I remember someone said once "Drawing without a reference is like tryimg to cook without a cook book". That alone freed me from any guilt for using references

Sam's intros are just getting better and better.

I feel like asking an artist "Why do you use references?" is like asking a chef "Why do you read recipe books?", or a Martial artist "Why do you Spar?"

I want everyone to take this time to remember the late Kim Jung Gi. He's really one of a kind that graced this earth. Hearing Sam explain all about references magnifies how Jung Gi was really a master of his craft. On top of great memory was his crazy perspectives.

References are really important and I’m glad you made this video. Even Van Gogh used references. Sure, it is well known he did for starry night and his bedroom in Arles, but he also used references to paint his Sunflower painting. This is shown when he is a reference of the painting “The Painter of the Sunflowers” by Paul Gauguin.

Literally Sam encourages me to do digital art even when I only have a Android Phone and NO stylus 😂. Like SERIOUSLY his videos do have a great effect on me. Hats off to you man❤❤

The truth is Sam wants to feed his art village, but sometimes runs out of ideas, and therefore uses references so he has enough ideas to feed his village :D

I’m still growing as an artist and when I started using references it made my work a lot easier, I still struggle with imposter syndrome but I guess that feeling is something I have to deal with as I keep on growing. 😊😊 It’s always a good day when Sam posts 😊😊

This is one of the most brilliant “why” explanations I’ve ever seen. I’m definitely the type of person that needs to understand the “why” behind doing something, and your examples are so clear. Absolutely loved this video, very impactful 🎉

I’m not much of an artist, but knowing that even Sam uses references is so comforting. It’s always felt like such a cheat to me but I guess I just have unrealistic expectations of my brain😅

Yep, 100% agree. I was raised in the 80s and 90s on the idea that using a reference was "not art, just copying" and that if you want it to look " real" just use a camera. Stopped doing art to raise a family, now I'm getting back into art, and relearning a lot of it. Just did an orange in colored pencils and mixed medium, using a reference and it was the best peice of art i have ever done in my life. Now i am building up a reference library of subject matter i want to get into more. Thank you so much for confirming what i had to find out the long, hard way, and passing it on to young artists so they dont waste 2 decades not improving and quiting like i did. Love your content. ❤ 🇧🇿

I loved these little "buts" about references like the example with Myazaki - sometimes you don't use references and it's really individual. Like, yeah, sometimes in order to make it less familiar you don't look at the refernece, but you do it deliberately and you already know that in case you cannot imagine something you better not run from your responsibilities and learn how to do it. To break the rules you learn them in a first place

THANK YOU FOR TEACHING ALL OF US ART BABIES WE LOVE YOU SAM!

I love drawing from references. My drawings come out so much better when i draw from reference. For a while i felt bad but after awhile i got over it. Simply because when i draw from reference i get to study my subject. Then when i draw from my mind later on it comes out better. References are a great starting point.

You know it's a good day when Sam posts.

“This is a no reference chicken” Epic quote! 😂😂😂 love this video! Even for the most stylized drawing, a reference can give tiny clues that make the drawing come to life.

Learning about observation and a using references helped my art so much. Seeing the visual progress over a year makes me so happy.

This was a great vid, it's so awesome to see a side by side clear comparison proving that even the most skilled artists benefit from references. It really did make a huge difference to the quality of your drawings. Thank you Sam!

Probably my newest favorite video of yours; I love how you not only encourage people to make art the way they want to but even explain how a method different from yours might help your audience. You're one genuine dude, Sam.

I also love your drawings, especially the ones from memory. The Shiba, the turtle and the surfer guy are particularly awesome!

It's so true! There is such an underlying stigma about references!! It's such a hard voice to shush in your head when drawing - but it's good to hear it from one of the best :) Keep up the great work Sam!

I need to embed this in my head. You truly are so right. Every time I open up a canvas, i just mindlessly doodle, but in order to actually come up with ideas and drawings I gotta look at ALOTT OF reference. I want to be inventive with style and I'm definitely not going for realism, I'm going for believability and imaginative. But reference, that's the only way I will build up my library for that imaginative approach im always going for. Thank you so much Sam. The best advice seriously!

