My collection of references

Every artist who likes to draw, paint or illustrate, needs a collection of references. Whether you are a very talented and professional artist, or a beginner who is still learning. On my pinterest account I have a board where I collect references, mostly of people, but also of animals, trees and everyday objects. I decided it would be useful to print some of them and put them in a binder, so it would be easier to use them while drawing. Today I would like to show you my binder, cause maybe it will inspire you to make your own.

I've got tabs to devide the subjects of the references. I also wrote down these subjects on the back of the binder. The subjects I currently have are:
- Face
- Expressions
- Body
- Hands
- Feet
- Children
- Animals
- Poses
- Female body
- Male body
- Group
- Trees
- Textures

I begin with the human face, and thereby different kinds of noses, mouths, eyes and expressions.

Hands and feet are probably the most difficult things to draw. It's so easy to fail at this without knowing what went wrong exactly. I can really recommend to add this subject to your collection of references. Trust me, you're going to need it.

Besides knowing how to draw hands and feet, you also need to know how to draw certain hand gestures. You probably underestimate how many times you have to draw these  (which is especially the case when you are an illustrator). These references are pretty useful!

Drawing infants and children is pretty different from drawing mature people. Children have a bigger head compared to their bodies and bigger eyes. 

In this picture below you see the body proportions of an adult, a teenager, a child and a toddler. Here you can also see that - compared to the adult - the child and toddler have a bigger head in comparison with their bodies. Also their legs are much shorter. 

I love to draw or paint female bodies, for their beautiful curves and sensuality. I therefore printed a lot of female bodies and poses, to get a better look at the shapes and proportions. 

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Besided the human being, I've also collected some references of animals, like cats, for example. Altough I have a cat at home myself, I really need these references to draw a cat in a certain position, because my cat doesn't really listen. when I ask him to pose for me...

I will show you the rest some other time, when my collection is finished. 

Do you also collect references? Or did this blogpost inspire you to? Let me know in the comments below!

​Iris