DarthLax [2017-05-27 01:47:52 +0000 UTC]

Well, said!

I myself draw like a freaking 5 year old (at least that's what I say and think (and it's not totally off either!), I am my own worst critic after all...sadly I am also discouraging myself by looking at something I drew and saying that it's garbage and that there's no noticeable improvement (especially since I always drew in back when I was in school and never got any better, my doodles looked the fucking same at age 17 when you compared them to stuff done at age 12 and earlier! In my head I have accepted that I have no talent and whenever I try to draw something I get frustrated! I am hoping that tracing will help me, if nothing I might get some confidence back!))

ps: I also hate sitting in front of an empty canvas (I am drawing digitally, I don't want to go back to pencil an paper (despite being a little better at drawing with those things because I am familiar with them!))

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scn71402 [2016-05-15 11:32:42 +0000 UTC]

If we would totally give up tracing and referencing, even from nature, then learning to draw would be all trial-error on your own. No tutorials, no books etc - all these are "references", and when we use tutorials to learn drawing, then we actually "trace". Relying just on trial-error way to learn anything, without finding out tutorials etc, is inefficient for learning, and can be re-inventing the wheel as a result.

Learning writing as a preschooler and using tutorials for drawing is technically identical to each another. Because both drawing and writing involves the same process - moving the pen with your hand making the lines as a trace. Even the japanese word "kaku" means both "write" and "draw" with different kanji (書く, 描く=かく). It's certain that when we learn another language we learn another alphabet, and while learning it we need to learn to both read it and write it. The paradox is, that even if the method of learning to write remains the same, you're just not a preschooler.

I guess the whole problem is with high standards that dA enforces, that require you to rely only on yourself while both learning to draw and actually drawing, see its FAQ's about crediting, referencing and tracing... However, another paradox is, that even if all that would work, the works of both authors which relied just on trial-errors of themselves, can still be looking identical or similar. This can be proven by a blind test of two artists learning independently of each another, and comparing the works of both.

Since trial-error method of learning used without references is inefficient, it consumes both time and effort. Given that inefficiency, if you did a drawing that way, you would honour yourself of committing these trials and errors with a successful result, being proud of it. It would be considered by yourself as more worthy than if you'd achieve similar results in different ways of learning (including referencing, tracing and eyeballing) - because you were guided just by yourself. And you might accuse others of "stealing" or "plagiarizing" if you see a look-alike or a similar drawing - regardless of their way. However, you should know that tutorials are also works of art. The difference is, that while you didn't knowingly intend, predict or suppose someone trying to use your drawing as a reference, the author of a tutorial ACTUALLY AND KNOWINGLY DID IT. He was making everything to guide others to draw. In your case, you're only guided by yourself in a closed cycle of trials and errors.

So the REAL question is not whether use of tracing, eyeballing, referencing or other assistance can help you to learn to draw (Or in case of, for example, music composing, it can be the use of MIDI files, loops/samples and instrument/effect presets), but whether it is best to rely just on yourself, not external assistance, if you want to learn anything. And yet another paradox can be whether the external assistance is also made by yourself or not.

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BloodofCerberus [2016-04-20 21:38:55 +0000 UTC]

If you trace and never post it, share, etc, and merely use it as a learning tool, I see nothing wrong with it.

The problem dA has with tracing is abusing it. It's like those old books back in kindergarten where we were learning to write. We traced over the letters to learn how to write, but if a kid went around saying he made it himself, well, then that's stealing. If you trace art, recolor screenshots, or even copy bios and simply keep them to yourself to teach yourself, I see no shame in that. You're not crediting yourself as the creator. You're using tools to improve. You're learning from other masters on the art so you can improve. Kinda watching and mimicking a person. It's a base to jump off of.

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SteamPoweredMan483 [2015-04-14 01:58:08 +0000 UTC]

I was really hesitant as first, I noticed that my proportions were distorted, but did not want to do tracing so I went to videos, it has helped a lot, but I knew that I was still off in certain areas of my drawings. 

Ill give a go a tracing as well, and see how things turn out. 

Thanks!!

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ClowninPixels [2014-10-03 12:07:38 +0000 UTC]

Wow, this is a great point of view of tracing, nearly all of my art (On dA) has been traced because when I spend half an hour trying to draw something, it just doesn't look 'right'. The only thing drawn on my dA is the eagle, and even then I had problems. In school, I'd say my sketching/drawing skills weren't all that bad, I even started something new recently where every time I go out to meet friends, I bring a notebook to sketch in. I'll sit in front of interesting buildings/streets as I wait for them, just to draw what I see. It has been hard for me to draw happily since I took to digitally drawing :S.

