HA, See What I Did There?
Just a quick note this little topic only covers using materials for character development. There are also reasons and purposes for duplicating something you see (photos, landscapes, etc) to further your artistic skills, however; that's not what this post is about. This post will mainly focus on using materials for reference and guides when developing original characters.
Define "Reference"?
I can't stress enough how important reference material is! I've found myself using it more and more when trying to draw new characters that I've never drawn before or have found difficulty with items that I never thought about referencing before.
What's been a big boon to me lately is studying anatomy; especially the skeleton. Long ago I thought it not necessary "I draw super exaggerated characters; why would I care about proper skeleton design?" is what I often said to myself. Turns out I should care a lot about it!
I'm finding that studying a skeleton can help you see how weights carry and propagate naturally through a character (even super toony ones). I find that once I figure out a characters skeleton (be it rat, lizard, dragon, pony, or person) I can begin to push the characters look to be more toony and zanny. It's true eventually you won't need reference material that much once you have your character design down pat but for us beginners and first timers it's important not to miss this step.
To see and to really "see"
At first I didn't reference anything because I felt like it was cheating. When I was little (in age; not stature... I've always been short
) I used to draw Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Pokemon, and other popular characters BUT I would only redraw what I saw. I didn't trace I would sit there and painstakingly redraw what I saw to look exactly like the original picture. At first I thought it was awesome but then I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do; I wanted to create things not just reproduce others works. So I stopped and I put myself in a mind set of "drawing off another image is BAD" and really for a long time refused to look at characters or real life images for fear of "copying" them.
In actuality that was a mistake on my part, I had good intentions but I took it to far. There's a difference from drawing what you see to drawing what you
"see".
I've learned now why people referenced real life photos and other art; it wasn't so they could "copy" that artwork; it was to use it to get a better feeling of what they were trying to draw.
For example,
I looked at photography of rats and rat skeletons. I wasn't looking at them with the mindset of "how can I make a perfect reproductions of these images?" but with the mindset of "Where is a rats rib-cage typically located? Where is it's guts located and how does that affect the overall look? If I want to keep the rat more ratty looking then where is a rats typical center of gravity at; how does it bend? How does a typical rats face look and how could I push that look?" so forth and so on.
Looking at real life examples and other artwork with this eye helped show me that there is value in looking at things in the world. How can one expect to reproduce something that another can comprehend if you yourself don't know how it works or even looks?
It's not cheating
Referencing material isn't wrong or cheating when using it to develop new characters. Using the images as a educational basis to help you better develop your characters is a perfectly respectable way of growing and developing your artistic skills. Also, there are times credit should and/or must be given for certain referencing of photos/characters BUT I'll leave that for another day as it's an entirely different post on that matter.
In the end looking at things in our world is how we naturally grow and develop; if you want to grow to be a better artist then don't be afraid to explore your surroundings.
Sta.sh
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and 
(click to enlargenate to see shear awesome)
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