All of your content is so great and helpful. Keep doing what you’re doing man

I'm glad that you came full circle by the end of the video because most of your non reference drawings definitely have more charm as you say. Maybe the key is if you don't know what something looks like then STUDY reference then draw from memory.

okay, sam, thanks to you, I'm finally gonna step up & start using references! I love your artstyle & it's absolutely gorgeous! thank you for inspiring us art babies haha! (also i love your intros & outros xD) :]]

Hi, I’m an art baby Thank you for helping me on my art journey Sam, you inspire so many of us. You are the person who encouraged me to start digital art even though I have no stylus and am drawing with my finger! 😄I only recently started to use references and already I can see the improvements in my art❤ your videos are so helpful, keep up the good work!

Oh my! Thank you so much! I needed this video and everything you said. I have been feeling like an imposter whenever I needed to grab the reference. And like you said, mostly this kind of attitude about references comes from old-timers. This gives me motivation to expand my mental library and to grab a notebook to just practice drawing whatever I want to learn to draw better. My art mostly has been stylized this whole time. I love it, but I really want to take it to the next level and this thing about references and feeling like its cheating has held me back a lot, I mean. You have no idea how much it held me back! Thank you so much 100x!

Glad you did follow that comment's suggestion and created the reference versions! One thing that stood out to me is your 'from imagination' drawings feel like cartoon/ comic-like. Stylized and not quite realistic but has personality- but also stiff. Your 'from reference' drawings were a lot more dynamic, in pose, feeling of movement, angle and in many of them weight. Definitely a great exercise for many to try!

This was such an awesome exercise and I love that you took it a step further to draw from reference and compare. Always amazing work!

Ive been watching your videos a lot and its help me with my art a huge amount, i'm thankful.

Honestly one of the best videos you’ve made in a long while. Not saying your other ones are bad, far from it. It’s just that this one hit’s different because of how passionate you are with this topic. I certainly wouldn’t mind more videos like this. But of course release what you want and enjoy.

I always use references well most of the time, the great masters used references, and people are just gatekeeping saying references are cheating. Before I learned to use references my art was not getting better, but when I started I grew as a artist.

I LOVE side-by-side comparisons. This is such a great lesson.

I started art really recently, and seeing this video made me realize a lot of mistakes I was making and I'm really grateful for that. I realize now that I've been rushing my work too much, and I haven't been putting in the time to understand the structures behind things like faces or body parts. I'll use references more now, thank you!

Man I’ve been watching Sam for so long now and my dog literally love the ending when ever I watch you haha love u Sam!

Just wanted to say something. This video is one of the best art videos I've ever seen. I've seen a LOT of them. My father (an artist) taught me how to be one when I was a child. Well, all he really did was repeat the phrase "Draw what you see, not what you think you see" For years i struggled with it. I fought it, because I wanted to draw my own things. Then when I finally embraced it, I became SO MUCH BETTER. Now I'm a full-time (disabled) artist, working on my etsy right I haven't even finished the video yet because I was too excited to say something about it. AMAZING VIDEO, Sam!

Thanks for your professional advice on references! Love your videos! ❤

SAM, please teach us how to draw like you, just listening to you speak shows how much knowledge you have and you don't complicate things.

I was a very useful video for an artist like me. I really found that using references really is helping me to build that library of information to use for my art. Right now I’m working on some studies and drawing from screen caps from my favourite show to understand difference head posture and anatomy. I really want to create my own comic series some day so I want to get better and practicing my anatomy and backgrounds. Thanks Sam for your wisdom again. 👍

Your style is great but I love to see these sketches and raw-like draws such as u gave us in this vid. 👌🏻

Bruh i really love your videos and yourself. You're great You helped me alot!

All famous artists in history used references, the painting process is about depicting the real world, getting the main idea, making composition, and getting rid of unnecessary things, from classical art like Leonardo to modern like Boris Vallejo. It is all based on references. And only little school kids think that references are cheating :) Thanks for the great video!

