Clip Studio Paint LEARN ADVANCED REFERENCE SKILLS

Reference creator Rachel Bradley shows you how to expand your painting possibilities with this expert guide

- Rachel Bradley

Using high-quality reference is a gamechanger. The process of creating art can be seen as a series of problems to solve, and reference contains the answers to those problems. But with all those answers presented to us so readily, we can fall into the trap of sticking too closely to our reference material, simply copying or making decisions dictated by what we were able to find and not what our creative instincts tell us. This can lead to stiff or dull paintings, devoid of the artistic potential we have to breathe life into our work.

So how do we use reference without becoming beholden to it? This tutorial shows you advanced reference techniques, allowing you more creative freedom and the opportunity to tap into your imaginative skills in a logical, informed way.

In this painting, I’ll be working from many different images to bring my character, Ava, to life. She is the protagonist in my work-in-progress novel, The Sum of Our Deeds, so the narrative is really important to me here. I want to clearly show her character and her world which, as neither are real, is a great opportunity to demonstrate how to get the most out of your references! I’ll be working from my own reference images, which you can find on my website.

2 Explore your options