Fellow artists, what is your opinion on tracing as a way to improve one's drawing abilities? I've heard mixed opinions on this. On one hand, I've heard that tracing other works does not teach you how to draw forms the right way, especially people and animals. Drawing someone else's existing work doesn't teach perspective and vanishing points. And most of all, I've been told that tracing does not improve your artistic skill in the slightest. Not to mention there've been lots of people who've cheated in art contests by tracing photos and illustrations made by other people. Alternatively, I've been told that tracing can help improve a novice artist's line quality and shading. Drawing the best lines for the style of art. I have been told if you want to learn to draw a certain illustration style like anime or Disney, tracing is OK. The only time I'll trace, is when I trace over my own work. I'll begin by making a scratchy drawing with the perspective lines. Then I'll trace over it with a brand new sheet of paper, clean up the line work, get rid of perspective lines and vanishing points, then shade it in the right way.
I agree. There's lots truth to that. But it depends on the drawing style one is training themselves to create. If you're trying to create realism, then it's imperative that you visually study anatomy and the human form.
I don't think there's anything wrong with tracing so long as you make it clear that is what you're doing if you show the art to other people. Tracing can be a good way to help build your visual library and develop muscle memory. Still, tracing should definitely not be the only way an artist practices. If I do a study of someone else's art, sometimes I like to do it in three individual sketches. The first one is traced, the second sketch is only referenced, and the third is without any reference and purely from memory.
I’ve been taught how to draw from observation. I used this technique to draw a concept pic for an image trace assignment.