U should make comics with characters like those, It would really be amazing😂

Thanks sam ❤❤❤ cant wait for this months patreon tutorial just got an old tutorial on stylized lips and noses too was def worth it❤

I love your art, man! I always sketch with no references at all, but when it comes to draw and to render, I always jump in with lots of references. The more the better! That's how it works for me! 🖤

I think this video hits at an even deeper meaning. You don't necessarily improve at something by spending more time at it. Sometimes you need external help to improve.

I had no idea that so many people were discouraged from using references? Until recently I never tried to draw “seriously” from memory. Then I realized professionals who draw a huge volume of images clearly aren’t working off a reference for every comic panel, for example. I got jealous of that flexibility and have been obsessed with learning to draw human anatomy from memory. This video showed me I need to find a middle ground where I can use a reference to remind myself of the basic shapes, without needing to find a reference that captures the exact pose I want down to the last detail

I was literally just using a reference rn to help me understand a pose I was trying to draw, great timing Sam!! XD

sam, do you think you could do a video on GLAZE and Nightshade? they’re both pretty important tools for combatting AI stealing art, and i think that it would be really cool to get your perspective on that.

this 12 minute video just convinced me to not be afraid to use references, seeing your raw before ref sketches remind me of my drawings, sometimes stale, then ref drawings look more full of life, bro im gonna be using refs more now

This is fantastic advice. I like to break it down to around an 80/20 split of using reference versus not. Break the rules but know them first!

The Art community really needed this video. Thank you.

9:18 this is so true. I am a perfectionist, so whenever I see some thing that is slightly off I need to fix it and I won’t like the art piece until the things that I can see are wrong are fixed. but sometimes you’re right, that I don’t have that information in my mental library and that’s when I go to Pinterest! Thank you so much Sam you’re the best.

Just how much positivity can a person express😅. Love every bit of it.❤

Sam you're great.i've learned so so much from you

Please do more of this!

Love this video. Thank you very much!

Now this really motivated me to stop using my imagination when drawing start using refrences actually help my atamony way better and improvements in my own character design improved alot Thank Sam you truly art Sensei

your videos make me feel so much better abt my art

this is the video that finally made me actually want to use references! I always thought I'd do it "later" once I'm better at drawing from imagination (which??? makes no sense) but now I understand, I need them NOW

Thanks for the video and your experience. Honestly, I would make that into a challenge instead of Inktober. NoRefember or something. One day you draw a sketch from memory, the next day - from a reference, and third day - from your memory enriched by the ref experience. Or maybe all in one day. Quite a challenge, honestly

I loved this video. Thank you.

❤ the intro sam

Lessss gooooooo the king posted again

i've watched this video with my lil sis and when there was the new drawing of an animal we both went like : awwwwwwwwww. Thanks again to teach me new things over an over again pls dont stop it! love your art dont stop doing it

i love sam !!

0:01 justice for birb and Sams enemy ❤❤❤❤

Thank you for being an inspiration, a reference lol. Ya but definitely very helpful for people out there trying to figure out how to make art their own thing and even in things outside of art.

Such an excellent video, this has been fundamentally helpful ((hugs)) thank you!

I love...your content Sir Sam, Doer of the Arts.

Thanks!! I always felt like being not good because I have to use references, but this makes total sense!!!

Oh yeah! Jacked dude with a Surfboard Def looks more experienced now!❤ I'd love to see you only glance at a reference and then draw it from memory.

The reference ones have character. Riding the balance is key. Reference for understanding of the subjects stucture, but then bringing back in those elements of character and charm.

These are very helpful!

9:33 that is why I have drawn too many hands on my math book. Wherever I'm bored, i look at my hand and do a pose that I'm not familiar with and just draw it or try to. My hands are improving so much from this.

I dig, sometimes I can even get information from a reference that is in a different angle or position.

thank you big sam

The energy i get from the drawings side by side is like a main character vs side character type of feeling

I'm definitely going to try this.

