A good friend of mine is a great artist. He sat me down for my first watercolor lesson a few weeks ago and he started off by handing me a book of Peter de Seve's art.
I was taken with this tiny rough sketch he made for a character design (the top photo) for Remy (of Ratatouille fame) which didn't get used, but was still full of life for me. So, I copied the sketch as a large watercolor. I was worried about getting paint all over the book, but my friend encouraged me "Before the internet, the best place for reference art was from art books like this. The best art books are worn and have paint in them and you can tell they've been used."
I was still careful, but I felt a lot more relaxed.
One of the things I'm learning, particularly from this friend of mine, is that art is not intimidating. At least, it's not as intimidating as I thought it was. You have to go through stages. First, you're bad - or unpracticed, maybe - and that's to be expected. Then, you copy other people and learn from artists who are more practiced. And then you keep doing that until you grow and find your own voice. And then you don't stop.
