I think it's prevelent enough now not to be considered "cheating" - you
use all the tools you have and I'd have to consider it just another tool
in this case. I've heard of many airbrush artists and technical
illustrators working from photos - particularly figure
painters/illustrators, where using a photo would be much cheaper than
paying an artist's model to sit for an entire session.

I'd agree that the "art" comes in the departures from the photo - as
mentioned below.

--
- Rufus

Don Stauffer wrote:

I once read a fascinating book about the use of photography in
painting. Apparently many famous painters of mid to late 19, and 20th
century were also into photography, and used photography in their
painting work. One can claim that drawing perspective control lines on
canvas before painting is also cheating.

Simon Robbins wrote:

"Don Stauffer" wrote in message
...

After having trouble for years with perspective on both ships and
aircraft, I have found a solution, and it even involves scale modeling
:-)

Some would call that cheating, but not me. I was told by a professional
illusrator that there's no such thing as cheating when it comes to paying
the rent. So I do a similar thing. I take photos, print them out at the
right size, flipped X axis, and then transfer the basics of the image using
a trace. The way I see it, you use whatever tools necessary to produce the
best quality image you can.

Only thing is, perspective often looks better if it's exagerrated,
especially in action shots. And remember, when drawing pictures of land
features (such as airfields) from high altitude, the curvature of the Earth
distorts the perspective.

Si