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loftard1 [2013-11-02 01:55:16 +0000 UTC]

Haha finally someone that I can agree with. I've been drawing since I was  three and stopped around when I was  25 now im 30 and picked it backed up again to make a comic. But  found that I was out of practice a little  areas that I was weak at llike  hands and  hair became horrible. I thought about tracing to gain conceptual designs of hair patterns and hands just so I can commit them to muscle memory. And no I was not tracing them to my original works. Just want to get faster and  better cause some times I make holes in my paper before I get it right. look online to see if anyone used this method and found a lot of one-sided  comments that had no real explanation. an this is a  breath of fresh air. thank you for this piece.

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GoblinEgg00 [2013-05-06 11:06:11 +0000 UTC]

this is very true i used to trace when i was little because i didn't know how to reproduce a drawing...and with time i was able to do it without the reference in front of me. and its the same as learning from a book you read it once then focus down the important bits until you know it without the book in front of you. its a fast way to learn real anatomy and posture...do a few everyday beside you normal studies and it should help a ton

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HealyHQ [2012-08-14 16:33:48 +0000 UTC]

Google FTW!

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painx7 [2012-07-05 05:44:04 +0000 UTC]

so if i trace my favorite comic book artist pages and drawings will that help

P.S:Google led me to here

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lenindcruz [2012-05-06 15:40:30 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for this beautiful post.

But just to pick on you
"Real people, buildings, cars, and animals will help." I am guessing you mean photos of buildings and cars. But since they are manmade, isn't it find if someone just traces an illustration of a building or car? Still manmade right? I know you will learn different things from a photo but still..

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sararini [2012-01-04 15:01:09 +0000 UTC]

Also found this by googling 'does tracing help you draw'. Great journal.

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YouWillBeOkay [2011-12-15 23:29:43 +0000 UTC]

I never thought tracing was "fair," but you have some really good points! Thank you.

Oh, and if you're still wondering how people are finding this journal, I actually just googled "does tracing help you draw" and its on the first page

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Space-Miilk [2011-03-14 20:03:04 +0000 UTC]

epicness!! thanks for making this.... i always thought it was extremely wrong to trace thats why i didnt....but recently ive been struggling alot with both male and female anatomy...

soo i suppose it doesnt hurt to use guidelines once in a while!

thank you!

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werewolfgirl1995 [2010-04-26 05:51:52 +0000 UTC]

Okay,so bottom line,will tracing screenshots help my drawing?

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MercuryWillow [2010-04-17 14:29:37 +0000 UTC]

Until recently, I've been trying not to trace anything. However, the other night I couldn't draw a body worth crap. So...I traced this girl and then changed her pose around. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one with that idea. Moreover, it's nice for people to not think "OMGZ THAT'S WRONG!!11!"
However, I have to admit, up until that night I've been kind of intolerant. I didn't go all 'fire and brimstone' but I tried to explain that I learned nothing by tracing. Well, all I'd ever traced were screenshots and things when I was little. That's what they were doing as well.
Now I have a journal I can politely point them to.
Thank you.

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trumi [2010-01-10 11:02:44 +0000 UTC]

You have shown some techniques in
a new light,proving that even things considered bad have their good points.
Thank you for the courage and the arguments that are decent,true and not offensive,nor too plain

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Enydimon [2009-11-26 16:14:54 +0000 UTC]

As I always say, if you can't draw well then you can't trace well. Tracing can be helpful in improving your lines and your muscle memory.

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rednblue772 [2009-11-03 11:47:18 +0000 UTC]

thank you very much for the tutorial.it helped me lot.pls check this link and tell me if i am going wrong.[link]

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AkiAmeko [2009-10-25 06:20:04 +0000 UTC]

Can I favorite this journal? Well said.

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mangachu [2009-10-17 08:01:28 +0000 UTC]

Oh my god.

IMMA GO LEARN TO DRAW BETTER NOW IF I COULD FAVE JOURNALS I WOULD

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Mashmaro [2009-10-12 10:23:56 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much, Crystal
I am stepped off of my pony and tried to be all eyes to what have you said. That tracing about you speak is not the despicable one of pick any screenshot, tracing it and post is as your very own work. Yuck!

