As a person who used to trace when I was younger and is an artist now, it depends on HOW you trace. If youre using it to get better at anatomy or to get better in drawing in your own style, then thats fine! but if your tracing someone elses art without permission or credits, or is just tracing to do it and not saying you did and passing it off as your own art, then that's unacceptable.
I use to trace over art and colored it posted on Instagram as mine eventually when I learned it's bad I deleted my whole Instagram account cuz I felt guilty. Now I do my own art
@@ThatSlayerguyatleast you recognised ur mistake and now look, you draw your own art! even though tracing has its benefits, ofc dont post it and say its yours 😭 (when i was tracing like i was maybe 5-6, so i didnt have socials and maybe that was a good thing bc knowing me i probably wouldve posted it too LMAO😭)
@@tequt omg i just reread that forget what i said before, youre totally right 😭 im so tired of plagiarism also n then just changing colours and passing it off as yours? kinda insane...
I agree! Free base-to-use or tracing for personal practices is OK but claiming artwork that isnt yours is not okay. Tracing in general is not a tool to depend on and steal but for uses of practice and observation.
I IDK how this """body""" crap works! i want to become an artist *traces everyday to learn without posting or sharing about it NEVER!* *posts what i learned instead of the thing i copied*
Im for 15 years in the art community and working 4 years now in the professional scene. Tracing is a skill you should def learn. It saves so much time. Like trace your own hand or anatomy. Define your shapes by tracing. If your using someone elses art. Its better to keep it for yourself due to moral reasons and ofc plagiarism. Simple
Hell yeah. I find that sometimes I do something I really like in my sketchbook and want to reproduce it as a finished piece and I will 100% trace that thing over to the finish paper to save so much time. It’s mine, I free handed that in my sketchbook, I can reproduce it any way I want. And tracing someone else’s work can really give you a feel for how the line work is done. I know I can see the way a line looks but can not reproduce it for the life of me because of the illusion of depth . So I trace it a few times to get the hand feel for the line and to see just how subtle the curve or bend is or just how close the lines are, then try doing it again free hand. Very helpful.
I had to make my own reference for a hand that wasn't clear in another reference image, I did a drawing first for blocking in but still looked wonky, I made the same pose with my own hand holding a coffee cup and took a picture, I then traced the picture that I myself took and edited it into the drawing.
Just so people know, Tracing is a VALID technique to save time in a professional setting. Game designers use it ALOT, animators do and comic artists who work with teams do too! It's to make sure styles remain consistent, or if you're say needing to make 100 different outfits for a model that's in a game like a Warhammer RTS and you have hundreds of individual units and need to decide on a uniform look for the army /regiments. Actually, the art book that came with Warhammer Online has THE BEST EXAMPLES OF THIS in practice! They use the one image of a dwarf or skaven and trace over the image to create many variations of clothing for the models. It's really interesting to see it in professional production work. Also PLEASE stay away from the anti/pro ship discourse. It will keep you sane.
I would legitimately use it for a manga/comic if I had a complicated object I needed to draw a lot. Just make a 3d model of it, trace the shapes, add detail, and boom.
If you are tracing with permission then of course it is a viable technique for consistency. Using it to steal art and then claim it is not ok. Just ask Disney.
Hirohiko araki, the creator of jojos bizarre adventure, is heavily referencing models on fashion covers or pictures for the famous poses of his own characters. This is well known among the Jojo Fandom but Noone really thinks badly of it. I think this is because araki is known to be passionate about fashion even having collabed multiple times with fashion brands like Gucci, Balenciaga, converse etc. When people see the reference I think they see it more as paying homage to the original as opposed to stealing from it or something like that. So the relationship between the artist and whatever is used as tracing material or reference seems to matter as well.
I know this is 2-week-old but tracing is different from referencing. When you trace and use the outcome as one of your original work, you build nothing (adding details won’t count). Meanwhile, when using references, you study the reference and recreate what you see. Tracing with a right mind can help developing your memorized image gallery tho, but it should be for practice only. Ofc people can trace the image they took themselves or their old artwork, but when tracing others’ artwork and claim it their art, it’s disgusting.
I used to trace over art and colored without crediting the acutal person it posted on Instagram as mine eventually when I learned it's bad I deleted my whole Instagram account cuz I felt guilty. Now I do my own art and i proud of it
@@MohammedAgbadiI have a question if I use an artist fanart as a reference to draw my own does it considered tracing? Because in your video do you told us heavy referencing is is frowned upon in the art community but even if I heavily reference fan art I'm always trying to make sure it's not the exact copy. Is it fine than?
@@ThatSlayerguyreference and tracing is very different. Reference is just looking at another image and trying to replicate some aspects of it on your own. Tracing is directly drawing over a drawing.
Back in my day we had “bases” taken from anime and manga and people would use them to draw their own characters and OCs. TikTok would lose their damn MINDS.
My coworker used one the other day to help her make an OC! I haven't drawn art In years and all this AI gen art drama is wild an lowkey discourages me from picking it back up. 😅
My old art teacher would yell at us for using a reference, not even tracing, because "you are not a real artist if you can't draw/come up with something yourself". Gave me a really bad complex for quiet a while and even now I struggle using a reference. As long as you trace to learn or to just get the base of something going, it should be fine. Wish my teachers would have had the same mindset about art as you do.
This is so stupid. How are people expected to learn how to draw without referencing reality? Referencing is quite literally the *backbone* of art, since art is representing reality. Like. How do people can miss the mark THIS badly???
I am an artist who uses a lot of 3D models in my art so I can quickly set up reference pics for my art. I trace over them using them more so as a lose guide for my final drawing and will gladly make adjustments as needed (years of study taught me where fixes meed to go). Doing this actually taught me how to freehand perspective, draw with confidence, and break down my figures a lot more easy. My art has improved a lot over the time I've been doing this and I can also get my work done faster.
I feel like there is no right or wrong with art, it's how you use it like how you trace. If you trace and try learning from it then that's perfectly okay. But if you claim it as yours without the artist's consent then that's not okay. Tracing can be used as a tool to learn from it, not just copy it, if you want to learn anatomy by tracing then go ahead just don't claim it as yours you still need to provide credits, That is how tracing should be used.
The only wrong is if you're taking others' work and claiming it as your own 👍 I trace shapes over my own hands all the time because sometimes fingers are just fucking weird! Idc as long as the end product looks fine
Actually, when I was going through my longest and most stubborn art block, the only way I could produce a piece of art is when I traced another artist’s artwork, of course I never profited off of it, but it made my inspiration come back and before I knew it, I went back to drawing, ironically it was the method that made me create one of my most original art pieces to date lol.
Letting the mind rest, and still excersising tbe hand, my favourite way if dealing with artblock. I find tracing with shapes/studying the artwork or picture also works for me
I wanted to share a long story of why i am currently copying other's works, but your comment is basically a short and clear embodiment of what I basically wanted to say XD And there i was thinking I invented this genius idea. Lol me. But yeah. I am in the deepest longest artblock ever and crawling out of it is a challenge. I can draw whatever i want. But I realised that my head often gets in a way of my work. It constantly stopping and sabotaging me from creating. So I just turn on a video to relax, open pinterest and mindlessly redraw whatever it offers. I dont post these works, also, I am trying to mark what I made original, what is a copied work and list an author if have their name. And this works out amazingly well for me! I managed to draw almost every day for the last 2 months! It marvelous! I had 2 years straight of wanting but not being able to draw at all. Now, thanks to this copy-drawing, I got myself used to the action, warmed up, and in a mood to create my own work, FINALLY. I am also very happy to see that I am apparently not alone in this. I am also thinking of studying and doing master copies of paintings. I already copied 2 of Van Goh works and loved the process. I hope stereotypes of copying or tracing being completely bad and produced only by beginners dont take over. I had been drawing for around 10 years and these stereotypes affected me as well. I wish I realised of this trick much sooner, because it would have incredibly helped me, when I was at my lowest and really needed art back in my life, but couldn't because of artblock and a ton of enxiety.
@@Splat654 I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling through a long art block. Always keep in mind that sometimes, art block is caused by non-art issues. Whether it be mental health, unchecked problems, or even a lack of sleep, anything can cause you to feel unmotivated. If tracing random things from Pinterest helps you, then that is amazing and I hope you can find your artistic spirit again. Ironically, what helped me draw more was quitting art as a career. I kinda realized, way too far down the road, that art is really only a hobby for me lol. Now that I've found my real path, I'm much happier, and art is much easier for me now. I have been drawing more recently than I have in the last few years. Like I said before, sometimes we struggle with art for other reasons.
So, in art school, we actually did use tracing as a method of learning, but the key way to trace with intention. You weren't just copying lines, but really thinking about the reason the artist made those decisions. These were NEVER passed off as original works or finished pieces. As an illustrator I've used tracing over my own photos as a shortcut when on a deadline, though I prefer not to because it always feels less dynamic.
Raises hand. I made a drawing of one of my newest character then I traced over it, then took that trace and traced over it. Every iteration made my character look even better each time. So... yes?
I personally found tracing wasnt bad idea, its really help me to understand the basic shape by making a breakdown of it first. Not blatantly just tracing it. Because of that, i can know if something off with my artwork, like the anatomy is weird or the foreshortening is absurd. Personally, i found fundamental is pretty hard to learn for someone who cant draw, like me for example. To understand fundamental, i should draw first, to create muscle memory for myself first (which by tracing). then the fundamental fix the issue i had, if i have no idea what to do with my artwork. My method can be right and wrong for some, but since i enjoyed that method, so i still drawing until now
Especially stuff like anatomy. That shit is so hard and tbh I feel like good knowledge of especially the human form isn’t treated with enough respect (I see so many people treat it as a “basic” skill, when it’s genuinely so challenging). Tracing is amazing for complex forms like that.
controversial take maybe, but tracing photos (not drawings) really helped me learn anatomy. My best early portraits were drawn AFTER i traced the reference image. I then threw out the tracing and drew it freehand. It helped me get a sense of the features and the space between them. It also just helps you learn to stop drawing what you know and actually start drawing what you see.
