Something I haven’t taken advantage of enough throughout my practice as an artist is utilizing video games as a resource for reference photos. Many video games provide beautifully crafted landscapes and architecture to use as a reference for painting, drawing, or illustrating. This being said, I recently used a screenshot from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a reference for a watercolor piece. This particular piece of media is well-known for it’s stunning, painterly graphics and was crowned Game of the Year in 2017.

Below is a side by side comparison of the original screenshot I referenced versus my rendition.

This screenshot was one that I found online. I really love the quality that I achieved in this painting and I am planning to go into the game myself to see what shots I could find to use for reference in the future.