This is really nice to know/hear, because for me, it never have worked with the "proper way of drawing" with the cirkels and the skeleton lines for me. I headdived directly from paper over image, to drawing the image on the paper with the image on a window, to now i have a reference beside me and i eyeball the lines freehanded to paper. And i have sometimes when i was younger been nerveus or not confident about my method because all over i saw the skeleton methode and thought is this how its suppose to be done. But now im just like nah never worked for me so why bother, and im just drawing for fun and enjoyment, always have. And the fun thing is i can see i am getting better over time with for eksempel determen how big/small the image has to be on the paper compared to the reference. Or im eksparimenting with the colors more now (like shadows in skincolor or darker/lighter colorlines on clothes)

Even if you use reference photos, your drawing is the best I love him more than any painter. I hope you continue your hobby because it is as beautiful as you

This did help me out. Thank you.

bro this came at the perfect time. i'm draIwing a haystack and I was like yea a cube, I'll look up how to render a cube and we'll be good. But ive been making a funky looking haystack because all of my references are in black in white (though if i can render it in black and white then i don't need a colored reference). Use a reference for everything, shapes, lines, angles, colors, lighting, etc. Use multiple to retain originality but still. Reference for everything. Saves soooo much time

Hey Sam! I just started doing digital art, I have only ever done traditional. I was wondering if you could make a video about the type of brushes you use for both colored and sketched pieces, and which brushes are good for what you want to draw. This would be sooo helpful, because I’ve been really struggling with that 😭 I love your videos! You always make me smile :D

This was so useful. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, but sometimes I still feel like references are cheating even though I know it isn't. No one ever tells me I shouldn't use references, it just pops up in mind now and then. But I've noticed that whenever I use reference when I'm struggling to draw something, it suddenly becomes so incredibly easy to figure out what was going wrong.

You are such a cool dude, I feel like you’re a cool older brother or something. I feel so much better about the idea of using reference now!

No último vídeo qdo ele pediu pra desenhar no finzinho do video foi esse exercicio que eu fiz, desenhar de memória apenas bichos verdes, primeiro sem referências depois foi olhar as referências e de fato ficou um aprendizado de formas, linhas e ângulos. Thanks Sam

Sam's intros are just getting better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.better and better.

Using references is(for myself)a form of methodology to make an accurate point of what it is I am trying to convey,without a reference I'm uninhibited by boundaries,and that's a great thing.

references are so important ❤❤❤

I find it really interesting about how you talk about you not having all the details and stuff in your mental library. What's funny to me is that we remember so much more detail than we think but the hinderance is being able to remember it all on our own. Your average person like you and I are not able to recall those small details on our own. The brain is so unique and holds onto so many interact details!

Just found your channel, appreciate the content! 👍

Ah. Another day, another Sam's video. Nothing beter💅

I draw a lot at work, mostly to kill time and avoid being on my phone. and I get compliments on my art a lot, I've been drawing since I was 5 or so. I wouldn't say I'm great, I'm nowhere near where you are. But the difference is palpable! I started doing some anatomy references and it's so noticeable! I better understand hands and arms. it's improved my art faster than when I was doodling head empty. it made art much more enjoyable making my non-reference sketches look so much better.

Thank u Sam

What (some) older people don’t realise is, when you’re painting a model for example, you are *referencing* them. You look back and forth to observe the details. Referencing is great, and you should start using it if you haven’t already (especially if you struggle picturing things in ur mind)

Great job! Love the first chicken though!

As someone who has created art for about 7-8 years, I didn’t use references for about 5 of them because I was convinced it was cheating and I wanted to create something brand new. It killed my work for a long-ass time, even though I’ve been drawing for so long I’m still learning the basics because I just wouldn’t let myself. It’s still hard for me to admit I need a reference, and I tend to already have something in my head so when I don’t find a reference that fits the image in my mind, I give up. But then I took parts of poses I like, smashed them together, and then it was perfect. References help you learn and grow, even if you’re not looking for realism. Just knowing anatomy and how everything is supposed to look is really important, no matter your artstyle! Keep drawing guys, you’re gonna do great!

Thanks sam😁

Yo sam my names is sam too, this is a sam to sam conversation. I passionatly believe you should start a podcast. Usually when drawing I'll watch your vids and draw and i think your voice is so calming so you should start a podcast on behalf of the sam's