is a todays page of tiny torsos to get the ball rolling.
