The question of how to approach drawing from videos as reference is an underused technique I want to share because video reference is more useful than static photo reference for several use cases.

Where video reference excels: gesture and motion. A single frame from a video captures a pose that would be artificial or impossible to hold for a photo reference session. Action poses, mid-motion expressions, and body mechanics in motion are all better captured by video than static photographs.

The technique: pause video on the most expressive frame of a motion. Draw quickly. Move to the next frame. This builds understanding of how forms transition through motion rather than just how they appear in a single frozen state.

The scrub technique: scrub slowly through a video of a complex motion (a jump, a throw, a turn) watching how the forms distort and realign. This live observation teaches body mechanics in a way that static poses don't.