I’m a 14 year old artist and tracing does help me a lot! I use it for chibis and front facing!!!!! Seeing this video is helping me form my own solid opinion as well!!!! :)
As a 16 yo artist i would recommend deconstructing drawings into basic shapes instead. Tracing is a good way to learn but by personal experience my art quality increased since i started to sketch with basic shapes instead. But well, i'm not your boss; it's your art, your way to improve it!
my suggestion would be for you to immediately draw (the same/similiar drawing) freehand after you do a traced drawing. This way you actually commit what you learned to memory. it also forces you to do more repetition which is also great for learning. In fact I, as a rule, always draw freehand first, and then trace if I'm having issues, and then drawing it again a third time (freehand). This is mostly useful when I'm doing studies of art (copies for learning).
I find tracing real life photo or things really helped me to expand my knowledge of things especially unusual things like a controller, wild animals or certain rural landscapes, which is useful for budding or young artist. It also teach you how you can add a spin onto things that you ref or traced, a deceptively hard skill to learn once you have your own style or trying to go for a style in a professional work. Tracing other people's work is fine if you're interested in studying their style and credited them, but nowadays people do this just for internet clout without crediting. Its just sad tbh that to them art is nothing more than a clout tool like selling a brand
definitely helped! I was practicing the danganronpa artstyle, and decided to sketch chihiro and practice using him as reference. I managed to learn it!
I used to trace over PNGs of Animal Crossing characters and then color them in again. I never shared the characters or claimed any of the art as my own. I saw it more as a coloring book than anything.
When I learn a new way of thinking about anatomy (like shapes to represent different parts of the body), I find it really helpful to trace over reference drawings to practice doing things like foreshortening or angling those shapes in ways where the finished product still looks like a person. If I end up posting the art, I always credit the model I got the reference pose from and make sure they're okay with it. I still do this for hands a ton because they're hard and I'm still experimenting with ways to draw them that works for me.
I always get so mixed up when people bring up tracing art because in my mind the whole "trace it and then present the traced piece as original" thing isn't on the table. It's so far removed from the table that I forget it exists. I forget that people do it, and that's what a lot of people are talking about. Well, I often use tracing when I want to learn a character design... I'm sure this is a "me" issue, but when I'm trying to learn how to draw a character, I have a hard time seeing a shape breakdown immediately from the original art. So I trace it to make a simplified, uncolored copy, focusing on what I feel is important for the shape language of the character/ creature/ object, then break my tracing down into shapes, so I can understand how to draw them in different poses and angles. Another thing I've gotten into is using models for the more dynamic angles and 3-point perspectives I struggle with. I understand that CSP comes with 3d models that you can manipulate right on your canvas, for those of you who may have that, but for the rest of us who may not have such direct access to that kind of service, there are websites like Magic Poser. None of the models match my characters perfectly, but once I get the positioning and an understanding of what the foreshortening is *supposed* to look like, it's pretty easy to simply sketch my characters' shapes over the posed model. This also allows me to feel out how my characters shapes squish and stretch at these angles, making it easier to reproduce similar angles later without needing to spend time making a model pose again.
Tracing was something I did in primary school in art class, but once I turned 11 or 12 it was time to really learn how and why, form, light and shadow, perspective and proportions actually work. That just takes lots of practice and really looking at studying what you are drawing. Most people have phones now and can take photos anywhere so it’s great to do that too. And taking, tracing and drawing your own photos will also help in developing your own look and style as well. Now is definitely the best time to take up something like art or music with so many good resources available for free or at quite a reasonable cost.
I would never claim traced things as my own but I feel it has really helped me understand anatomy and certain styles over time. It also helped me take pieces from traced work and turn it all into a whole new art style for me
Tracing can build up line confidence and helps you learn anatomy. I use it to study other people's art, but if I've traced it I never post it. I just keep it to myself. It can help if you keep your brain turned on and make sure you're learning while you do. If you trace a 3d model however I think its perfectly fine. Work smarter not harder am I right? There's so much more you have to do after the initial tracing of the 3D model. I'm planning on making a webtoon and so I've been tracing 3d models because I don't have enough mileage anatomy wise to get them out consistently. But its something I'm not going to do long term. Someday I want to draw without that crutch.
When I was younger I would trace or copy from reference, not always using art sometimes I would trace photos etc. mostly would be for general shapes or anatomy. it was something that really helped me early on gain a muscle memory for drawing anatomy. It wasn’t something I did often but if I found a piece of art I really wanted to learn how they did things I would reference it or even trace it to understand the strokes they used to make the shapes they did. But I would never post or claim these, I would draw these in a sketchbook or on sheets of lined paper just as a quick exercise that I’d never show anyone. I did it incredibly rarely, I generally was just using things as a reference not actually tracing. I think it did help me but I would never do it now. It was something I did when I was a child and just getting into art
2:02 I rose my both my hands irl bc this what is what my art journey was like. When I was younger (like 8 - 9 yo), I sucked at drawing, but I loved it, it was a wonder full experience but I always came out not as good as I saw others' drawings, then I realized I could trace a good drawing that I liked, of course I didn't knew it was a bad thing I was just a kid, I started a basic sketches and shapes that I learned with my art teacher to keep things where it should be before I started traced. I kept doing exactly that for years, I even made a Instagram account to show traced art, until late 15 yo me learned that tracing was bad and I was plagiarizing art, I felt bad af , deleted all my posts and stopped drawing all together for 1 years bc of the guilt, after 16th birthday I stared drawing again bc of boredom, without any references and no tracing I made a okay-ish to acceptable drawing, I was not as the same level as the old drawing I made with tracing but it was a certain improvement to when I was 9. Straight and continuous lines without trembling, without feathering the line art, shadows and where the light comes from, I learned things that I didn't even knew I actually learned, I didn't even knew anatomy but the humans I made where definitely more human than before, I improved I didn't knew I did but it was enough to relight the passion for art that I had. Yes, tracing do make you indirectly better at art even if don't even know what you're doing, speaking from experience. But it doesn't speed your progress tho, 3 months of learning the fundamentals will do better than 7 years of tracing lmao.
I think tracing can be used as a guideline and also tracing something first to get a feel for the lines and observe how lineart works. It's a great tool as long as you dont overuse it
As a young artist, when I used to copy art pieces I like, I disnt trace but copied from sight (and never posted it because its not mine), this helped with understanding proportings, placement and style. I only traced the image in specific times, and that method was on another piece of paper to trace the part to understand how to recreate it. Tracing should only be used for yourself and not for posting which I agree with, I just only recently started drawing poses without references (only sometimes since there is a lot for me to learn) and I don't trace, only using inspiration from other artists. And this really shows the break between beginner artist who traces to understand and a more understanding beginner artist where tracing isn't even needed. Some people who trace can actually draw good but maybe aren't confident enough to make a pose or just have malicious intent. Tracing ia fine just don't say it was yours and don't make money from it, it's so simple that it's hard to understand a tracer's mind, there are more cons then pros but I guess they are too braindead to actually think
I'm a professional artist, have been for 27 years, and I will trace pieces of things to get a base when I'm on a deadline, like a hard to draw shoe angle, a bent leg in perspective, or rarely a strange hand position (I'm actually surprisingly competent with hands). Sometimes I take commission work as well and if a client gives me a specific pose reference and says "I want this exact pose" I'll start off my drawing by tracing the pose, but tbh I always end up having to adjust the trace because it never fits the proportions of the character they give me and/or my own art style, so it dosen't end up looking like the original anyway. Tracing it however helps me keep the 'essence' of the pose and I have a lot of repeat clients so they are clearly happy with the results. I trace is my own art. idk when you get paid to draw art and you do it for 12 hours a day 5+ days a weeks every single month, sometimes your brain just like won't art but you need to pay bills. So when I get into an art block but still need money and my brain won't do the drawing, I'll trace my old pieces for things that my brain now refuses to do. Best example is I got a freelance gig where I had to draw a series of characters with elaborate braids and it was months of braids, braids, braids, braids, at first i got really good at braids and was cranking them out superfast but after a while my brain went on braid strike and i fully lost the ability to draw braids.... sooooo I started to just wholesale either copy and paste them in, or trace ones I had already drawn, and just modify them to work. Other than that, the only tracing I just fragrantly do is tracing stock images of things that I won't likely draw again, and have 0 interest in learning. Best example I have is cars, I have had two instances where I have had people ask for a car in their commission in the 10 years I have been doing commissions, and f*** learning how to draw cars. Drawing cars is a whole other technical field of drawing that pays bank, but i have 0 interest in. I'm a character artist and I'm not going to waste 2 years of my time learning a highly technical skill I only used for 2 commissions 5 years apart. You had better believe those were traced from stock images and if you think that makes me a hack, oh well. I think these are perfectly acceptable reasons to trace and honesty should be done. If you are just stealing someone's whole piece, I mean that's theft pain and simple. And that's not ok. I think tracing is good for baby artist to feel out art, should be set aside for intermediate artist as they learn more in depth skills, and reintroduced when you are expert/pro level as a time saving tool.
Back when I started drawing, I used to trace poses I liked, so I could draw my characters with those poses. I didn't learn much, but having some "okayish" drawings of my characters (even if it wasn't really my work) helped me stay motivated in learning. And now, I can do it without having to trace. I kinda teached me about how different artists had different artstyles and how that affected proportions though.
a small tip for those who think tracing or use tracing to learn: dont trace it form the hole but instead tey to mark out the basic shapes. and try to see how the basic shapes become the finished producked. tracing can help people learn if you use it the right way. just tracing art line from line wont do much to help but studing the pose and other shapes in the art can help you get a better understanding of it. but thats just a small tip ^^ just make sure its chill with the artist before hand or just dont post it.
