Practice Drawing With Your Own References

Choose one thing to practice: a pose, a material, a lighting condition, or a type of shape. A small set of relevant images is enough to begin.

Choose your images

Open Timed Study in refern. In the session setup, choose Folders to use part of your collection, or Search to find a set of references in your workspace. Preview the images before starting.

Use images you are allowed to work from. If you need help bringing your collection into refern, start with the workspace setup guide.

Set a pace

Choose how much time you want for each reference and how many images to use. For a first session, you could try five images at two minutes each. Treat that as a starting point, then adjust it to the exercise.

A shorter interval can help you focus on large shapes. A longer one gives you room to study values or details. Neither is a rule or a promise about how quickly you will improve.

Choose the image order in the setup controls. A fixed order lets you plan a sequence; a random order can help vary repeated sessions.

Start the session

Select Start session. refern displays the reference with a timer and advances through the session. Keep the goal of the exercise in view: for example, the overall silhouette rather than a finished drawing.

If the pace feels wrong, change it for your next session. The timer is a way to structure practice, not a score.

Review what you noticed

When you finish, look at the drawings together. Write down one thing to try next time, such as simplifying the shadow shapes or checking proportions earlier.

You can repeat the same references to explore that question, or choose a new set. Keep the routine small enough that you want to return to it.