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OneFreeInternet — So you think tracing can't help you learn?
Published: 2009-09-26 14:45:24 +0000 UTC; Views: 19323; Favourites: 66; Downloads: 0
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Gallery | DD's I've given | Favorite DD's of All Time | Note Me | contact me:::crystal_jemm@hotmail.com | Visit me on LIVESTREAM
Watch me show you that it can.
First of all, before reading this, step off of those high horses of yours and open your mind to what I'm saying.
Are you off? Safe and unsaddled? Not tied up in the bridle? Good!
Before I start talking about tracing let me give you a bit of background information on myself. Me? I'm a very arrogant person sometimes. I often believe my way is right and always will be right, even if it's dead wrong. 
Recently I have been hating my art furiously (hence the empty gallery) so I sat for a while a couple nights ago and wondered WHY. Why do I feel my art is so amateur, and lacking, and underdeveloped for my age?
I found out the answer. My coloring is okay, I've never had any real problems with it. My drawing STINKS however. It really really stinks. Then I browsed around and realized that I wasn't the only one with this overdeveloped coloring and underdeveloped drawing skill. I saw many people with beautiful sense of color, depth, volume, yet when you remove all those fancy colors and look at the lines, they might as well be drawn by someone ten years younger than they're supposed to be. Some people even have PERFECT inking and lineart in itself but the anatomy.. Christ. Most distorted and nonsensical things I have ever seen.
The question is, how do sucky drawers such as myself remedy this? One answer is tracing.
Now before you go 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 -- relax, breathe and read on.
Tracing is a learning mechanism. Plagarizing art by tracing anime screenshots, or even other people's art and posting it as your own is NOT what I am talking about. Push that element of it out of your mind and never go back to it again, it is NOT what I am referring to, and totally out of the question.
I mean tracing out of real life. Eyeballing will not help as much as tracing does, not in this case.
The first thing you must realize - People all use references.
If you ever say that "I never use references, ever!" - then frankly you're being an idiot. Even if you don't have a physical reference or picture in front of you, you imagine the shape and look of things in your mind. In your mind where do you think that comes from? It comes from memory. Memory of what? Nature. You use nature as a reference, you use real life and things around you to refer to when you draw. Still think you don't use references? If so it's okay, I had my moment like you too where I thought I was ttly original and amazings too dawg.
Now back onto tracing. Lately I've started taking stock photos and photography I find online and collecting them so I can trace them. No, I haven't posted any of these to dA, they are simply practise and are not (well not in my opinion) any kind of art fit for posting. Now I'll show you what I do with these photos. I've asked Whimsical-Dreams and vastblue for help in this little journal, and she's given me permission to use one of her beautiful photos as an example 
So I saved the picture and started tracing away. She has a very lovely body with epic proportions so it's a good example for practise.
See how useful it is to study by tracing for yourself.
1: I took the image into painter. I faded it so I could see what I'm doing, and traced the general silhouette of her body on a new layer. Yes, traced, not eyeballed. Eyeballing will just make me automatically distort the proportions prematurely because my perception of this photo is not how it literally IS. This is not what I want, so I TRACE it.
2: Now that I have the silhouette, this is where the learning starts. How many of you know about head proportions? It's a very important part of anatomy, and distorting proportions properly is only possible if you know how they go in the first place. This is what I have biggest problems with. From the trace, I learned these things.
- Whimsical-Dreams 's body can very well be a standard cartoon adult body. She is 8 and a half to 9 heads tall.
- On the 9 head tall body, the shoulder lies at 1 and a half heads.
- the breasts will range from two to two and a half heads high (from the crown of her head)
- The waist lies at 3 and a half heads.
- The hips lie at 4 heads
- The crotch lies at 4 1/2 heads to 4 3/4 heads.
- The arms when hanging down reach 5 heads.
- The knees lay at 6 1/2 heads.
- The upper arm reaches 3 1/4 heads, and
- the nose ends at halfway through her first head.
Still hate tracing with a burning passion? No worries. Read on, read on.
3: I have a basic body to work with. But let's say you don't feel like this picture is fully yours yet, as you just 'ripped' a pose off of some photo (despite how much you just learned.
) Okay so for some reason, let's change the pose. It's easier to change the pose more accurately now because we have the body shape DIRECTLY under. It's your boundaries, your guide. Eyeballing cannot compare to this type of tracing because remember I said that your perception can mislead you. To avoid that, keep your guide directly in your sight. So using that guide we just made, I drew my own pose. I moved the limbs, now that I have the correct proportions to work with, I can also distort them. Let's say I want to make a cartoon character. Character design in cartoons identify the feminine very unrealistically but no matter. Let's give her narrower shoulders, a longer yet narrower torso and bigger, more spread facial features.
