Reference

[JJ McKool]

I was just wondering about reference. A few things, for instance do a lot of u guys use reference for conceptual stuff, or just art in general? I'm not askin what u think everyone does, but what u for instance do.

And how about matte painting for concepts, do u use it, is it acceptable to do?

And the last one I have is, where do u go for reference?

While I am askin for my benefit, I'm curious what other people do in contrast to me, I figured these are questions pretty much everyone can answer, well at least the first and last are, so I thought it'd be a good thread.

So to start things off, I like to use reference, and I don't really have any good places to go for reference, though I do use istock photo and getty images a lot, cuz they usually look pretty dynamic.

[DavePalumbo]

Responding as an illustrator (not concept artist), though my philosophy would probably be the same:

I'm a believer in using refs whenever possible, and shooting your own is best whenever you can do it.

If you're talking non-figure refs, Google image searches can also be a good ref finder for things like, say, what a mango tree looks like, or maybe the sky line of Chicago. For more complex things like detailed images of a V-2 rocket or high quality photos of an AK-47, I try to look more at books (be it library or personal collection, and Borders bargain section can have some awesome deals for the weirdest stuff). Occasionally I'll do a DVD grab if I remember seeing, say, a suit of Roman armor in Gladiator and my books don't have any photos from a rear angle. I generally think a person is talking about human anatomical refs when they ask this, but that other stuff is in a way even more important. You get an assignment to paint a WWI trench scene, you might want to do some research on historically accurate uniforms.

But for refs of people: shoot your own, shoot your own, shoot your own.

[Seedling]

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=96120

[JJ McKool]

Well, Seedling, that ain't exactly what I meant, but then I suppose that pretty much answers my second question.

What I meant for the last one is are there good little hole-in-the-wall places u go that have neat reference, maybe just for a specific kind of thing, or what?

Personally I'm mostly confined to the internet, cuz I live in a fairly remote countryside, though it does have it's few advantages with certain reference, like fields, pine trees and that sort of thing, not so much for buildings or technical stuff. I think for people, I rarely use direct reference, often I'll just look at myself in the mirror and then go from there, but then that doesn't always work for paintings. But what about everyone else?