>>5905726An artist like Malcolm Liepke has no incentive to learn to paint from imagination beyond perspective and lighting knowledge needed for the merging of different photo refs into one without looking wonky.
Drawing from imagination is more of a practical necessity than something people usually seek out. Comic and manga artists, for one example, can't afford the money or (mostly)time it would take to get real models to pose for each panel in multiple composition variations with different lighting setups. And obviously the more fantastical and dangerous the action the less likely you could ever get real life reference for it. The best they can do is use mannequins, either real or digital, and supplement it with their fundamental knowledge and their experience drawing thousands of figures from reference in various poses.
So any entertainment design artist has huge incentive to learn to draw from imagination and that is who I would be asking about the limits of drawing from imagination since they are more likely to use it in their everyday art.