4: Now that you have YOUR pose with YOUR proportions, most of all, correctly made (somewhat), You can even draw some slutty-looking animu chick with it. w @
So anyway with all this rambling my point is that tracing is not all fire and brimstone like people especially on deviantart make it out to be. I understand, tracing has a bad stigma because of how it's non-constructively used, and people associate tracing with not learning anything, and attention whoring and whatnot. But it is not all that. It doesn't have to be that at all. You can use any method to learn and I had to learn (the hard way) that tracing benefits people more than they're willing to admit. So with a little humility and change of mentality that you're too 'awesome', 'advanced' and 'too old' to trace, I hope this changes your mind. I've been drawing for years, I'm familiar with anatomy. But it needs serious improvement and tracing is helping me so much in filling in the gaps that remain. It helps, and it works. I'll continue using this mechanism to learn, because it's amazing. Personally I don't think it makes sense to trace from other illustrations, since they are already distorted in someone else's style. I don't think I can learn anything from that, as I just have a bunch of broken rules to work with. Real people, buildings, cars, and animals will help.
So next time you see someone tracing to learn, instead of flaming them to kingdom come, yelling, screaming and biting at them, why not suggest a better way to trace? Or show them how it can help them learn to make their own work instead? Community is not about hurting people and witch-hunting people off of dA if you don't agree with their methods, it means a lot more than that.
You can get back up on your high hors- whoops! it ran away!
Mini-gallery code from foundsoundfunny , thank you!
Related content
Comments: 323
Thank you for clearly demonstrating the difference between using tracing properly as a learning tool and, you know, tracing a screen cap and claiming it's your original work. 
Anyway, thanks for the excellent post.
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I think people needed to see it demonstrated instead of just told to them that tracing can actually help.
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I think this is a good read for people on both sides of the tracing issue (both for and against) because they can both learn something from it.
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Of course dear. 
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I personally think what you explained isn't "tracing" as you changed the drawing completely 
All in all I think what you really need is to memorize the measures and try to extrapolate your knowledge to other things, as not all the people you might draw will be 8 heads high. And there's where I think 'eyeballing' helps you more than tracing, why? Because your eyes will automatically memorize the sizes, the shapes and overall the way something works, even if it's distorted in the beginning in the end you'll get it right without needing to trace over preexisting things and being able to draw on your own without references.
That's my opinion 
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I traced at first and learned most of what I did by the picture. 
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Yes you are right tracing is not all bad and can be a useful art technique when applied rightly. My art teachers of long past will swear up and down that is very useful. Tracing for posing, tracing for reference, tracing to learn, it is all very useful.
But when you wholey trace a picture (of lets say a manga picture), and then give no other creativity or thought to this picture then what the original had, this is what I dislike and this is what I mean by the tracing on DA.
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haha no not at all <: I saw some drama on the forums about !Vampirella87 and I thought this was needed. <3
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<: Good, I saw banning in =psyconorikan 's journal and thought, "Oh well, that is one drama lama gone." I myself like one of the other commenters, kind of prefer the grid method over tracing, and one of my favorite exercises is actually flipping the piece over so that I see shapes rather than the whole piece.
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i like painter to but if you want a better pencil look
change your canvas size to 1700 x 2500 with a rez of 250
and make your own detail airbrush at a size of 9.6
with an opacity of 24.% it will smooth your lines as you draw
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I know how to handle the program, but thanks anyway.
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You should totally make this into a deviation/tutorial.
It will be useful to a lot of people.
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I was glad to read a journal that tackles tracing, as I see tracing as an important skill to any illustrator worth their salt.
I do a lot of car sketches, and the issue with sketching cars is that you have to take into account angles and perspective, and the smallest error ruins the image. The way around it, for me, is to trace the main lines of the car before inking it and, on occasion, rendering it.
For this reason, I've always hated the stigma that tracing always gets on sites like DA. Tracing someone else's art, like that of an established manga artist for example, is theft, but tracing elements of a photograph, which is a completely different medium, is not in my opinion!
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I think it's just a common misconception nowadays that people are like...
Tracing = "Take anime screenshot, trace it in Photoshop or Illustrator, put it on dA, claim as own. "
You should go get a dictionary and look up the definition of tracing, people. :B Hell you have it on your fingertips. define:tracing in google, boom there you go.
STOP BEING SO LAZY. But hey, I get a tad off-topic and generally talk to much so imma shut up now. :U
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Wow. I've always kinda thought that tracing would hurt me more than anything, since I was going off someone elses work and not trying to improve my own. However after looking at this journal, what you say makes a lot of scense. Yet another journal from you that makes people think and learn something. Awsome 
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Tracing helps <33
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I've actally seen that method before, and yeah I agree with you that it can be a help, but I'll be honest, I believe that's still too much a drawing crutch. I still firmly believe eye-balling is a better method as it helps to bend your perception until the ability to draw things exactly as they are becomes second nature to you so when you start drawing from your head, everything just works better. It may take longer, but I think the satisfaction would outwiegh that.
