One of our members, Ryan, had a great question this week:

"What were you looking at or watching at the time that inspired the piece? Pictures of your references or inspirations would be fun to bring fans into the process"

So today, I want to go over how I collect and use references for my work.

I'll be using my pieces "Apricot Fizz" and "Angel Shot" as examples. Every piece starts with a good story or idea. Once I have an idea that excites me, I'll start a rough sketch and begin digging around for references to help solidify this image in my mind.

One of my favorite places to look around for people references is on instagrams of hair stylists. Their feeds are filled with tons of different people with very unique hair cuts, which helps me find a person or style that fits with my story or image in my head. I found these two photos on @shachu_hair and @ibuki_sugimoto instagram accounts that I wanted to use as inspiration for my two pieces. (I've actually been to Ibuki's salon in Japan and she is an incredibly talented hair stylist! )

I love how Ibuki styled the pink haired girl in the photo on the left; her hair design felt fun and unique, making it a perfect reference. I really like the blue-haired girl's pose and dreamy eyes and wanted to capture her expression and energy for my piece.

At this point, I keep working on my digital sketch by combining the idea, composition, and reference photos.

The pose wasn't exactly what I wanted, so I set up my camera and took a few reference photos of myself in the pose I want (face scribbled out since I looked like a mess LOL)

I often take videos of myself trying different poses and then screenshot the frames I like the most.

For "Angel Shot", I was particularly struggling with posing the hands, so I took some reference photos of my own hand to help me. You can see the poses I made as reference to help me figure out my drawing.

For the style of theses pieces, I had the works of Mike Lee in my head throughout the whole process. I love these portrait paintings he did of people at the beach. The stylization of the faces and how he simplified the facial structures are so beautifully done.

I also couldn’t stop thinking about scenes from the latest Nosferatu film. I'm not a horror film girly but I'm so glad I mustered up the courage to go watch this film because it was absolutely beautiful. The compositions, lighting, costumes, and the clever shots with the shadows were haunting.

And, of course, another director that always inspires me (pretty much subconsciously) is Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe because I grew up with his movies, but I always imagine these little creatures running around us. Sometimes they help us out, but other times they whisper intrusive thoughts into our minds. I've always loved putting little creatures into my pieces whenever I have a chance.

With all of these little pieces of references, I am able to make better and more informed decisions as I work through the final rendition of this piece. I make sure every single thing I use always serves the main story.

Creating a piece is extremely hard, so collecting and using good references is super important to make the process smoother and remove a ton of friction. It's always a shame when something technically off or strange about a drawing distracts from the story the artist wants to tell. References will help you solve a lot of these problems so that you can focus on the most important parts of the drawing.

Thanks for reading this far into how I collect and use references for my pieces! I hope this sheds some more light onto my process. How do you use references, and where do you find your inspirations? Let me know in the comments!