10 things that I learned when I started drawing outside instead of from pictures :

I used to be a lazy ass and didn't draw from life, from a live model, or a still life, on the streets or in nature. Even though most successful artists say drawing from life is an exercise you should do if you want to get good I was lazy (like you may be) and still wouldn't do it.

Here's what I discovered and the benefits that I got from it, when I started doing it. If you are not convinced after this, I'm not trying any further. Why it is better to draw from life than from a picture, from my experience:

1- FORM PERCEPTION:

You can see better the form that you have in front when you draw from life! A picture has no detph. A picture is only 1 image. Drawing from life you have as many images as you want from the object in front of you (Just move around or move the object).

I.E. I have tried a million times to learn how to draw a pelvis, but didn't understand it until I saw one on a squeleton. Same with other bones. In a picture you can misinterpret it in a houndred different ways. Which leads me to the next point.

2- REFERENCE GALORE. 

A picture is shit, a picture is ONE image.  Imagine a turnaround of a model, that is a bit better.

A 3d model is a step better than that. A 3d model in VR is probably the closest you can get, but still you couldn't touch it. I don't have a lot of experience on VR but I suppose its gonna be big for reference and I plan on getting one when they get a bit cheaper, and its gonna be great I suppose specially to understand landscapes, since most people can't fly...

But imagine this. We spend all this money to make something as close to reality as possible, shouldn't we just ditch all that and see the real deal instead? OK, when possible, but sometimes we have the best reference at our doorstep, or on other humans in front of us, or in the mirror, and we ignore it.

Do you want to study how clothing works? okay, grab as sketchbook and get out or ask a friend, or just go out to the street and there's millions of people all clothed (hopefully) Pick and choose whoever and draw, quick! Do you want to draw plants, rocks, whatever! go to forest, a desert what you have near, and you dont have a bunch of references, you have infinite! 

3- GET BETTER AT PROPORTION:

Drawing from life forces you most of the time to draw at a different scale than what you see. This helps you develop the sense of proportion, if you try to make your model fit in the sketchbook page. 

Also when you a drawing a landscape you need to set limits to it, know from where to where are you drawing on your page. That personally helped me a lot with layin and composition.

4- GET BETTER AT VALUE ARRANGING:

Drawing from life helps will get you familiarized to how light works and how we see. Since the range of your tools (pencil or ink) is a lot smaller than digital you are forced to think through your value structure. The ligthest light is a million times lighter than the white in your monitor. The darkest dark has nothing to do with the black on your monitor. This big difference can hit you on the head like a hammer and help you finally understand how values work! 

5- GET A SENSE OF SCALE:

Since many times we draw from the point of view of a person, what better to get a sense of scale of  the thing that you want to draw than to stand in front of the real actual thing!!! You can't get that from a photograph, at least not the same way.

6- DEVELOP SPEED AND VISUAL MEMORY: 

Specially if you want to draw people or animals, you are gonna get quick. Because the real world moves all the time, and you won't stop sketching. When your model moves, try remembering how it was a few seconds ago to finish as much as you can from your memory. If you paint casts in teh studio there's no problem, but you try painting fruits, They rot, you got a few days for that drawing before things start to get ugly (and smelly).

7- TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT SKY!:

 If you tried drawing clouds, or a sky, a sunset, dawn, night, day, rainy, blue, whatever... A sky doesn't fit in a single picture. You can't feel the direction of the wind, you don't see the clouds moving, you don't know, if its cold or warm, damp or is there dust in the air... yet all those things affect how the sky looks! You can't get that from a photo, from as many photographs as you wan't. Look at the whole thing, all above and around you and try to make sense of it, I guarantee you, you will start to pick up patterns that will make your concept art much better!

8- COMPOSITION, LEARNING TO SIMPLIFY, AND CHOOSE WHAT IS THE POINT (of your drawing, because many times you won't have time for the accesory)

Let's say you are drawing a person but its moving all the time. You have to learn to simplify that pose to the minium, put those gesture drawing lessons to use, to make sure you capture what was important of the pose (IE the action line, and maybe you exagerate it a bit to make sure you got it)

 Let's say you want to draw a landscape in 15 minutes, because if you wait more, the light is changing. You are forced to simplify what you see in order to put it down, to a bunch of values and colors. This need to rush is not necesarily making your your drawings worse than if you slow down, as long as you always strive to get down the point, to decide what you want to capture and do it. It's not like you can't do those in a slow drawing.

9- HUMAN CONTACT:

It is a way to meet potential customers or make contacts of any kind. Its also a good excuse to meet with other artists and have fun. If you are an introvert, staying at home all the time will make you even more introverted. If you are doing life or still drawings at an academy you can get this benefit too.

This last one specific to going out to the streets (ok, only in smaller cities), or the country, roads, or whatever. 

10- GET SOME FRESH AIR:

If you draw/paint digital most of the time, it gets you on the street. Some fresh air is good from time to time.

These are a few points but I can't tell how many times I was strugling with something that I learned in theory and then seeing it in nature , or whatever, in 3d in front of me, I was awestruck how obvious it was, yet when we don't go out much, we don't notice, because in 2d paper it really isn't that obvious.

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