Most of the times i search for a portrait of a real person in pinterest and then trace the proportion. this helped me a lot figuring out how to draw poc and black people in my own style. If you see the reference and the final piece they are very clearly different. the only thing you can notice about it are the proportions i guess. It really depends on how you trace
i didn't start getting good until i started tracing (purely for studies though, never to pass as my own art) I also thought I was so smart tracing some of my own character designs working on a comic idea. but I think that's pretty common.
I once had a commission where the client wanted a collage style piece with portraits of herself and her 5 siblings. I can do freehand portrait work but with that many references to have to work from it was quicker to trace the positions of the features and be absolutely sure that part of the likenesses were correct so I could get the project completed faster. Your last point was absolutely correct. The clients dont care. I wasn’t doing that piece with the specific goal of advancing as an artist. You complete it and move on. There’s always time to grow on your own dime.
This is amazing, thank you so much for bringing up this topic. I always used to trace from artists I admired, but never posted it or called it mine. After a while I knew I needed to stop relying on tracing so much because I wasn’t improving, even though I did improve some, I was never as good as I wanted to be, so I decided to take some lessons on skill share, from my older art friends, and anatomy tutorials, anything I could get my hands on, and after a while, I did start improving! (Trust me, learning works). But I was always REALLY slow, and struggling with perspectives, so I bought a 3d modeling program and traced those models to finish my works faster, it helped, A LOT. But even though I did trace the initial body, I still had to draw clothes, faces, hair, color it, shade it, render it and everything. So even though it made it easier, it is still tough, and still takes a lot of time, just less than before. I use 3d models to this day, but usually only for commissions and tough projects. Like he said, professionals use 3d models and tracing A LOT, normally to meet deadlines or if they can’t redraw a character correctly and do them justice, so it’s not a taboo tactic. Just want to say this, I’d say that tracing is okay, as long as you are doing so with the right intentions. Have a blessed day!❤
I love drawing only from my head! It takes months of slowly absorbing the image through osmosis. Quick ref browsing 10 mins or less and then maybe doodle that lol some that day. But I own a projector, a light box and and iPad Pro. I will trace if it seems to be the right thing. Let a person who has not devoted their life to creating art or illustration trace anything they want… let them try as hard as they like heck let them have a team of 10. It won’t ever look like a genuine work
Sometimes I trace the basic shapes on a portrait to save time, but I always change some proportions for my liking and work out all the details myself. I use the traced lines as a guide. Even if I trace those guide lines my drawing will turn out different from the reference photo because I make it my own, I change it to my own liking.
when i was very young and struggling with perspective i *did* find some utility in tracing architecture in perspective because it forced my brain to understand these angles for anatomy you can pretty easily find elements of your style by tracing over muscle figures and using it to find what lines you prioritize, what you like to be thick or thin, solid, transparent, hashed... giving you a solid base to work from basically.
10:44 I call this “mapping” vaguely copying shapes, and then making myself do it on my own. I have/ occasionally do it, but I’ve gotten better at stepping away from that. (Especially since I was new to digital art)
i have a book about learning to make comics from scratch that was made by disney professionals and have had since i was a child, and the very first lesson was tracing the pose of a person off of a bunch of pictures to get used to the shapes and movement lines
Weirdly enough, when I started out, I traced as a part of practice. There was a particular style I wanted to learn so I would practice my pen control by tracing over the line work. And while not exactly tracing, I would draw shapes over an image in order to learn the body ratios and shape arrangement to learn a certain pose. The key point though was that I never shared any of the results and never will.
I'm primarily a fan artist. I recently started using a technique that works really well for me to help me learn new faces. I get screenshots of the character I want to draw in a variety of different angles and expressions then I trace them. This is just for me to learn how that particular face works. I always make sure to break down the face and figure out what each feature if the face looks like from each angle. This is super effective for me since I already know what I am looking for and how to draw faces without tracing. I have also never posted any of my tracing practices online. My drawings of the characters got so much better because i traced and broke down how their faces worked. So yes, tracing as a tool, absolutely, tracing someone elses work and passing it off as your own, no.
Everytime someone talks about tracing, i start to remember this time when the person i know and sometimes talk to tried to make me feel ashamed of the fact that i use lots of references to draw poses on my art. I traced in my life before, but as a joke and i've never posted anything traced claiming it was my artwork. Bc of him now, i always feel like drawing with references is something i should be ashamed of..
Tracing art has helped me improve at art... in the form of sculpture. I trace my face with my hands and it helps me sculpt facial features lol! I didn't know if the same applied to drawing since drawing is not as tactile! Great video!
the way I "trace" is mostly for fun and not one for one copies, what I do is find different characters either from the same show or style and I mash the parts together that way I can make a new character that looks like it could fit in and not stick out as bad due to body shapes and some time's it's just fun to have something to color in or shade in a different style then you normally would
Ngl, I usually do sometimes trace others' art, but in a rougher sketch of it so i can get a better image of what im trying to draw, usually i would just trace only one part of an image and then layer it with my own style
for me personally, i only trace for poses, and typically I have to change the anatomy of the pose anyway. I have a hard time making up poses let alone knowing how they should look, so tracing/referencing poses for my own art. another time where I will actually trace is when painting animated characters, I can't replicate styles very good and I'm painting anyway
This is such an interesting topic that I have a few conflicting opinions on. I’m a 3D artist mostly so I’ve never been super confident in my 2D art skills, so I rely heavily on references when drawing and I honestly made some mistakes in how I went about that that I think held me back when trying to improve. For me the grid method and this one technique I used where I’d feel out the line on the reference then replicate it in my drawing (ie. Tracing but extra steps?) both really hurt my understanding and left a lot of drawings very lifeless. By focusing too much on matching the reference I was robbing myself of decision making opportunities for lack of a better term. The same thing is color picking too heavily from reference, it was accurate but also kinda thoughtless with how I applied those colors. So from that perspective I think tracing holds you back. However I do trace my own 3D work especially for hard surface work or when dealing with a difficult perspective or pose. It helps me iterate designs fast if I’m concepting or just need to finish a piece. I do want to suggest if you still decide to trace, don’t trace close up or details, use it for your blockout, ie make circles at the joints use it for your line of action and key shapes, maybe point out some key landmarks but try not to copy it 1:1 and just use it as reference from there.
For me, i sometimes trace are but only to figure out how to draw in that artstyle or to help improve my own. Sometimes i completely trace over the art, sometimes i make Lines for where the eyes are, where the nose is, where the mouth is, etc. I only do this in private though and never post it, because, obviously, its wrong. I might Think of posting the art where i outline where the eyes or nose would be, but only for stuff like “how to draw like ____” and never to pass off as my own.
Bruh the moment I look up from my drawing tablet, I was jump scared at 3:27. But for real though, I used to trace and I was told that tracing human bodies was bad and I was trying to study. At first I thought it was weird, looking at naked people but now I am happy I went through the hard work and even now, I am still learning. The more I binge watch Mohammed's videos, the more I realize that even he started somewhere. I'm just thankful to know that some professional artists aren't as toxic than I thought.
The only cases of tracing I understand are stuff like consistent animations,/animatics, in the Beyblade manga with the Beyblade tops to save time, no matter the generation you’re looking at (OG, Metal Fight, Burst), a guide to fix something, and as a practicing method. I’m not gonna go into a hissy fit for merely tracing as long as you’re honest about it. Hell, I used to trace and use bases during my early DeviantArt days, but they ended up being some crutch or something I depended on too much, and it messed up the artstyle I had at the time (dem long ahh legs I think, but it could be something else that caused it). After I stopped using bases (using the body and slapping stuff on top of it) and tracing stuff, and spent years on developing my own artstyle with actual resources and references, my art started to look better.
It's easier to just say "Tracing is wrong" because I feel like so many people blur the line. I think it's fine to trace your *own* art for animation and comics because it can help things look consistent. But then I've seen people use a screenshot to trace a character from an animated shows and never "credit" anyone because animators are often a face-less artist. They don't feel guilty about it because they don't believe they are stealing from an artist.
I always trace over a pose draw the basic shapes, then save it , use it as a reference it really helps me to understand it more because I'm still a beginner
Wow, I honestly until now (and I know I might be kinda late) actually thought tracing was like a taboo thing to do and lately I’ve done a small experiment in tracing a fan art of Blade from HSR just to try a few new poses with my main oc because I actually like him a lot and by every step I went through in the drawing I had always a feeling of guilt that I was doing a bad thing when I wasn’t. Thank you so much for showing me that tracing isn’t cheating at all to just draw prettier!
I trace loomis heads over photos of actual people(usually actors/actress from the old days and old movie stills) and then redraw the same loomis head directly next to the one that I traced and modify the proportions to my exact style. This has helped me improve so quickly
When I’m having trouble with proportions I’ll sometimes trace over the reference picture to break down the shapes. Then I’ll use that traced sketch and reference picture in tandem to understand my subject better.
This is random but I don't feel well at the moment but your voice is really calming. It's a nice distraction from the fact I feel like vomiting what I ate earlier again.
