2D Is it Ok to Trace in Art?

[Basilicata]

In the last year, I discovered there is a secret war between artists whether Tracing is art or is considered cheating. Since my game is based almost entirely in tracing as many others in the past like GGGB, I feel I need to write my opinion on the matter.

There was a war like that when people did not consider Inkers as Artists. Everybody knows Stan Lee (Storyboard and PR) and Jack Kirby (Pencils). But nobody cares about the Inkers, right? Or Colorists. Or Lettering.
One other war was when Artists started to use digital means. The old school considered digital art as "Too easy".

You know what? It is.
Inking is easier than drawing. Digital drawing and 3d graphics are easier than the classic method. So is Trace Art.

But is it Art? Yes. Everything is Art. My technique is getting better with practice so yes. It is.

Trace Art is faster too. It enables me to do more work in less time. Only by tracing I can deliver a new chapter in two months. When I used the classic method that amount of work would take 4-6 months.

Does this make me a bad artist? Maybe. I wish I could draw as good and fast as some excellent artists I admire. But I can't. I'm like an invalid person in a wheel chair. I cannot walk but I try. Don't shoot me for it.

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[Deleted member 609064]

Word of advice my friend. Do not worry about what other people think. Many people are dull, lazy, and unimaginative.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

Following up, part of being truly artistic is making YOUR art, YOUR way.

Otherwise, you're just drawing for money/attention/status and not sharing something from your soul.

 

[h4ckz0n]

"Artists" who claim tracing is cheating are bad r word. Drawing is literally tracing your imagination which makes tracing one of the most important learning steps.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

A lot of artists started out tracing. It's a way to train your hand and eye. I'd suggest continuing to do it while practicing and refining your drawing technique.

 

[bigeat12]

Id say its ok to do when you are trying to learn something, but tracing someone else's art then claiming it your own without giving credit is a dick move

 

[Evil13]

While I'm not an artist, I'm friends with quite a few and this has come up several times.

Tracing is fine when you're starting off, because as its been said, you're learning to coordinate between your eye and hand. As well as that, you're developing fine motor control. So yeah, tracing is fine when you're a beginner. But unfortunately, tracing can't teach you much else. It doesn't teach you how to add weight to your drawing, you miss out on the fine detail of the original image (one friend recounted how she traced a character, got the character's hair wrong and made it look like they had a protruding hernia). Its a step to becoming an artist, and a short one at that.

Where tracing comes under fire is when people steal art by claiming a traced work as their own. Most recently, I've seen someone on Hentai Foundry trace work from Harem Heroes and tried to pass it off as Smite artwork. Its not cool to steal someone else's work and pass it off as your own, kinda shitty in fact.

The thing is, tracing is a double edged sword. Its a good place to start learn, even if its not much and tracing will only take you so far. Not to mention that you won't have your own style, just someone else's.

 

[Deleted member 1491141]

The whole tracing is fine idea comes from using tracings to study, not producing "original" work like Evil13 said. But people often just take the "tracing is fine" part and ignore the rest. The danger of it is that you become too reliant on it because you expect your work to look like the tracings even though your "imagination" muscles lag far behind and you'll be stuck in tracing because your imagination will never be able to catch up properly. You'd be sacrificing long term growth for short term e-status.

Also to copypasta someone else's work into a different skin and call it yours is a bit of a dick move in my book, but most of your audience won't notice or care unless it's like a tracing of a known artwork.

Those are my two cents.

 

[Basilicata]

I don't copy paste someone else's work into a different skin and call it mine. I make up a scene. I use photos and work them up to compose that scene. Then I only trace the ink. It's not that easy (Although easier than original drawing from memory)! Each frame took 4-10 hours.
But I'm getting better at it. My goal is to arrive at GTA levels.



Wish me luck

 

[Darwin7]

[...] Although easier than original drawing from memory[...]

Woah! hold your horses there! xD
The number of people working without references is extremely small. Have you heard of aphantasia? It's the inability to visualize inside your mind. No mental images. There is like a scale from 1 to 10 on how good someone can visualize mentally. Not every artist is a 10 out of 10. A blurry base means mistakes. You don't want to make mistakes just because you're stubborn.
Using references isn't just fine but essential unless you're a 10/10 prodigy and if you're such a prodigy your memory is your reference.

