Oh, don’t get me started on those sites that are all like, “Pay $50/mo and you’ll get access to all of our 1000 models!”

HA.

Not only do I not have that sort of money, but.it neglects something very fundamental to the ‘learning from life’ advice you hear from channels like Love Life Drawing and Proko: life is kind of everywhere, isn’t it?

More often than not, I find myself pulling pose, figure, gesture, and perspective inspiration from Getty Images or other stock image sites and all I ever have to worry about is a watermark that isn’t pertinent to begin with. In fact, it’s better if the watermark obstructs something I need because I shouldn’t be so reliant on a reference that I’m just tracing it.

In addition to that, Reddit is also overflowing with references available to you, from the photograph centric boards to some rather peculiar subreddits… For instance, let’s take today’s practice:

There’s a subreddit called r/RoastMe that’s about as mean-spirited as they come. Usually, it’s just some average person posting a selfie and being subjected to the same vaguely racist or transphobic insults over and over again. And I mean, the users volunteer for this so I’m not saying that they clearly weren’t prepared for what would transpire, but here’s the real cool part:

Since these folks are basically queuing up for the world’s saddest Internet users to take pot shots at them, I doubt any of them would mind if you use them as models. There’s tons of benefits to this. First and foremost, it’s a frequently replenishing supply. Just since I finished these sketches, all the users drawn have long since been pushed down in favor of new ‘victims’. Secondarily, they aren’t all celebrity gorgeous. They’re regular people, sometimes with horrid lighting and terrible front facing cameras. Having less than stellar references means that you’re focus is less on the picture and more your proportions and making sure things look proper on your end.

For instance, I know for a fact I’ve made several of these people prettier than their actual selfie, but it doesn’t matter, because the point is to learn what falls where. I may even come back these sketches and see if I can stylize them a bit in an aesthetic that I want to achieve.

Though you’ll likely never see this, thank you to users MrScharlieKellly, MewOwO, Gnxrlypeach, Covid19MadeMeBroke, and PeachesBafWater for being my muses this evening. I’m glad I could stomach the comments long enough to snag the images.

Like seriously, most of y’all just needed some lotion and that’s it. That’s totally worth calling people slurs over…