Being that I'm (re)learning and that I'm a new kid here I tend to keep my head down, but since Patty has called me out in this thread already I'd like to add my two small pennies.
I'm not going to comment on using photos for professional work, because I'm not currently professional. I have done it before though, many yeas ago, and I expect I'll have to again when I turn professional. What I would like to comment on is the idea that working from photos is an acceptable way to learn.
I don't see is why using photos for expediency's sake should preclude anyone from working from life. Or why not having available models should preclude anyone from working from life. Life is all around us, it couldn't be more available.
My models are the people down at my local cafe, (very undisciplined, but they come in great variety and great numbers.) They're also pieces of fruit and veg, my own head, or my eye or hand. If I'm feeling particularly reckless, I ask visiting friends if I can draw them while we chat. I'm not trying to put myself across as some paragon of virtue, I'm just saying that it's really not difficult to find subjects to work from, as long as you accept that they won't be ideal. Life isn't ideal, but that doesn't mean it's not worth living, or drawing for that matter.
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Originally Posted by Steven Sweeney
I learned to see
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This, for me, is what working from life is all about. It doesn't matter if I'm working from a person or a pomegranate, I'm after the same thing, I want to see it as it really is, then attempt to transfer some of what I see to my paper or canvas. To me, if I work from a photo, I'm left with what the camera thought was worth noticing, not what I thought was. I find that the more I work, the finer the resolution of my eye becomes and the more I see. I don't think I'd get that quite as much if I learned by working from photos.
The other day when I was drawing my eye, I noticed a small flap of skin in the corner of my eye called the plica luminaris. To students of anatomy this will be old news, but to me it was a small revelation, I'd never seen it before and didn't know it existed until I drew it. Would I have noticed it if I was working from a photo? Possibly, but only if it was an extreme close up. I think it's unlikely.
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Drawing brings us into a different, a deeper and more fully experienced relation to the object.
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This quote from the piece above by Robert Hughes says it all. In my very humble opinion, students of drawing and painting are doing themselves a great disservice if they work from photos. Working from life, as well as being more challenging, brings you into closer contact with the world around you. I believe our visual sense has been dulled by the daily battering it takes from the media. It's necessary to learn to see all over again if we want to really appreciate the complexity and beauty of the smallest objects we come across in everyday life, which we ordinarily wouldn't spare a second glance.
It would be very tidy if I could now back that up with a post of a wonderful drawing from life, unfortunately I can only do the from life part. This is a sketch I did in the cafe Saturday morning of an old guy sitting near me. He looked worn out, something in me responded to that. I hope I'll eventually get to a stage where I can put that kind of thing across in a drawing, but I know that's going to take years. In the meantime, I got some practice in, enjoyed myself, and my model was free.
Not being professional means I have no troublesome clients wanting this or that, I have the luxury of working how I choose. None of the above is intended as a criticism of the people here who work from photos, I'm just trying to explain what I think I get from working from life, and why it's so important, when you're learning and especially when you're having to teach yourself, to give yourself the best training you possibly can.
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