Concerning tracing: There are two kinds of tracing I think. You could say the good and the bad one. The bad one is to simply follow the original and copy it. The good one is to take a part of it (maybe the pose itself) and create something new with it. Well.. new.. original.. nothing is truly original...
Take it. Morph it. Rotate it. Change the lighting. Rip it apart. Work with it. Drawing is work.
What do they say in "fair use"? It needs to be transformative? I'm not from the states...^^"

That is not a reason to slack off though. Practice. Your muscle memory is worth more than your capability to visualize. You won't get it if you blindly follow lines. Your hands and your brain need to work simultaniously.

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See it as a scale: Copy <-> Inspriration
I guess there is no set answer on this at all. The sweetspot of the mentioned scale seems to be a mystery. It depends on the situation as it seems.

EDIT: A tip. Never use just one reference/base/etc. "Copy from one - It's plagiarism. Copy from many - it's research."

 

[Basilicata]

Since many of you guys still ask me about trace art, there's a new animated movie on Netflix that capture the techique at its best.

 

[Mrsubtle]

Just started to learn to draw, and mostly am tracing now, I still struggle with sense of depth and finesse of what I personally want.
Current goal is to become a mix of what you could say tracing and cartoony.

 

[Basilicata]

My equipment consist of a 200$ wacom tablet, a 100$ laptop, Krita (Free), and a lot of practice. I believe it takes a year or more.

 

[Mrsubtle]

My equipment consist of a 200$ wacom tablet, a 100$ laptop, Krita (Free), and a lot of practice. I believe it takes a year or more.

Did you look up guides and research on Youtube and such I know there are plenty that teach or try to teach?
Like anatomy and such.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

Over the next year, I am going to try to learn how to do this. Inspired by Basilicata!

 

[eX_nihilo]

A bit of an older post, but i thought to give my opinion on this as an artist. Some of it might this might seem harsh, but it is not intended that way. Just a realistic view.

First off: Tracing is not bad per se, it can actually be a decent exercise if done correctly. Tracing only however rarely produces good art and doesn't improve your skills very much unless you back it up with other exercises/studies or existing knowledge/skills. You could show me 1000 drawings and i could point out every single one that is traced unless it's been stylized beyond recognition or the proportions have been warped. But doing that takes skill too. I still think there are people who enjoy looking at artworks like the ones produced by Basilicata for example or the ones in the Netflix movie. Again.. i don't want to put anyone down here. Most people just don't have the "artists eye" and thats totally fine actually a good thing for aspiring artists.

Now for the good part: If you practice deliberately you WILL see results. Period. There are tons of free ressources on the internet that can take you all the way to a professional level. Just don't expect them to be a shortcut. If you want to know what i mean with deliberate practice: Check out Heidi Grant Halvorson, specifically her talks/books on the "get-better-mindset" if you are interested. (It is also called growth-mindset)

A few youtube channels i can recommend are: Swatches, Proko, moderndayjames (advanced), Alphonso Dunn, (manga materials) and more i can't think of right now. If you want more recommendations ask me. BUT: Be careful and selective with youtube artists! There are a lot who claim or think they are good and qualified to teach.. but they are not. Only learn from the best and the one who REALLY know what they are talking about to avoid learning bad habits.

Even better ressources are books imo, it depends what style you are ultimately going for, but learning anatomy is important in all scenarios. :
For general anatomy check out George Bridgmans "Constructive Anatomy" (it's classic, advanced and dry, but very high quality) and "Drawing the Head and Hands" by Andrew Loomis
If you like anime/manga styles then japanese books are a gold mine.. They invented the style so the books are usually very high quality. Basically every book published by Hayashi Hikaru is superb. You can find them all in the "how-to" section on e-hentai.org

Last but not least: have fun!

 

[KingXeno07]

View attachment 749551
I don't copy paste someone else's work into a different skin and call it mine. I make up a scene. I use photos and work them up to compose that scene. Then I only trace the ink. It's not that easy (Although easier than original drawing from memory)! Each frame took 4-10 hours.
But I'm getting better at it. My goal is to arrive at GTA levels.

View attachment 749560

Wish me luck

your artwork is too good..amazing piece of work

 

[Basilicata]

I'm gonna post this here too so other can see

Ignore the nipples, they need some more work...

 

[Basilicata]

And this scene from Chasing Amy (1997) pretty much sums it up lol

 

[mvls]

people don't like traced ard because it always looks bad