To photoref or not to photoref....

Updated: here's the original article:Bleeding cool" Swipe and a scared girl"


On Bleeding cool, a website that devotes itself to breaking comic book news and rumors, they've been discussing the use of photo reference.The focus of the argument is Salvador Larocca, the artist of The Invincible Iron Man series for Marvel Comics. the offending image was based off of a copyrighted photo found online.












Now, I like Bleeding Cool and have been occasionally on Bleeding Cool, sometimes to my chagrin. My problem isn't with BC itself, but with the assumption by some that a cartoonist who uses reference is somehow weaker than those who don't. 
This I have an issue with for a few reasons.First I have to admit that I also used the photo myself for a panel in an issue of Supergirl. I loved the expression and wanted to use it for this scene:
Now as you can see I didn't copy it exactly, I altered it but I wanted the sense of terror. Now here the thing, That's how I believe photoref should be used. Every artist I know hase a morgue file of photo reference. We either shoot it ourselves:




Stuart immonen
We clip it from Magazines, television, or films

Every comic book artist I admire from Alex Raymond, to Brian Bolland and even Jack Kirby used photoref for those things you need to use can't picture, or what to get correct. My current KISS project is heavily photo referenced because of the location and the time period. I wouldn't be able to do it otherwise.What gets to me is this sort of fan thinking that tries to turn it into a crime against nature. Are there guys who go overboard with it, yes, but on a whole, it's part of the artistic process.
Get over it.