Personally tracing helped me infinitely in art. I struggle to visualise things in my mind - it’s basically just a super blurry image that the darkness is at the lowest on so I can’t visualise stuff for art. Tracing bases I googled really helped me to get used to drawing anatomy more accurately but I was always honest about really only drawing the clothes and hair over it when learning anatomy and how clothes fit over it better. Within the span of a year I went from tracing to looking at a picture of a pose and freehand drawing one of my OC’s in that pose even if their body shape is different from the pose reference. Tracing is fine if it’s for learning purposes but not okay if a person is claiming it’s their own art
0:29 OMG you got me off-guard with the Tekken 5 opening Sparking⚡️ **laughs in Bryan Fury** just _EXCELLENT!_ Now I'll go learn Tekken's artstyle, DORYAA
i trace art sometimes, but i never ever claim the art as my own, and i use it to work on anatomy! if i ever show it to my friends I always credit the original artist, but I dont share it much.
as a kid when i was way more younger i used to trace creative and popular artist because i love their art but as i started doing it instead of going over the lines i would look at the drawing and do it with my own hands which helped me alot more in my art and helped me make better art without reference i went through many fandoms, fazes and art block and it feel like i went through it all to fast cause when i look back at my old art im suprised i even drew like that
I'm guilty of this, especially when I started doing commissions. But recently, I've been building my own style and tried to refrain from tracing other people's art as much as possible. For reference, I use 3d softwares now, and I only take the basic lines and add details on my own. And yes, as stated in the video, when I'm on a tight schedule, I needed to resort to tracing. But now that I've improved on my own style, I'm gradually getting better at drawing faster without something to trace on. The takeaway of this is to not rely on tracing too much.
I trace all the time from my favorite artists in my free time and break down their styles so I can see how they work layer by layer if they don’t release their PSD files on Patreon or anything like that Just a really good way to learn how to render and do line work because even if you’re not doing it by eye you still learn a lot from it
I usually have a tough time doing poses and hands, so I most if time search up "Holding hand pose" or something and use a stock image and not someone else's work for the main pose and hand. I don't copy right of, I just use it more as an refrence. But I feel like I need to start training and using tutorials even though it's really uncomfortable for me😅
I’ve found that tracing has helped me learn, but very minimally. I use tracing as a learning tool ALONGSIDE other lessons I was learning. It’s not as good as other techniques to learn, I use it as a step between reading something and practicing the technique independently. I did it a lot with proportions when I liked to draw people- I took classes that talked about drawing people, and would trace over figures to find how they were built. I wasn’t tracing each finger and copying a detailed hairstyle, but I was using tracing to study the pose and the different shapes making up a form. I’ve been a big fan of pose reference websites for references, there’s also a handful of free 3D model sites that have heads/busts you can change the angle and lighting of. Without tracing, I would have been too intimidated and given up on my own art long ago.
2:14 - it absolutely has been a massive help! My current level would not be possible at this speed without the practice, habit and muscle memory of analysing the structure of existing art, and what goes into the pose,the various geometric parts of it, proportions , line quality, and building up thr artistic library y the habit of redrawing until you built up the habit to the poimt that you can repeat and recombine without an underlying reference. There is a reason tracing is recommended as an exercise,by real professionals. You're talking out your arse.
When I was younger I learned art by copying art from the video game tutorial books. Like actually drawing not over the image, but side-by-side. I think thats a much better use of your time as a beginner, coming from someone in art school
in college, i was taught to trace. in order to meet deadlines on particularly unusual imagery (alien worlds, monster designing, etc) we were told to mash elements of different photos together, trace over the resulting pose or background, and then start over, using only what we had made by tracing as a loose reference. it saved time, but you had to be careful to make it unrecognizable, and use actual art skills to know when the proportions were off and fix it. honestly this got me to think of tracing as being best used for advanced artists in a rush rather than for beginners, but maybe that's just me 😅
In my opinion, tracing is similar to that of using references. Growing up, I used tracing paper to help me learn how to draw. Then when I got into further education for art, I was taught about using references. I was taught when using references, I shouldn't be using an artists own work, which I believe the same can be applied for tracing. There's nothing wrong with being inspired by an artists style or breaking down the shapes of an artists work to help you learn about it. Your work should show what you learnt from it and should say something about your style that you developed. That's why tracing is annoying. Obviously artists don't want their work to be copied directly, because it shows the tracer made no effort and are basically stealing their work and claiming it as their own. To me, tracing is like using training wheels on a bike. It's there to help you learn, but if you're only ever going to use training wheels then your art isn't going to develop.
even my dad who was a professional artist, scolded me and told me that I should "Draw" the things from my drawing book rather than tracing them because i wouldn't learn anything. Can't thank him enough for that
If you're learning, i recommend it as long as you don't call it your own art. I've never traced, but Im actually thinking of starting to copy to improve my art and hopefully help me get out of my art block.
I trace. I put shapes around the reference I am working with and then from there use those shape blockouts to make something entirely new. I know how to draw and stuff, but the time you save is just a no brainer for me.
Tracing itself is not a problem it’s what people do with it that’s made it “automatically”(in some eyes) immoral. I know some people that copy art without tracing at all( they don’t pass it off as theirs, just for info and the fun of trying to draw something). It’s literally what you do with it that determines if it’s wrong. The actual art of tracing cannot be wrong because art is subjective and art to one person looks different to the next.
as a young artist, I use aps like: easypose, poseit to trace, this way I don't trace, steal or copy someone's work and I can learn anatomy or just trace poses if I'm lazy. Tracing real people poses (from pinterest) or 3D model poses (from these apps) and redrawing the trace on my own helped me with realizing some shapes of human body and what I did wrong so tracing is a good thing in this way
I trace sometimes, like my hands and Clip Studio Paint's 3D Models that help me learn more about poses and proportions. Plus it is fun posing them and being able to draw the same pose from multiple angles and such.
Tracing, under the right conditions, is invaluable. There are even tracing tools like artist transfer paper, the Artigraph, and the Camera Lucida. I believe it’s the intention and the amount traced. I will use tracing for gesture and framing so I’m set up on the page properly. I also use tracing to transfer my work to another paper or canvas. I don’t see any problem with that. I know how to draw without aids but it’s nice to speed up the process sometimes.
I’m in a fandom that I’ve been in for about 4 years and back in 2020/2021 there was an artist who was very popular in this fandom and would even garner the attention of the RUclipsrs that she would draw. Later on in these years she got into controversy that she was tracing all her art. (It ended up being true but I stayed loyal to her fr, even tho now the account is gone and I don’t really care anymore since we’ve all matured) but anyway, she traced ALL her drawings BUT colored/rendered it on her own. Which is amazing. She wasn’t only a digital artist but also traditional. This girl was SKILLED. Unfortunately she had to sell her account (over 70k followers I think) and was left on her private main account. Idk where she is now but man. The community is ROUGH with tracing. TBF I don’t think it’s cool to say you drew everything when in reality you just traced it. At least admit that.
Only other artists care about tracing Because those who are not artists would just be like "Omg! Your drawings are so beautiful!" And simply don't care where it came from or how it was made. Then just give support and reinforce bad behavior.
old masters use to set up a light to cast their subjects silhouette on their canvas to trace over it. Also, as an artist i never traced and always looked down on it. However, as a professional concept artist for video games ive learned creative directors and art directors want quick turn arounds and do not care how you got the result just that it is cool and usable. Spending 4 days drawing out a character concept when it wont ever be seen or used is counterproductive. I do recommend practicing fundamentals and get your skills to a point that you can be efficient without needing this crutch though. Food for thought.
Tracing or copying the artstyle is a double edged sword. One side it's beginner's most basic way of trying to learn and make characters based on well known artists you like and love then slowly find a new way to improve and adapt your style into it. Hiro Mashima Sensei (author of Fairy Tail) made his characters based on Oda Sensei's One Piece artstyle, then slowly evolve to create his own artstyle. Edit: nowadays they doing this for quick clout 😰
Let’s be absolutely clear here. If you copy another persons work with the intention of passing it off as your own, that’s plagiarism. Regardless of whether you trace it, copy it freehand or even if you make slight alterations, it’s plagiarism and plagiarism is theft.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
*_what do you think about tracing art, be honest..._*
it's not that bad if the person gave credit.. but if not.. I hope they are a little kid cause that I can understand 😃
Tracing references is completely fine, but tracing on other people’s stuff (including copyrighted material) is NOT ok.
personally im not a big fan of tracing, but if its for reference then idk tbh
I literally know about this little bit, but I mostly agreed tracing someone else's art is wrong
Tracing your own art is fine, and I accept the idea of tracing references for key points but anything else is ridiculous
As a person who used to trace when I was younger and is an artist now, it depends on HOW you trace. If youre using it to get better at anatomy or to get better in drawing in your own style, then thats fine! but if your tracing someone elses art without permission or credits, or is just tracing to do it and not saying you did and passing it off as your own art, then that's unacceptable.
I use to trace over art and colored it posted on Instagram as mine eventually when I learned it's bad I deleted my whole Instagram account cuz I felt guilty. Now I do my own art
that's not tracing, thats plaigarism. the first example of it in this video is not even a trace, its a crop of the original with the colors changed.
@@ThatSlayerguyatleast you recognised ur mistake and now look, you draw your own art! even though tracing has its benefits, ofc dont post it and say its yours 😭 (when i was tracing like i was maybe 5-6, so i didnt have socials and maybe that was a good thing bc knowing me i probably wouldve posted it too LMAO😭)
@@tequt omg i just reread that forget what i said before, youre totally right 😭 im so tired of plagiarism also n then just changing colours and passing it off as yours? kinda insane...
@@selfryedi had a fan accout for a youtuber when i was ten and i use to trace art work of them
the morality behind tracing heavily depends on the artist intention
W mindset
I agree! Free base-to-use or tracing for personal practices is OK but claiming artwork that isnt yours is not okay. Tracing in general is not a tool to depend on and steal but for uses of practice and observation.
