WARNING: GRAPHIC - Video of Christian Child Killed Today in Syria

There is an entire cahtper in the Famous Artists Course that teaches nothing but how to use reference and keep a swipe file. My original morgue file (AKA swipe file) was set up to model that advice. I still have all my old files, and even have portions of the file contents from deceased professionals who left me their studio contents. Some of my references and art supplies are more than a century old!The book The Red Rose Girls shows how the famous illustrators of the Golden Age kept meticulous reference files and hired photographers: but kept it all a secret, as it was considered low rent to use photos as reference for art! The illustrators all insisted they worked from life every time, but it wasn't true.People have very odd ideas about how artists work, and think we all have to have photographic memories for every picture. That's nonsense.If Da Vinci had a Polaroid, I bet he'd have used it.I'll tell you this much: one notorious swiper, on finding out I had a lot of 30+ year old reference from Japan, begged me to give it to him.Wish on a star, pal.