Is Tracing Other Art A Good Way To Learn To Draw

We here at cease-tracing have heard the excuses. This time, instead of knocking down the arguments that support tracing, I present to you reasons to non trace.

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1. Tracers don't amend.

Tracing is a really really proficient style to larn how to... um... trace.

Whatsoever good art teacher will tell you this- it'south only non a good style to acquire. So many professionals, teachers, drawing books, and so on and and then forth will tell you one cardinal thing: "draw from life."

It helps. It looks like information technology's difficult, but information technology does help immensely, and information technology'south not so hard one time you lot train your manus and eye to work together. When you're tracing, y'all aren't thinking. Your hand and center aren't really working together. Y'all're but mindlessly going over the lines. You're existence a human Xerox machine.

Some people remember that tracing helps you lot "go a feel" for how to draw the human body- this is just not truthful. Anything y'all trace is going to be in 2D- even photos. A picture you trace over is a apartment version of real life, and to describe, you must learn to think 3D.

The human body can take on trillions and trillions of unlike poses, and you tin't trace them all to "get a feel" for them.

In the end, tracing volition only concur yous back!

Hither are some other resources I'd like to nowadays to y'all as backup for these claims.

Hither is a wonderful commodity near tracing from Portrait-Artist.org well-nigh tracing.

"Thinking and skill is learned by thinking and practice – not by copying or tracing solutions or replicating somebody else's ideas." From this folio.

2. Tracers don't become real comments.

When y'all trace and show it to someone, y'all are taking credit for piece of work someone else did.

People volition fav it. People will say they love it. But you can't get existent crits, yous tin't get existent praise. You will but get comments that belong to the original artist whose work y'all traced.

It'due south empty and pointless and a waste of time. And eventually, you'll either become frustrated that you can't actually draw, or y'all'll simply become bored.

"My existent drawings aren't expert plenty" isn't an excuse for this site. deviantART has no quality standards.

We all have to start somewhere. Be dauntless. Postal service your real art. Get real comments and ask for real critique. Information technology hurts, information technology'due south hard, only you will improve. And when someone tells you things like, "Wow, I really adore your art, it's and then unique!" or, "You have improved then much since I first started watching y'all!" it will experience wonderful. You'll just want to depict more and more and more than!

And gauge what? In that location's probably someone out there that's mode worse at drawing than you. Heck, maybe you could give them some pointers and help them improve.

three. Tracers can't legally sell their piece of work.

Information technology'due south truthful! Tracing is plagiarism. You can't sell plagiarized work. Well, you can, but it won't be fun when you get disrepair- and excuses like "I don't really know how to draw" volition not relieve you lot.

Nonetheless, if you end tracing, utilize better learning methods, and go along practicing and practicing- yous will eventually be able to sell your piece of work. And on that note, since yous'll know how to actually draw, y'all'll be able to do commissions rather than just sell prints!

4. Tracers can't make original characters.

There is a distinct deviation between using elements yous have seen in other characters to make your ain, and taking someone else's graphic symbol and changing them around a bit to brand them "original."

Let's use a metaphor.

When you build a house from the ground up, simply use a few architecture ideas that y'all've seen elsewhere- with your own flair. That'south your work. You tin say, "I built this house. Is it awesome or what?" and people will exist similar, "Dude. You lot have some mad skills. For certain."

When yous move into a business firm and remodel it- information technology'southward someone else's work, with some of your work nailed to it. If you say, "I built this house because I added stained drinking glass windows and repainted information technology," people are going to express mirth at yous.

Let's face it- no graphic symbol is completely and totally original. My characters aren't completely original. I'll draw them, thinking, "OMG this is so totally original" and then wait at something else I've read or watched again, and observe similarities, and wonder if I subconsciously re-used the ideas or if it'south a coincidence or what.

Information technology'southward okay to use ideas from elsewhere- it's pretty much all we tin can do. All we have to continue is what we've seen before. But you can practice SO MUCH Amend than recoloring a character you like from a game or an anime. Sephiroth with Groucho glasses is nonetheless Sephiroth- that's what people are going to see.

5. Tracers can't show off.

Anybody likes showing off a fiddling, right? It'due south prissy. An ego boost once in a while is skilful for the soul, and as long as you aren't being an egotistical pain in the arse, there really isn't a problem. Artists demand difficult work, critique, and practice, but encouragement is another essential office of the diet.

When people encounter your drawings, lots of them will be interested. They'll wonder- often ask- "Did you lot depict this? How practice you lot do that? that'south amazing! Wow!"

_{I know this because I am a creepy stalker who regularly does this to people who are drawing. And besides because people exercise it to me.}

It feels skillful. And they might even ask you to draw them something, and if y'all're feeling nice plenty, you just might want to practise that for them.

It'southward much, much more impressive if you draw it for them correct there, on the spot, out of nowhere. They'll be amazed. They'll run around showing it to people. People might oversupply effectually and watch. Information technology might get abrasive. But mostly, it is delicious ego-boosting goodness.

And for the person on the other side, it's fascinating to watch someone create something beautiful out of what seems like zip.

Merely nobody wants to lookout you trace. It's a yawn-fest. If they've seen the motion picture you lot're tracing, there's nada to be curious about anymore. They won't sit on the edge of their seat anticipating your every pencil stroke. In fact, a lot of people volition think you lot're pretty lame. You can't actually draw? Oh. Boring.

When you learn to create by yourself, it will exist much more rewarding.

half-dozen. Tracers have no freedom.

When you lot learn to draw on your ain, you are gratis to express yourself as you please. You tin create whatever yous want; certain, information technology'southward not easy, simply you tin do it.

When you trace, you ever demand something to "base" your "drawing" on. If y'all want a certain pose, you have to exit and detect it. Maybe you can't discover the right size. Mayhap you can only find that pose for boys and y'all need a girl.

Tracing is a brawl and chain. If all you do is trace, yous'll exist forever constrained to it.

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Shameless self-promotion:

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