How were masterpieces of artistic culture drawn?

Question

Design

Greetings, the actual question is:
When they draw people or objects, do artists draw all this from their heads or are they guided by a photo, posing?
My problem is that I can’t even draw a cat out of my head, I definitely need a photo.
Of course, I can draw, but this is at the level of old cartoons. But there is no way to draw a realistic cat.
I took up this only two days ago. The last time I drew at school. It was as if they hit me in the head, I want to draw.
Advise a newbie literature, thank you very much.

Answer 1

No one ever comes up with a drawing out of thin air.
Art is a culture, a culture of everything that the brain remembers in the world around it. If a person has never painted and has not been interested in the paintings of other people, and art has never entered his narrow world, he will not do anything right away.
This also applies to web design, and drawing, and embroidery, and I don’t know there ... collecting some figures, until a person begins to be interested in this culture, every day he will not look at dozens of works, wonder why it was done this way, remember the contours and of course to draw his own pictures - he will draw, to put it mildly, not very well.
After you see thousands of paintings by other authors, your brain will be able to come up with your own ideas based on what you see.
For your brain now, coming up with something of your own is a pattern break, as soon as you immerse yourself in the culture of the desired direction, your brain will begin to generate the right ideas.

Answer 2

Practice.

Answer 3

A traditional millennial-style question: "what sequence of simple steps will lead to the desired result, preferably immediately?"
You can really learn to draw decently. To do this, you need to study technique, composition, anatomy and practice (building a composition, working with color, drawing from life, starting with a simple one, such as cubes and plaster figures, not cats), it is desirable to be able to receive feedback from someone, who is professionally engaged in precisely teaching graphics / painting, and not just from the artist. Usually, it takes about four years. The question of the need for photographs, of course, is meaningless.

Answer 4

You can't draw anything more complicated than a cube from your head.
To draw a cat realistically from your head, you need to know its anatomy thoroughly and master various techniques for conveying the texture of wool, understand how to work with light and shadow. It is much easier to copy 1000 cats from nature, and even 1001 will more or less turn out to be similar to a real one and without a sitter cat.

Answer 5

Professional artists use references. These can be field productions, old sketches from nature, photographs. You can do it out of your head, but you need a lot of experience (years of daily drawing in an art school, university and workshop).
While you're learning, don't draw pictures, and don't draw from your head. You can only learn by drawing from nature.
I think it's easiest to start with graphite pencils and markers, do quick sketches.
The main thing in drawing is not to copy, to learn to see interesting plots, shapes, volumes, light, designs and characteristic features of objects. The drawing should be meaningful, not beautiful. So do not put up with the curvature, but just forget about it. When the drawings become meaningful, then they will become beautiful. Technique is not important at all.
I would not pay much attention to cubes, balls and other cylinders if you are not interested. Books for beginners are of two types: either harmful or boring. Draw what you like and how you like. The main thing - as often as possible and with pleasure.
For drawing people, anatomy is important, to start with proportions (the elbow is at the level of the navel, the length of the foot is equal to the height of the head, etc.). Here I highly recommend Bummes' books on plastic anatomy.