On the contrary, I have never realised that tracing would be that helpful, when it comes to learn...

You're grrrrreat!

I tried that method after I have read your journal -not commented before because it would be stupid speaking about something you know nothing about...-

I have the same problem: People admire how I manage the colour, but never have praised my way of anatomy, more so, other people not from dA said that my drawing lacks accurate proportion.

And about that tracing method… It does help a lot.

Thanks to it, now I am learning about how to proportionate properly a face -ex. An average face is divided in 4 parts: the top quarter is the portion of the head itself, in the line of the quarter below there are the eyes, and mouth is the line of the last quarter, hope I have explained it right-, how to place the breasts or the male nipples, as well as where the arms end and so on.

Because my tablet doesn’t work in WVista –Now I have to save money for a new one-, I had to buy some tracing paper and pick some old fashion catalogues in order to do the exercise. Blue lead for the tracings, the good old grey lead for your pose based in the traced proportions.

But I suppose you have to be very constant in order not to forget the learned things, alternating your own sketches with the tracing studies, at least that applies to me.

Thank you again, and not, I don’t find you arrogant…

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BattleJesus [2009-10-04 06:32:05 +0000 UTC]

I've always traced to learn stuff Lol
Hell, I started drawing through tracing and referencing.

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dn-revenge [2009-10-04 06:12:02 +0000 UTC]

!....i can feel it once more!

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x-Venezia-x [2009-10-02 23:20:32 +0000 UTC]

Killer journal! I'm like you, in the sense that I feel my colouring is okay (or at least better than my drawing), but my drawing skills lack big time! So I'm going to try this out, and see what happens .

Thanks .

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evafortuna [2009-09-29 20:19:17 +0000 UTC]

Everytime I start spending more time on deviantart, I begin hating my art more and wanting to improve. It doesn't help that there are people ten years younger than me doing stuff which I think is better - whether it's better with flash or with substance. But I love this journal and would TOTALLY fave it if such a feature were available. Great explanations, and it's awesome of you to tackle a subject that's misinterpreted or misunderstood so often.

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Jun-sui [2009-09-28 20:48:30 +0000 UTC]

i've tryed to learn before by tracing,but not on photos of real ppl,but on characters of "Sensitive pornograph" I think that is rly good way to realize either real proportions of human,or proportions of anime character.Great explanation there

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bralow [2009-09-28 20:31:20 +0000 UTC]

OMG HOW CAN CTJEMM SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT SO IS ALL HER ART TRACED OMG TRACING IS FOR PEOPLE WHO CANT DRAW AND BABIES OMG!!!!!!!!

no im kidding
great post im really glad you put this up to educate people

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woohooligan [2009-09-28 17:09:02 +0000 UTC]

I honestly see nothing wrong with tracing over someone else's artwork for practice either... not to publish as "your own work", although I wouldn't begrudge someone putting it in scraps if they said "just practicing, here's my reference ..." It's been a long time since I got started, but tracing is actually how I ended up getting into comic art in the first place. I had a friend who got me into a roleplaying game called Champions that had silhouettes on the character sheets for drawing costumes. I got really into the game and was near constantly tracing the silhouettes to draw my character costumes. I traced them so much that I eventually could draw all of the silhouettes they gave freehand, xerox-perfect, line for line. And I ended up becoming the token artist in any given group of kids. Within a year or so I was just plain drawing, but it still took a while for me to develop any of my own style. And now I play around a lot with different stylistic decisions in my line work and coloring.

Tracing from photos is definitely good practice. I've done it a few times as well.

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phoenixleo [2009-09-28 13:59:38 +0000 UTC]

i didn't have art classes, and when i was a kid, i used to trace all the time. that's why i am at least good at what i do now. i never post them. (i loose them instantly. but it helps as you wrote, to make me understand how the general idea looks like )
i didn't see the poll you posted

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eravacre [2009-09-28 13:28:07 +0000 UTC]

i do that all the time and finally someone agrees with me

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EveryNextDream [2009-09-28 12:03:38 +0000 UTC]

I can't draw to save my life but I feel like I've really learned something (or lots of somethings) from reading this journal

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baby-snakes [2009-09-28 06:20:44 +0000 UTC]

you make a lot of great points here.. i also "traced" while learning to draw and haven't thought about it in years ^^ i was totally self taught til my thirties, and trying to duplicate pictures from magazines early on was a really valuable phase of my learning process... but, i do remember outgrowing that stage pretty quick... I didn't think about it I just moved on..// I guess that early practicing gave me enough eye hand skill that I can do pretty much anything i want reliably freehand now..... so, I guess, it worked! when my daughter started out she did the same thing, but she also quickly got enamored with anatomy books.. and it *really* shows in her work...