@@wee7861Exactly
@@wee7861 Free to use bases also made up a majority of the 2010s internet. Anyone else remember the cat lick pfp? lmao
I IDK how this """body""" crap works!
i want to become an artist
*traces everyday to learn without posting or sharing about it
NEVER!*
*posts what i learned instead of the
thing i copied*
Tracing actually has made me better. when i actually started drawing on my own I was SIGNIFICANTLY better than before i started tracing
tracing is a great tool. you just gotta use it correctly :)
Im for 15 years in the art community and working 4 years now in the professional scene. Tracing is a skill you should def learn. It saves so much time. Like trace your own hand or anatomy. Define your shapes by tracing. If your using someone elses art. Its better to keep it for yourself due to moral reasons and ofc plagiarism. Simple
thanks for the tips, i hope i can do art professionally one day :D
Hell yeah. I find that sometimes I do something I really like in my sketchbook and want to reproduce it as a finished piece and I will 100% trace that thing over to the finish paper to save so much time. It’s mine, I free handed that in my sketchbook, I can reproduce it any way I want.
And tracing someone else’s work can really give you a feel for how the line work is done. I know I can see the way a line looks but can not reproduce it for the life of me because of the illusion of depth . So I trace it a few times to get the hand feel for the line and to see just how subtle the curve or bend is or just how close the lines are, then try doing it again free hand. Very helpful.
I had to make my own reference for a hand that wasn't clear in another reference image, I did a drawing first for blocking in but still looked wonky, I made the same pose with my own hand holding a coffee cup and took a picture, I then traced the picture that I myself took and edited it into the drawing.
@@felicianomiko5659 it just saves so much time. Heck even use some AI for color references and shading
Sometimes I’ll trace the shapes of a certain pose but I draw with a mouse, which makes it exceptionally hard to draw. I’m much better drawing by hand.
Just so people know, Tracing is a VALID technique to save time in a professional setting. Game designers use it ALOT, animators do and comic artists who work with teams do too! It's to make sure styles remain consistent, or if you're say needing to make 100 different outfits for a model that's in a game like a Warhammer RTS and you have hundreds of individual units and need to decide on a uniform look for the army /regiments. Actually, the art book that came with Warhammer Online has THE BEST EXAMPLES OF THIS in practice! They use the one image of a dwarf or skaven and trace over the image to create many variations of clothing for the models. It's really interesting to see it in professional production work.
Also PLEASE stay away from the anti/pro ship discourse. It will keep you sane.
I would legitimately use it for a manga/comic if I had a complicated object I needed to draw a lot. Just make a 3d model of it, trace the shapes, add detail, and boom.
If you are tracing with permission then of course it is a viable technique for consistency. Using it to steal art and then claim it is not ok. Just ask Disney.
Hirohiko araki, the creator of jojos bizarre adventure, is heavily referencing models on fashion covers or pictures for the famous poses of his own characters. This is well known among the Jojo Fandom but Noone really thinks badly of it. I think this is because araki is known to be passionate about fashion even having collabed multiple times with fashion brands like Gucci, Balenciaga, converse etc.
When people see the reference I think they see it more as paying homage to the original as opposed to stealing from it or something like that.
So the relationship between the artist and whatever is used as tracing material or reference seems to matter as well.
Referencing and tracing are two completely different things
Yeah but that’s because it isn’t an example of tracing…it’s referencing.
I know this is 2-week-old but tracing is different from referencing. When you trace and use the outcome as one of your original work, you build nothing (adding details won’t count). Meanwhile, when using references, you study the reference and recreate what you see. Tracing with a right mind can help developing your memorized image gallery tho, but it should be for practice only. Ofc people can trace the image they took themselves or their old artwork, but when tracing others’ artwork and claim it their art, it’s disgusting.
I used to trace over art and colored without crediting the acutal person it posted on Instagram as mine eventually when I learned it's bad I deleted my whole Instagram account cuz I felt guilty. Now I do my own art and i proud of it
we're proud of you!!
@@MohammedAgbadiI have a question if I use an artist fanart as a reference to draw my own does it considered tracing? Because in your video do you told us heavy referencing is is frowned upon in the art community but even if I heavily reference fan art I'm always trying to make sure it's not the exact copy. Is it fine than?
@@ThatSlayerguyno it doesnt. References are a must to use
@@ThatSlayerguyreference and tracing is very different. Reference is just looking at another image and trying to replicate some aspects of it on your own. Tracing is directly drawing over a drawing.
Glad you learned from your mistakes.
i swear being an artist is so hard these days :sob:
can't even draw in peace anymore fr
@@MohammedAgbadi “can you draw m -“ “ *NO* “
This is why I hate Pinterest so much, people posting there are mainly stealing art and repost without crediting :/
it's all either stolen, uncredited art or mindless ai spew now :/
This! I have been seeing some of my commission art (and also personal art) reposted there recently it's so frustrating
@@neriqu11 I wish people understand better that it hurts people more than nothing :/
@@MaiHarinesumi I think they sadly don't care and consider other people's feelings and just think about their own benefits..
@@neriqu11 sadly yeah :/
Back in my day we had “bases” taken from anime and manga and people would use them to draw their own characters and OCs. TikTok would lose their damn MINDS.
You're making me feel so old even tho I'm barely 25y.o (26 in 4 months)
My coworker used one the other day to help her make an OC! I haven't drawn art In years and all this AI gen art drama is wild an lowkey discourages me from picking it back up. 😅
My old art teacher would yell at us for using a reference, not even tracing, because "you are not a real artist if you can't draw/come up with something yourself". Gave me a really bad complex for quiet a while and even now I struggle using a reference. As long as you trace to learn or to just get the base of something going, it should be fine. Wish my teachers would have had the same mindset about art as you do.
Sounds like something my old art teacher would do tbh
This is so stupid. How are people expected to learn how to draw without referencing reality? Referencing is quite literally the *backbone* of art, since art is representing reality. Like. How do people can miss the mark THIS badly???
L teacher
Jeez my old teacher practically made us use reference…
I am an artist who uses a lot of 3D models in my art so I can quickly set up reference pics for my art. I trace over them using them more so as a lose guide for my final drawing and will gladly make adjustments as needed (years of study taught me where fixes meed to go). Doing this actually taught me how to freehand perspective, draw with confidence, and break down my figures a lot more easy. My art has improved a lot over the time I've been doing this and I can also get my work done faster.
I feel like there is no right or wrong with art, it's how you use it like how you trace. If you trace and try learning from it then that's perfectly okay. But if you claim it as yours without the artist's consent then that's not okay. Tracing can be used as a tool to learn from it, not just copy it, if you want to learn anatomy by tracing then go ahead just don't claim it as yours you still need to provide credits, That is how tracing should be used.
This is off topic but same pfp! :D
The only wrong is if you're taking others' work and claiming it as your own 👍 I trace shapes over my own hands all the time because sometimes fingers are just fucking weird! Idc as long as the end product looks fine
Actually, when I was going through my longest and most stubborn art block, the only way I could produce a piece of art is when I traced another artist’s artwork, of course I never profited off of it, but it made my inspiration come back and before I knew it, I went back to drawing, ironically it was the method that made me create one of my most original art pieces to date lol.
i just trace my own old sketches/old art when i'm super artblocked and it actually helps!! somehoww
Letting the mind rest, and still excersising tbe hand, my favourite way if dealing with artblock. I find tracing with shapes/studying the artwork or picture also works for me
Heh......unconsciously studying, training the motor skills without realizing it
I wanted to share a long story of why i am currently copying other's works, but your comment is basically a short and clear embodiment of what I basically wanted to say XD
And there i was thinking I invented this genius idea. Lol me. But yeah. I am in the deepest longest artblock ever and crawling out of it is a challenge. I can draw whatever i want. But I realised that my head often gets in a way of my work. It constantly stopping and sabotaging me from creating. So I just turn on a video to relax, open pinterest and mindlessly redraw whatever it offers. I dont post these works, also, I am trying to mark what I made original, what is a copied work and list an author if have their name. And this works out amazingly well for me! I managed to draw almost every day for the last 2 months! It marvelous! I had 2 years straight of wanting but not being able to draw at all. Now, thanks to this copy-drawing, I got myself used to the action, warmed up, and in a mood to create my own work, FINALLY. I am also very happy to see that I am apparently not alone in this. I am also thinking of studying and doing master copies of paintings. I already copied 2 of Van Goh works and loved the process. I hope stereotypes of copying or tracing being completely bad and produced only by beginners dont take over. I had been drawing for around 10 years and these stereotypes affected me as well. I wish I realised of this trick much sooner, because it would have incredibly helped me, when I was at my lowest and really needed art back in my life, but couldn't because of artblock and a ton of enxiety.
@@Splat654 I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling through a long art block. Always keep in mind that sometimes, art block is caused by non-art issues. Whether it be mental health, unchecked problems, or even a lack of sleep, anything can cause you to feel unmotivated. If tracing random things from Pinterest helps you, then that is amazing and I hope you can find your artistic spirit again.
Ironically, what helped me draw more was quitting art as a career. I kinda realized, way too far down the road, that art is really only a hobby for me lol. Now that I've found my real path, I'm much happier, and art is much easier for me now. I have been drawing more recently than I have in the last few years. Like I said before, sometimes we struggle with art for other reasons.
So, in art school, we actually did use tracing as a method of learning, but the key way to trace with intention. You weren't just copying lines, but really thinking about the reason the artist made those decisions. These were NEVER passed off as original works or finished pieces. As an illustrator I've used tracing over my own photos as a shortcut when on a deadline, though I prefer not to because it always feels less dynamic.
bro be sitting like a news reporter in business
lmfaoooo stop lmaoo
Raises hand. I made a drawing of one of my newest character then I traced over it, then took that trace and traced over it. Every iteration made my character look even better each time. So... yes?
_slow claps slow claps_
Good technique. Just don't use it on other people's art, only yours. Bases are fine if they're for practice.
cool, I'm very jelly of you :))
I also trace over my old drawings while making improvements of what I learned. I love seeing the progress
I personally found tracing wasnt bad idea, its really help me to understand the basic shape by making a breakdown of it first. Not blatantly just tracing it.
