Screenshot References

I had a great idea for a blog post before I fell asleep last night…woke up today and I had no idea what it was.  So you’re getting this instead because I’m lazy and I need to do some homework.

I think that using screenshots/illustrations, etc. for references when drawing TLK fanart is fine.  I started out drawing canon that way, and I’m pretty sure lots of others did too.  Fanart requires at least a basic knowledge of how the characters are drawn in the source material. Artists also use references in the real world…you’re not going to properly know how to draw an elephant unless you’ve seen at least a picture of one.

A “reference”, though, means that you should not just copy that image.  Look at how the artist constructed Nala’s pose, or what Mufasa’s mane looks like from that angle, and then draw your own version of that.  It’s also nice if you mention when you use screenshots as reference because otherwise you can get people snarling at you for being a thief, which is never fun.  You might think that you’ve modified the original enough or that the pic is obscure enough that no one will recognize the source, but believe me, people like me with TLKOCD can usually pick out a referenced piece.  It’s become easier ever since I started helping out with art thieves on DeviantArt by identifying the source pictures that were stolen from… not that hard if you have a decent visual memory.

But if you use references properly and give credit where it’s due, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking at a screenshot once in a while. =)