I really honestly would tell anyone wanting to learn to draw to read some actual books on drawing anatomy anyway... to get that theory like the head proportions etc like you illustrate above.... but my favorite thing you said is "you can use anything to learn" and if a person is really trying to actually learn, there is nothing truer ^^ //

one thought though -> i advocate using an actual pencil and paper for linework.... there is something about the texture and feel of real paper that is different than tablets. it feels different and it looks different. i encourage people to do their linework traditionally and then color it digitally. sometimes I think some of the lack of character in people's line work is because drawing with tablets can look kind of flat. either way, great points.

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narkAlmasy [2009-09-28 03:16:18 +0000 UTC]

I never thought of this way before~~~~ Thanks so much~! This really helps a lot~!

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Sayuni [2009-09-28 02:47:44 +0000 UTC]

yay, I do that!
eyeball, actually~
But I love this way of learning! I hope I can get more time to practice....

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SquidWish [2009-09-27 23:11:39 +0000 UTC]

i always thought that it was silly for anyone to complain of tracing unless someone was tracing for other purposes besides learning. i dont have to trace at all now because i spent so much time tracing and learning what i traced when i was young lol.

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JazzieJellie [2009-09-27 20:48:39 +0000 UTC]

You've inspired me to get tracing, thank you.

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Akane263 [2009-09-27 20:34:06 +0000 UTC]

Another good thing about tracing (not sure if anybody said this yet because I'm too lazy to read all the comments ) is that it trains your hand/mind to remember proper anatomy. Also if you go off of photos they can help learn prespective too. It's making sure that the end product is orginal.

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suzaku009 [2009-09-27 18:04:53 +0000 UTC]

I really could care less about tracing unless the artist just traces something and calls it their own. Doesn't change anything, doesn't try to learn, and takes credit for all of it or whatever. I know it's obviously stupid, but people do that...

However, I do agree that the type of tracing you just showed us is REALLY helpful. Everyone has to have been there before, right?

Hopefully this journal will teach people how to trace smartly. <3

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Raishuu [2009-09-27 17:32:07 +0000 UTC]

Please make this into a news article so I can fav it. I really like your approach and I bet it helps alot. Something I like to do is eyeball my reference and then put it on a layer above it so I can see all the mistakes I made and notice excactly where my perception misleads me. I noticed it's worst with round objects
Anyways, this was really informative and I hope people are open-minded enough to get what you say

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MalteseLizzieMcGee [2009-09-27 15:35:06 +0000 UTC]

We did something simialr to this in art lessons at secodnary school, though instead of tracing on to paper, we would select a picture from a magazine and draw over it to simplify the hsapes, then copy the shapes. This would probably be the next step up from tracing

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adavesseth [2009-09-27 15:12:48 +0000 UTC]

Well said!
I think a lot of people need to hear this.

In order to learn something, anything at all, you need to study what's already done. It would be incredibly foolish not to use those helping sources, and tools.

I'm also surprised at how many commenters haven't thought of this already. I guess it shows just how "taboo" the word tracing is to people. It's scary how generalization and prejudgment works sometimes.

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jeregrettebcoup [2009-09-27 13:24:11 +0000 UTC]

That's so clever!

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HardToFindAName [2009-09-27 12:10:17 +0000 UTC]

YES! bring some light upon the heavens that consider tracing as an act of the devil!

No srsly, great journal I don't exactly "trace" but quite similar to that :q
You're gonna make leaps and bounds

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dreamer-artistain [2009-09-27 11:40:49 +0000 UTC]

ive never seen someone use a picture to learn anatomy,[nor did i kno the head thing]ive only seen one one trace or eye ball a drawn pic then called their new found creation,their own anyways ^-^ *you could start drawing live ppl to help to,just draw ppl on the street would help,over and over again,its how EVERY artist learns ...by drawing,we all suck at one point but its having the determination to work through their "ugh,everything i draw sucks","to it only sucks 3 days later" till ur van goh and end up cutting off ur own ear,lol have fun w/ ur art, love it for the sake of art.

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