Because of that, i can know if something off with my artwork, like the anatomy is weird or the foreshortening is absurd.
Personally, i found fundamental is pretty hard to learn for someone who cant draw, like me for example. To understand fundamental, i should draw first, to create muscle memory for myself first (which by tracing). then the fundamental fix the issue i had, if i have no idea what to do with my artwork.
My method can be right and wrong for some, but since i enjoyed that method, so i still drawing until now
Especially stuff like anatomy. That shit is so hard and tbh I feel like good knowledge of especially the human form isn’t treated with enough respect (I see so many people treat it as a “basic” skill, when it’s genuinely so challenging). Tracing is amazing for complex forms like that.
controversial take maybe, but tracing photos (not drawings) really helped me learn anatomy. My best early portraits were drawn AFTER i traced the reference image. I then threw out the tracing and drew it freehand. It helped me get a sense of the features and the space between them. It also just helps you learn to stop drawing what you know and actually start drawing what you see.
I’m a 14 year old artist and tracing does help me a lot! I use it for chibis and front facing!!!!! Seeing this video is helping me form my own solid opinion as well!!!! :)
As a 16 yo artist i would recommend deconstructing drawings into basic shapes instead. Tracing is a good way to learn but by personal experience my art quality increased since i started to sketch with basic shapes instead. But well, i'm not your boss; it's your art, your way to improve it!
@@witheri2um OOOO OKAY :) I will try work on the shape thingy things to help me learn!!! Thx sm! Your the best :D
@@Abagofsouhiyori good luck ;D
my suggestion would be for you to immediately draw (the same/similiar drawing) freehand after you do a traced drawing. This way you actually commit what you learned to memory. it also forces you to do more repetition which is also great for learning. In fact I, as a rule, always draw freehand first, and then trace if I'm having issues, and then drawing it again a third time (freehand). This is mostly useful when I'm doing studies of art (copies for learning).
Sin.
I find tracing real life photo or things really helped me to expand my knowledge of things especially unusual things like a controller, wild animals or certain rural landscapes, which is useful for budding or young artist. It also teach you how you can add a spin onto things that you ref or traced, a deceptively hard skill to learn once you have your own style or trying to go for a style in a professional work. Tracing other people's work is fine if you're interested in studying their style and credited them, but nowadays people do this just for internet clout without crediting. Its just sad tbh that to them art is nothing more than a clout tool like selling a brand
definitely helped! I was practicing the danganronpa artstyle, and decided to sketch chihiro and practice using him as reference. I managed to learn it!
I used to trace over PNGs of Animal Crossing characters and then color them in again. I never shared the characters or claimed any of the art as my own. I saw it more as a coloring book than anything.
Sometimes its physically impossible to find the original artist for stuff, which really sucks
Google lens?
When I learn a new way of thinking about anatomy (like shapes to represent different parts of the body), I find it really helpful to trace over reference drawings to practice doing things like foreshortening or angling those shapes in ways where the finished product still looks like a person. If I end up posting the art, I always credit the model I got the reference pose from and make sure they're okay with it.
I still do this for hands a ton because they're hard and I'm still experimenting with ways to draw them that works for me.
I always get so mixed up when people bring up tracing art because in my mind the whole "trace it and then present the traced piece as original" thing isn't on the table. It's so far removed from the table that I forget it exists. I forget that people do it, and that's what a lot of people are talking about.
Well, I often use tracing when I want to learn a character design... I'm sure this is a "me" issue, but when I'm trying to learn how to draw a character, I have a hard time seeing a shape breakdown immediately from the original art. So I trace it to make a simplified, uncolored copy, focusing on what I feel is important for the shape language of the character/ creature/ object, then break my tracing down into shapes, so I can understand how to draw them in different poses and angles.
Another thing I've gotten into is using models for the more dynamic angles and 3-point perspectives I struggle with. I understand that CSP comes with 3d models that you can manipulate right on your canvas, for those of you who may have that, but for the rest of us who may not have such direct access to that kind of service, there are websites like Magic Poser. None of the models match my characters perfectly, but once I get the positioning and an understanding of what the foreshortening is *supposed* to look like, it's pretty easy to simply sketch my characters' shapes over the posed model. This also allows me to feel out how my characters shapes squish and stretch at these angles, making it easier to reproduce similar angles later without needing to spend time making a model pose again.
Tracing was something I did in primary school in art class, but once I turned 11 or 12 it was time to really learn how and why, form, light and shadow, perspective and proportions actually work. That just takes lots of practice and really looking at studying what you are drawing. Most people have phones now and can take photos anywhere so it’s great to do that too. And taking, tracing and drawing your own photos will also help in developing your own look and style as well. Now is definitely the best time to take up something like art or music with so many good resources available for free or at quite a reasonable cost.
I would never claim traced things as my own but I feel it has really helped me understand anatomy and certain styles over time. It also helped me take pieces from traced work and turn it all into a whole new art style for me
Tracing can build up line confidence and helps you learn anatomy. I use it to study other people's art, but if I've traced it I never post it. I just keep it to myself. It can help if you keep your brain turned on and make sure you're learning while you do. If you trace a 3d model however I think its perfectly fine. Work smarter not harder am I right? There's so much more you have to do after the initial tracing of the 3D model. I'm planning on making a webtoon and so I've been tracing 3d models because I don't have enough mileage anatomy wise to get them out consistently. But its something I'm not going to do long term. Someday I want to draw without that crutch.
When I was younger I would trace or copy from reference, not always using art sometimes I would trace photos etc. mostly would be for general shapes or anatomy. it was something that really helped me early on gain a muscle memory for drawing anatomy. It wasn’t something I did often but if I found a piece of art I really wanted to learn how they did things I would reference it or even trace it to understand the strokes they used to make the shapes they did. But I would never post or claim these, I would draw these in a sketchbook or on sheets of lined paper just as a quick exercise that I’d never show anyone. I did it incredibly rarely, I generally was just using things as a reference not actually tracing. I think it did help me but I would never do it now. It was something I did when I was a child and just getting into art
2:02
I rose my both my hands irl bc this what is what my art journey was like.
When I was younger (like 8 - 9 yo), I sucked at drawing, but I loved it, it was a wonder full experience but I always came out not as good as I saw others' drawings, then I realized I could trace a good drawing that I liked, of course I didn't knew it was a bad thing I was just a kid, I started a basic sketches and shapes that I learned with my art teacher to keep things where it should be before I started traced.
I kept doing exactly that for years, I even made a Instagram account to show traced art, until late 15 yo me learned that tracing was bad and I was plagiarizing art, I felt bad af , deleted all my posts and stopped drawing all together for 1 years bc of the guilt, after 16th birthday I stared drawing again bc of boredom, without any references and no tracing I made a okay-ish to acceptable drawing, I was not as the same level as the old drawing I made with tracing but it was a certain improvement to when I was 9.
Straight and continuous lines without trembling, without feathering the line art, shadows and where the light comes from, I learned things that I didn't even knew I actually learned, I didn't even knew anatomy but the humans I made where definitely more human than before, I improved I didn't knew I did but it was enough to relight the passion for art that I had.
Yes, tracing do make you indirectly better at art even if don't even know what you're doing, speaking from experience.
But it doesn't speed your progress tho, 3 months of learning the fundamentals will do better than 7 years of tracing lmao.
I think tracing can be used as a guideline and also tracing something first to get a feel for the lines and observe how lineart works. It's a great tool as long as you dont overuse it
tracing has helped me with learning anatomy aton especially when i was just starting out.
As a young artist, when I used to copy art pieces I like, I disnt trace but copied from sight (and never posted it because its not mine), this helped with understanding proportings, placement and style. I only traced the image in specific times, and that method was on another piece of paper to trace the part to understand how to recreate it. Tracing should only be used for yourself and not for posting which I agree with, I just only recently started drawing poses without references (only sometimes since there is a lot for me to learn) and I don't trace, only using inspiration from other artists. And this really shows the break between beginner artist who traces to understand and a more understanding beginner artist where tracing isn't even needed. Some people who trace can actually draw good but maybe aren't confident enough to make a pose or just have malicious intent. Tracing ia fine just don't say it was yours and don't make money from it, it's so simple that it's hard to understand a tracer's mind, there are more cons then pros but I guess they are too braindead to actually think
I'm learning animation but im not very good at drawing/art in general, so tracing especially doing frame-by-frame is an actual lifesaver.
I'm a professional artist, have been for 27 years, and I will trace pieces of things to get a base when I'm on a deadline, like a hard to draw shoe angle, a bent leg in perspective, or rarely a strange hand position (I'm actually surprisingly competent with hands). Sometimes I take commission work as well and if a client gives me a specific pose reference and says "I want this exact pose" I'll start off my drawing by tracing the pose, but tbh I always end up having to adjust the trace because it never fits the proportions of the character they give me and/or my own art style, so it dosen't end up looking like the original anyway. Tracing it however helps me keep the 'essence' of the pose and I have a lot of repeat clients so they are clearly happy with the results.
I trace is my own art. idk when you get paid to draw art and you do it for 12 hours a day 5+ days a weeks every single month, sometimes your brain just like won't art but you need to pay bills. So when I get into an art block but still need money and my brain won't do the drawing, I'll trace my old pieces for things that my brain now refuses to do. Best example is I got a freelance gig where I had to draw a series of characters with elaborate braids and it was months of braids, braids, braids, braids, at first i got really good at braids and was cranking them out superfast but after a while my brain went on braid strike and i fully lost the ability to draw braids.... sooooo I started to just wholesale either copy and paste them in, or trace ones I had already drawn, and just modify them to work.
