Scrap File
Reference Photo Gathering By Ruining Books
I have been reading through the Famous Artist School, an art correspondence school that was started by prominent illustrators at the time (Norman Rockwell, Jon Whitcomb, and Al Parker to name a few).
A notable section in the intro talks about creating a scrap file, a bunch of pictures clipped from books, magazines, brochures, literally anywhere you can. The idea was by judiciously adding and organizing it, you can have a wealth of reference to be able to draw anything down the line.
Why do this instead of saving Pinterest or on your computer/phone?
- When searching for images, most artists will encounter the same images. If you draw from printed books and magazines, you’ll have a unique set of reference images no one else will be able to match.
- In my opinion it’s a lot easier to clip a bunch of photos to my board or desk to look at instead of a screen (even though I love PureRef)
- Printed material is everywhere and can be found cheap vintage or even slightly old
- It’s a lot of fun to clip stuff physically (minus paper cuts)
I’ve just started clipping and using the pictures, but as it grows and I go back to it more I’ll report back on it. For now I just have to disassemble a lot more magazines. I hope my scissors remain sharp.
I should stock up on bandages too.