I think using this method could result in not really learning how to figure things out for yourself and kind of takes the pride out of the finished result. It's almost like the person using it isn't confident enough to try from scrath without any help, I think even despite a lack of drawing confidence, it's better to try your hardest from scratch as I honestly do believe that will help people get better than this way could.
If you used this method sparingly or for things you just CANNOT get right at all after countless amounts of trying then fair enough I guess, but only sparingly, it's better to avoid I'd say and I say this as someone who colours better than they draw XD
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oh ps: I rather be humble about an excellently drawn piece that I know I learned how to draw with using aids to help myself than to be fullblown ego-boosted about my shitty drawings that have all okay-but-not-so-correct anatomy.
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Then I should explain my concept of pride: it's not inflated ego pride I'm talking and thinking you'r hotshit, it's the pride you get when you poured blood, sweat and tears into something you're passionate about and you produced something you love and adore, and being able to do that from scratch. I genuinely believe that is a more rewarding sense of pride than any thing else when it comes to creating art
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I don't think bending my perception (involuntarily breaking the rules) before I learn how to read the rules as is will help me, nor do I think this is a crutch, in any way. If I didn't show you the process and just the final result, no one would even think that I would trace.
what you're saying there - That's like saying using a textbook to learn your math is a crutch, and you have to fight on your own to learn to do numbers or it's cheating. Reinventing the wheel is nothing short of wasting time and being too proud to admit that you need the training wheels before you can ride. It is no different to one who chooses to ride the bike without the training wheels, we all need different ways to learn.
Yes after a while of using the textbook, the math will come natural and you won't need to reference the formulas. But before that, what's wrong with using the book? It's better you use the book and understand the formulae instead of learning them off and regurgitating them without understanding.
I think it will teach you the rules by putting practical method to it too. Afterward of course after doing it for a while, it will let you branch out on your own. It all comes down to the person, I don't intend to use this method for the rest of my life, of course not. But I intend to use it until I learn how to draw properly on my own. Like any other learning tool, there's a time to use it and a time to stop.
-Also from someone who colors better than they can draw.
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I think that's where we differ though: my idea of what the textbook is is the things you're trying to copy: human form, still life, photos etc. The rules are ratio and proportion, which you DO learn before you take pencil to paper. If one takes art classes and they tell you to draw them on your own and it works, it's worked for countless artists and it produces results. I personally feel this method is more for those who draw for fun, rather than those who are really, really serious about doing things on their own.
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As long as it's used in a creative way or helpful I'm fine with it
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I totally agree, that's why I refrain from spamming someone page who is "inspired" by poses and the can obviously draw -u-; I mean..there are different people out there! some get inspired by others, and I don't think its wrong at all(someone recently left for a bit, because of that). When I was younger, heck yeah I traced! those Disney pictures, coloring books!, and learning anatomy books. If your learning, sometimes it will not come out the way you want until you trace it -u- once you do, later getting better, you realize "hey! I can do this on my own now?!" hence you try doing different poses like in your journal.
That's my belief, tracing to me is a growing stage -u- even CHILDREN PRODUCTS (I know you see them in commercials) have things to trace and color..you know the items that look like a tablet or a drawing board, you put a sheet behind the screen, and trace it XD seriously, no big deal.
I'm just glad to see someones opinion about it..because I'm scared to get flame on my own in a "tracer" topic -3-;
OH people..you traced something in your life XD don't pretend to be a Saint..there is nothing sinful of that -u-
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And when people start giving you shit about children's products, ask them if it's not adults who make those products.
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OMG Jemm,it seems you're right*-*
Maybe I'll try it...My anatomy sucks so hardT.T
but please don't hate your art.it shows your feelings and how you truly are.and for me it gimmes an idea of how can you be,as I never knew your face in real life
don't critique yourself so hardly,Crystal.Your art is wonderful,and I admire you so much.You're one of my inspirations,and like a master for me.I love you so much.
And thank you for such wonderful journal,it'll be a great help for me^-^
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I hope it helps you dear!
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Ty~
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I have but one thing to say:
"The Loomis Books"
/end of story
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You have never read them???
They are MANDATORY if you draw.
The best drawing books ever written, by one of the best illustrators of all time, Andrew Loomis. Sadly they are LONG out of print these days and have never been republished. They are highly collectible and copies come up on ebay now and then. This site here is dedicated to them [link] They were published between the 1920s and 1940s.
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In my early days that's what I used to do too
Did me a lot of good really, since it gave me an idea of how muscle lines should flow on the limbs, torso etc...
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Wow,I feel so enlightened! OwO I always thought tracing was for thieves and ammateurs...
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not for amateurs at all. That's why they teach tracing in art school. As much as I previously didn't want to admit: they know what they are doing.
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