Other than that, the only tracing I just fragrantly do is tracing stock images of things that I won't likely draw again, and have 0 interest in learning. Best example I have is cars, I have had two instances where I have had people ask for a car in their commission in the 10 years I have been doing commissions, and f*** learning how to draw cars. Drawing cars is a whole other technical field of drawing that pays bank, but i have 0 interest in. I'm a character artist and I'm not going to waste 2 years of my time learning a highly technical skill I only used for 2 commissions 5 years apart. You had better believe those were traced from stock images and if you think that makes me a hack, oh well.
I think these are perfectly acceptable reasons to trace and honesty should be done. If you are just stealing someone's whole piece, I mean that's theft pain and simple. And that's not ok.
I think tracing is good for baby artist to feel out art, should be set aside for intermediate artist as they learn more in depth skills, and reintroduced when you are expert/pro level as a time saving tool.
Back when I started drawing, I used to trace poses I liked, so I could draw my characters with those poses. I didn't learn much, but having some "okayish" drawings of my characters (even if it wasn't really my work) helped me stay motivated in learning. And now, I can do it without having to trace. I kinda teached me about how different artists had different artstyles and how that affected proportions though.
a small tip for those who think tracing or use tracing to learn:
dont trace it form the hole but instead tey to mark out the basic shapes. and try to see how the basic shapes become the finished producked.
tracing can help people learn if you use it the right way. just tracing art line from line wont do much to help but studing the pose and other shapes in the art can help you get a better understanding of it. but thats just a small tip ^^ just make sure its chill with the artist before hand or just dont post it.
Most of the times i search for a portrait of a real person in pinterest and then trace the proportion. this helped me a lot figuring out how to draw poc and black people in my own style. If you see the reference and the final piece they are very clearly different. the only thing you can notice about it are the proportions i guess. It really depends on how you trace
i didn't start getting good until i started tracing (purely for studies though, never to pass as my own art) I also thought I was so smart tracing some of my own character designs working on a comic idea. but I think that's pretty common.
I once had a commission where the client wanted a collage style piece with portraits of herself and her 5 siblings. I can do freehand portrait work but with that many references to have to work from it was quicker to trace the positions of the features and be absolutely sure that part of the likenesses were correct so I could get the project completed faster. Your last point was absolutely correct. The clients dont care. I wasn’t doing that piece with the specific goal of advancing as an artist. You complete it and move on. There’s always time to grow on your own dime.
This is amazing, thank you so much for bringing up this topic.
I always used to trace from artists I admired, but never posted it or called it mine.
After a while I knew I needed to stop relying on tracing so much because I wasn’t improving, even though I did improve some, I was never as good as I wanted to be, so I decided to take some lessons on skill share, from my older art friends, and anatomy tutorials, anything I could get my hands on, and after a while, I did start improving! (Trust me, learning works).
But I was always REALLY slow, and struggling with perspectives, so I bought a 3d modeling program and traced those models to finish my works faster, it helped, A LOT.
But even though I did trace the initial body, I still had to draw clothes, faces, hair, color it, shade it, render it and everything. So even though it made it easier, it is still tough, and still takes a lot of time, just less than before.
I use 3d models to this day, but usually only for commissions and tough projects.
Like he said, professionals use 3d models and tracing A LOT, normally to meet deadlines or if they can’t redraw a character correctly and do them justice, so it’s not a taboo tactic.
Just want to say this, I’d say that tracing is okay, as long as you are doing so with the right intentions.
Have a blessed day!❤
I love drawing only from my head! It takes months of slowly absorbing the image through osmosis. Quick ref browsing 10 mins or less and then maybe doodle that lol some that day.
But I own a projector, a light box and and iPad Pro. I will trace if it seems to be the right thing.
Let a person who has not devoted their life to creating art or illustration trace anything they want… let them try as hard as they like heck let them have a team of 10. It won’t ever look like a genuine work
Sometimes I trace the basic shapes on a portrait to save time, but I always change some proportions for my liking and work out all the details myself. I use the traced lines as a guide. Even if I trace those guide lines my drawing will turn out different from the reference photo because I make it my own, I change it to my own liking.
when i was very young and struggling with perspective i *did* find some utility in tracing architecture in perspective because it forced my brain to understand these angles
for anatomy you can pretty easily find elements of your style by tracing over muscle figures and using it to find what lines you prioritize, what you like to be thick or thin, solid, transparent, hashed... giving you a solid base to work from basically.
10:44 I call this “mapping” vaguely copying shapes, and then making myself do it on my own. I have/ occasionally do it, but I’ve gotten better at stepping away from that. (Especially since I was new to digital art)
i have a book about learning to make comics from scratch that was made by disney professionals and have had since i was a child, and the very first lesson was tracing the pose of a person off of a bunch of pictures to get used to the shapes and movement lines
Weirdly enough, when I started out, I traced as a part of practice. There was a particular style I wanted to learn so I would practice my pen control by tracing over the line work. And while not exactly tracing, I would draw shapes over an image in order to learn the body ratios and shape arrangement to learn a certain pose.
The key point though was that I never shared any of the results and never will.
I'm primarily a fan artist. I recently started using a technique that works really well for me to help me learn new faces. I get screenshots of the character I want to draw in a variety of different angles and expressions then I trace them. This is just for me to learn how that particular face works. I always make sure to break down the face and figure out what each feature if the face looks like from each angle. This is super effective for me since I already know what I am looking for and how to draw faces without tracing. I have also never posted any of my tracing practices online. My drawings of the characters got so much better because i traced and broke down how their faces worked. So yes, tracing as a tool, absolutely, tracing someone elses work and passing it off as your own, no.
Everytime someone talks about tracing, i start to remember this time when the person i know and sometimes talk to tried to make me feel ashamed of the fact that i use lots of references to draw poses on my art. I traced in my life before, but as a joke and i've never posted anything traced claiming it was my artwork. Bc of him now, i always feel like drawing with references is something i should be ashamed of..
Tracing art has helped me improve at art... in the form of sculpture. I trace my face with my hands and it helps me sculpt facial features lol! I didn't know if the same applied to drawing since drawing is not as tactile! Great video!
the way I "trace" is mostly for fun and not one for one copies, what I do is find different characters either from the same show or style and I mash the parts together that way I can make a new character that looks like it could fit in and not stick out as bad due to body shapes and some time's it's just fun to have something to color in or shade in a different style then you normally would
I feel like people don’t understand the difference between tracing and redrawing
15:44 RELATABLE, when i was in middle school i used to tape a piece of paper to my laptop to trace over landscapes for background 😭😭
Ngl, I usually do sometimes trace others' art, but in a rougher sketch of it so i can get a better image of what im trying to draw, usually i would just trace only one part of an image and then layer it with my own style
for me personally, i only trace for poses, and typically I have to change the anatomy of the pose anyway. I have a hard time making up poses let alone knowing how they should look, so tracing/referencing poses for my own art.
another time where I will actually trace is when painting animated characters, I can't replicate styles very good and I'm painting anyway
This is such an interesting topic that I have a few conflicting opinions on. I’m a 3D artist mostly so I’ve never been super confident in my 2D art skills, so I rely heavily on references when drawing and I honestly made some mistakes in how I went about that that I think held me back when trying to improve. For me the grid method and this one technique I used where I’d feel out the line on the reference then replicate it in my drawing (ie. Tracing but extra steps?) both really hurt my understanding and left a lot of drawings very lifeless. By focusing too much on matching the reference I was robbing myself of decision making opportunities for lack of a better term. The same thing is color picking too heavily from reference, it was accurate but also kinda thoughtless with how I applied those colors. So from that perspective I think tracing holds you back. However I do trace my own 3D work especially for hard surface work or when dealing with a difficult perspective or pose. It helps me iterate designs fast if I’m concepting or just need to finish a piece. I do want to suggest if you still decide to trace, don’t trace close up or details, use it for your blockout, ie make circles at the joints use it for your line of action and key shapes, maybe point out some key landmarks but try not to copy it 1:1 and just use it as reference from there.
For me, i sometimes trace are but only to figure out how to draw in that artstyle or to help improve my own.
Sometimes i completely trace over the art, sometimes i make Lines for where the eyes are, where the nose is, where the mouth is, etc.
I only do this in private though and never post it, because, obviously, its wrong. I might Think of posting the art where i outline where the eyes or nose would be, but only for stuff like “how to draw like ____” and never to pass off as my own.
Bruh the moment I look up from my drawing tablet, I was jump scared at 3:27. But for real though, I used to trace and I was told that tracing human bodies was bad and I was trying to study. At first I thought it was weird, looking at naked people but now I am happy I went through the hard work and even now, I am still learning. The more I binge watch Mohammed's videos, the more I realize that even he started somewhere. I'm just thankful to know that some professional artists aren't as toxic than I thought.
The fact that tracing did help me and also helped me learn animation, I never posted or shared it but it did help.
The only cases of tracing I understand are stuff like consistent animations,/animatics, in the Beyblade manga with the Beyblade tops to save time, no matter the generation you’re looking at (OG, Metal Fight, Burst), a guide to fix something, and as a practicing method. I’m not gonna go into a hissy fit for merely tracing as long as you’re honest about it. Hell, I used to trace and use bases during my early DeviantArt days, but they ended up being some crutch or something I depended on too much, and it messed up the artstyle I had at the time (dem long ahh legs I think, but it could be something else that caused it). After I stopped using bases (using the body and slapping stuff on top of it) and tracing stuff, and spent years on developing my own artstyle with actual resources and references, my art started to look better.
The only time I traced something was in school for social studies because our teacher told us to do a portrait of a random dude
It's easier to just say "Tracing is wrong" because I feel like so many people blur the line. I think it's fine to trace your *own* art for animation and comics because it can help things look consistent. But then I've seen people use a screenshot to trace a character from an animated shows and never "credit" anyone because animators are often a face-less artist. They don't feel guilty about it because they don't believe they are stealing from an artist.
