How often do you guys use reference pictures?
When you have an idea for something do you put a few pictures together or do you visualize what the object would look like? I don't visualize things very well for some reason and I'm not sure how to help that :) But either way
Do you use reference pictures? Tell me a little bit about your art process

I use reference pics for realistic stuff, but I have done some without as well. It depends on the end result I want. If its something Iam really unfamiliar with I will want to use a reference.

As I love painting realistic stuff like portraits and such, I always take reference pictures of friends/my gf before starting out. Reference is very important to me, the better the reference is, the better the result is. Also for enviroments, I tend to either snap pictures myself, of search the internet for inspiration. It is not too important to make enviroments look just as my ref picture as it is with faces...

very rarely use ref, paint from memory, then if i have an element in the picture that i'm not too sure about, i'll google it, and get help, say if i was doing a skeleton, i know my skeletal anatomy pretty well, but the handbones always lose me if i'm drawing it on an angle, so i'll look for skeletal hands to help me out, never copy anything like for like, just observe and learn, there have been times when i've painted something i'm not too familiar with, so i've had 5 or 6 refs open from different angles to nail it, but i like the freedom it gives me, working in conceptual art, it's very beneficial if you can get exactly what is in your mind, out onto canvas without needing to rely on a predefined image, rulebook changes a bit if i'm doing a portrait, but my principle stays pretty much the same, i have a few refs from diff angles of the person i'm painting, and use them to help me visualise a likeness, use my own poses, skintones, lighting, just getting help on feature placement from the refs, i want to be in a position where i can produce anything, from imagination, realistically, it's going to be ten years before i get there, shrug off the stylised scratchings i do now, got a lot of work ahead of me, but it'll be worth it

Thank you guys so much :)
I use fictitious subjects but help myself with reference pictures of realistic smaller parts. I wish my work process was kind of like this SD :)
I don't think my theme will come out as I need it to without the reference- unfortunately I don't use reference only for things that I am unfamiliar with
And henning it's the same with me- if I draw people then I will probably use a picture as well but I think you always need it for features- it's very difficult to draw a face from memory.. at least for me
Too many lines to remember ;)
In an environment situation I would use reference for smaller things like houses or how an object looks in comparison to another (size/angle) rather than the picture as a whole
But my process is like yours :)
And Monk I wish I could paint from memory- it doesn't tend to be as realistic or express my idea as a whole as much.. I pretty much do the same thing- I google an image and refer to that for details/angle/shapes
But you've given me a very good idea- about having a few references open from a few angels and reflecting how would it look in the shape or angle that I need. Thank you :) I'm used to using just one picture- I don't draw it exactly as I see it but I hate that I borrow so much for details
And I know that it would be great if I could express the idea without relying on another image to help me out but since I constantly do this and don't seem to visualize objects well without reference I'm wondering how others have worked on this.. But you've given me a great idea :) Thank you
I think that your work process is the best I'm really glad that you're at a point right now where you can express yourself and get it right without references.. and just out of your knowledge

Most artists that can do very convincing non reference stuff (people, concept art etc) have done extensive amounts referenced work such as live model study, etc. So keep that in mind as well. If you use enough references and hopefully different references (for faces its fun to find people with really different appearances) , It will teach you different ways of building a face and adding character to your concepts. Otherwise the non referenced characters you paint will tend to have the 'general' off the shelf look or similar features all the time.

I've done live model study- I've been doing this for a very long time
I'm just not good at visualizing an object like I need.. But I know what you mean about non-referenced characters having similar features all the time- it doesn't happen either for some reason :)