Hi Dave! Thanks for participating!
Here is my take on this:

it looked MUCH better before I scanned it

Just remember working from photos won’t teach you very much, if you want to learn and can’t attend life sessions do master copies so you at least learn what good drawing is.

Drawing from life is very useful but I don’t think it is fundamentally different from using photos. From my experience, the only important difference is that when you work from a photo there is a tendency to copy it, and when you copy you loose gesture. Any reference is just that – reference. It only matters what you do with that.
By the way, I believe the same problem exists when you copy masters work – you don’t really appreciate the beauty in the drawing until you know what to look at exactly. The more advanced you are the more you learn from the process, contrary to what I initially thought.

I’m no expert though, so

Anyway, I hope more people will join, c’mon, this is fun!

Dave, I agree with you, your point is valid. You should draw from life when possible and you should seek opportunities for that.

What I want to say is that not using photos in your practice in this age is counterproductive. I think beginners miss out on a tremendous opportunity for faster growth when they convince themselves (or someone else convinces them) that using photos is a bad taste or cheating. Old master used all kinds of cheats, like using manikins to help imagining the pose (Michelangelo) or dipping drapery in plaster to make it easier to draw (Leonardo). I have no doubt they would have used photos if they lived today. Most professional artists I’ve seen often use photos, though they certainly draw from life extensively. Anyway I think the magic of the process and the hardest part of it is to create something of your own from what you see, to put colors *you* want, lines *you* want, you don’t need perfect photo for that.

Consider this photo we’ve drawn from. Would you draw it differently if you were there, drawing from life? Would you put emphasis on the model’s personality then (are you able to talk with the model during a session? that’s cool!)? Maybe you can imagine the personality and incorporate that? What is you intention when you make a figure drawing?

For example I didn’t really want the personality here (to be frank I’m not that good yet to show the personality), I wanted to show the dynamics of line and the beauty of form. To understand the pose better I sat the way the model did, and I made several sketches trying different changes – I used a photo reference so I had a lot of time. I didn’t like the head position on the photo and the second light. So I changed those. Did I learn something from the process? Definitely! I count on more people posting their great drawings here and then I will learn even more. Now when I’ve drawn from the same reference I would better appreciate the work of others.

That’s my point – you should use every opportunity to become a better artist, and unless you can draw from life everyday you should use photo references. That’s not a shortcut, you have to put time in this too.
As a side note, I have no formal art education and I come from a different background so what I say is clearly not a professional opinion of an artist, but it is still based on a common sense =)

Hey, there are already more participants than I expected, cool! =)

Nathan, great drawing, very accurate! Prosenjit, thats just epic, you can feel the volume and the space!

lovin art

Am I allowed to put my two cents in ….?

Alex, actually, you are encouraged:)

p.s. sorry for commenting on everyone by the way, that’s not patronizing, that’s being the “thread’s host” if that’s a thing