I always trace over a pose draw the basic shapes, then save it , use it as a reference it really helps me to understand it more because I'm still a beginner
Some people like myself only trace to find the perfect pose anatomy and stuff
Wow, I honestly until now (and I know I might be kinda late) actually thought tracing was like a taboo thing to do and lately I’ve done a small experiment in tracing a fan art of Blade from HSR just to try a few new poses with my main oc because I actually like him a lot and by every step I went through in the drawing I had always a feeling of guilt that I was doing a bad thing when I wasn’t. Thank you so much for showing me that tracing isn’t cheating at all to just draw prettier!
I trace loomis heads over photos of actual people(usually actors/actress from the old days and old movie stills) and then redraw the same loomis head directly next to the one that I traced and modify the proportions to my exact style. This has helped me improve so quickly
Tracing is completely fine as long as you credit the person you traced from.
When I’m having trouble with proportions I’ll sometimes trace over the reference picture to break down the shapes. Then I’ll use that traced sketch and reference picture in tandem to understand my subject better.
This is random but I don't feel well at the moment but your voice is really calming. It's a nice distraction from the fact I feel like vomiting what I ate earlier again.
Personally tracing helped me infinitely in art. I struggle to visualise things in my mind - it’s basically just a super blurry image that the darkness is at the lowest on so I can’t visualise stuff for art. Tracing bases I googled really helped me to get used to drawing anatomy more accurately but I was always honest about really only drawing the clothes and hair over it when learning anatomy and how clothes fit over it better. Within the span of a year I went from tracing to looking at a picture of a pose and freehand drawing one of my OC’s in that pose even if their body shape is different from the pose reference. Tracing is fine if it’s for learning purposes but not okay if a person is claiming it’s their own art
0:29 OMG you got me off-guard with the Tekken 5 opening Sparking⚡️
**laughs in Bryan Fury** just _EXCELLENT!_
Now I'll go learn Tekken's artstyle, DORYAA
Yeah. I never thought I would hear this song from the art channel.😄
i trace art sometimes, but i never ever claim the art as my own, and i use it to work on anatomy! if i ever show it to my friends I always credit the original artist, but I dont share it much.
as a kid when i was way more younger i used to trace creative and popular artist because i love their art but as i started doing it instead of going over the lines i would look at the drawing and do it with my own hands which helped me alot more in my art and helped me make better art without reference i went through many fandoms, fazes and art block and it feel like i went through it all to fast cause when i look back at my old art im suprised i even drew like that
I'm guilty of this, especially when I started doing commissions. But recently, I've been building my own style and tried to refrain from tracing other people's art as much as possible. For reference, I use 3d softwares now, and I only take the basic lines and add details on my own.
And yes, as stated in the video, when I'm on a tight schedule, I needed to resort to tracing. But now that I've improved on my own style, I'm gradually getting better at drawing faster without something to trace on. The takeaway of this is to not rely on tracing too much.
If these videos have taught me anything it's that tiktok is not the place for self-respecting artists
I trace all the time from my favorite artists in my free time and break down their styles so I can see how they work layer by layer if they don’t release their PSD files on Patreon or anything like that
Just a really good way to learn how to render and do line work because even if you’re not doing it by eye you still learn a lot from it
I usually have a tough time doing poses and hands, so I most if time search up "Holding hand pose" or something and use a stock image and not someone else's work for the main pose and hand. I don't copy right of, I just use it more as an refrence. But I feel like I need to start training and using tutorials even though it's really uncomfortable for me😅
I’ve found that tracing has helped me learn, but very minimally. I use tracing as a learning tool ALONGSIDE other lessons I was learning. It’s not as good as other techniques to learn, I use it as a step between reading something and practicing the technique independently. I did it a lot with proportions when I liked to draw people- I took classes that talked about drawing people, and would trace over figures to find how they were built. I wasn’t tracing each finger and copying a detailed hairstyle, but I was using tracing to study the pose and the different shapes making up a form.
I’ve been a big fan of pose reference websites for references, there’s also a handful of free 3D model sites that have heads/busts you can change the angle and lighting of. Without tracing, I would have been too intimidated and given up on my own art long ago.
Maybe it's been a minute since I've seen your videos, but your new setup is really aesthetically pleasing and looks great!
2:14 - it absolutely has been a massive help! My current level would not be possible at this speed without the practice, habit and muscle memory of analysing the structure of existing art, and what goes into the pose,the various geometric parts of it, proportions , line quality, and building up thr artistic library y the habit of redrawing until you built up the habit to the poimt that you can repeat and recombine without an underlying reference.
There is a reason tracing is recommended as an exercise,by real professionals.
You're talking out your arse.
Ok but why did you have to draw these men caked up? I’m tryna go on a diet 😮💨🥵
STOP
When I was younger I learned art by copying art from the video game tutorial books. Like actually drawing not over the image, but side-by-side. I think thats a much better use of your time as a beginner, coming from someone in art school
in college, i was taught to trace. in order to meet deadlines on particularly unusual imagery (alien worlds, monster designing, etc) we were told to mash elements of different photos together, trace over the resulting pose or background, and then start over, using only what we had made by tracing as a loose reference. it saved time, but you had to be careful to make it unrecognizable, and use actual art skills to know when the proportions were off and fix it.
honestly this got me to think of tracing as being best used for advanced artists in a rush rather than for beginners, but maybe that's just me 😅
In my opinion, tracing is similar to that of using references. Growing up, I used tracing paper to help me learn how to draw. Then when I got into further education for art, I was taught about using references. I was taught when using references, I shouldn't be using an artists own work, which I believe the same can be applied for tracing.
There's nothing wrong with being inspired by an artists style or breaking down the shapes of an artists work to help you learn about it. Your work should show what you learnt from it and should say something about your style that you developed. That's why tracing is annoying. Obviously artists don't want their work to be copied directly, because it shows the tracer made no effort and are basically stealing their work and claiming it as their own. To me, tracing is like using training wheels on a bike. It's there to help you learn, but if you're only ever going to use training wheels then your art isn't going to develop.
even my dad who was a professional artist, scolded me and told me that I should "Draw" the things from my drawing book rather than tracing them because i wouldn't learn anything. Can't thank him enough for that
If you're learning, i recommend it as long as you don't call it your own art. I've never traced, but Im actually thinking of starting to copy to improve my art and hopefully help me get out of my art block.
I trace. I put shapes around the reference I am working with and then from there use those shape blockouts to make something entirely new. I know how to draw and stuff, but the time you save is just a no brainer for me.
Tracing itself is not a problem it’s what people do with it that’s made it “automatically”(in some eyes) immoral. I know some people that copy art without tracing at all( they don’t pass it off as theirs, just for info and the fun of trying to draw something). It’s literally what you do with it that determines if it’s wrong. The actual art of tracing cannot be wrong because art is subjective and art to one person looks different to the next.
these are the videos i listen to while doing art
as a young artist, I use aps like: easypose, poseit to trace, this way I don't trace, steal or copy someone's work and I can learn anatomy or just trace poses if I'm lazy. Tracing real people poses (from pinterest) or 3D model poses (from these apps) and redrawing the trace on my own helped me with realizing some shapes of human body and what I did wrong so tracing is a good thing in this way
I trace sometimes, like my hands and Clip Studio Paint's 3D Models that help me learn more about poses and proportions. Plus it is fun posing them and being able to draw the same pose from multiple angles and such.
Tracing, under the right conditions, is invaluable. There are even tracing tools like artist transfer paper, the Artigraph, and the Camera Lucida. I believe it’s the intention and the amount traced. I will use tracing for gesture and framing so I’m set up on the page properly. I also use tracing to transfer my work to another paper or canvas. I don’t see any problem with that. I know how to draw without aids but it’s nice to speed up the process sometimes.
calling digital artist fake is overrated, i call myself a wizard *opens up color adjustment layer*
I’m in a fandom that I’ve been in for about 4 years and back in 2020/2021 there was an artist who was very popular in this fandom and would even garner the attention of the RUclipsrs that she would draw. Later on in these years she got into controversy that she was tracing all her art. (It ended up being true but I stayed loyal to her fr, even tho now the account is gone and I don’t really care anymore since we’ve all matured) but anyway, she traced ALL her drawings BUT colored/rendered it on her own. Which is amazing. She wasn’t only a digital artist but also traditional. This girl was SKILLED. Unfortunately she had to sell her account (over 70k followers I think) and was left on her private main account. Idk where she is now but man. The community is ROUGH with tracing. TBF I don’t think it’s cool to say you drew everything when in reality you just traced it. At least admit that.
Only other artists care about tracing
Because those who are not artists would just be like
"Omg! Your drawings are so beautiful!"
And simply don't care where it came from or how it was made.
Then just give support and reinforce bad behavior.
old masters use to set up a light to cast their subjects silhouette on their canvas to trace over it. Also, as an artist i never traced and always looked down on it. However, as a professional concept artist for video games ive learned creative directors and art directors want quick turn arounds and do not care how you got the result just that it is cool and usable. Spending 4 days drawing out a character concept when it wont ever be seen or used is counterproductive. I do recommend practicing fundamentals and get your skills to a point that you can be efficient without needing this crutch though. Food for thought.
Tracing or copying the artstyle is a double edged sword.
One side it's beginner's most basic way of trying to learn and make characters based on well known artists you like and love then slowly find a new way to improve and adapt your style into it.
Hiro Mashima Sensei (author of Fairy Tail) made his characters based on Oda Sensei's One Piece artstyle, then slowly evolve to create his own artstyle.
Edit: nowadays they doing this for quick clout 😰
Let’s be absolutely clear here. If you copy another persons work with the intention of passing it off as your own, that’s plagiarism. Regardless of whether you trace it, copy it freehand or even if you make slight alterations, it’s plagiarism and plagiarism is theft.