Is Tracing BAD?? (rant)

Hi everyone! I'm doing another rant video since  you guys seem to enjoy them. This one is gonna be on another big topic in the art community -  tracing. For some context, I have been drawing my whole life, and I have been posting my art online  since 2020, so I can share my experience both as an artist developing my skills offline, and as  an online artist still developing my skills, but also getting my art traced sometimes. I  also made a community post asking you guys for your opinions and sto

ries about tracing,  and I'll sprinkle them in here and there. Everything I say here are just my own  opinions, obviously. Feel free to share yours in the comments, doesn't matter  if you agree or disagree with me. I love having conversations and discussions under  these videos. Anyway, let's get into it. So, first things first, what is tracing?  It has a lot of different meanings, but in the art community it's referring  to when you take a picture, a drawing, whatever, and trace over it. But is

it bad?  I mean, yeah, but also no. It's really not a simple answer. It depends on how you trace, what  you trace, why you do it, how you present it. I always say this and I will keep saying it,  tracing can be a very useful tool if you know how and when to use it. If you're not stealing someone  elses art, and you're not proffiting off of stolen art, it's completely fine. For example, I have  traced poses and bodies before, whether to make sure the body type is accurate when drawing an  actual

person, or to simply save myself some time. The way I did it is I traced the photo reference, and then I used the traced body as a guide for  the actual sketch. I basically skip a step in the sketching process. I can draw a body  from scratch if I wanted to, but sometimes I don't feel like it. I'm not stealing art, it  saved me time, the result looks good. Sucess. Sometimes if you do that the body can look  disconnected from the rest of the drawing, that's why I go over the traced pose one more

time to  kind of blend it together more. Unless that's what you're going for. I've seen artists draw stylized  heads with realistic bodies. That's a thing too. You can use this method if you're  not fully confident in your anatomy, or the pose is too complicated for you. As  long as you're not stealing, go crazy. Just don't completely rely on tracing. If you blindly  trace all the time without giving it any thought or analyzing how it all works, you're not  going to improve. Like I said, it's a

tool. This comment worded it really well: "I've traced things if I can't seem to get it  right just from looking at it as a reference. But that's only after I've made a few attempts  to draw it without tracing first. And when I do trace, it's with the intention of better  understanding the shapes I'm trying to make, and teaching my hand how to make the correct  movements to achieve the finished look. Also, I never post something traced without  giving credit to the source artist and making it c

lear what I'm trying to learn from  doing it. We learn things through mimicking others at a very young age, so I see nothing  wrong with doing that as we get older too, as long as we're not trying to take  credit for other people's original work." Another way I've traced is tracing over a photo  reference again, but instead of outlining it, I break it down into shapes and guidelines, and then  I use that as my reference. It's a good way to study anatomy and poses, since sometimes it's hard  to t

ell from a photo. I've actually done a whole video where I did pose studies, and from there I  learned that this method actually really helps. You can also trace your own  art. Like this comment says: "I only trace from myself really, like,  do my sketch on paper and then trace it into digital art, cuz it's easier  for me to do traditional sketches" I used to do that all the time. I was still  drawing on my phone, and it was hard for me to do the sketch on the smaller screen, and the  reference

window was not a thing in ibis at that time. So I would just do the sketch on paper, and  draw over it on my phone. Plus, if I really like the sketch, I could just color it traditionally  and use it in my sketchbook. Two for one! I agree with this comment as well: "Tracing your own art and tracing others are  two different things. Tracing your own art isn’t stealing and is a way that I personally  get one thing to look the same way as I drew it before. But I feel like even this kind of tracing 

gets hate, as if tracing over your own art is bad and is keeping you from improving. It’s just a  way for me to get my art to look the way I want" That is very true. For example, I can't make  my OCs look the way I want most of the times, that's why I don't draw them as often as I  would like to.️ So if I feel like drawing over an older drawing of them I really like, I am  free to do so. It's mine. Or when I was drawing characters from Fionna And Cake, some of them  are different versions of the

same character, so I just traced their faces to keep them  consistent. Again, it's my art anyway. I remember I would get a couple comments, like,  accusing me of tracing my own picrews? Because the style was the same? Even if the angles and  poses were completely different from the portrait style picrews. Or saying that I'm not improving  if I don't do the sketches digitally, but like, I still drew the sketch? It was just on paper? And  I'm drawing over my own drawing? Then later when I got a t

ablet with a much bigger screen, I started  doing the sketches digitally because I could actually see what I was doing. And ever since the  reference window feature was added I'm thriving. But tracing to learn and just claiming someones  art as your own are completely different things. One is finding shortcuts and making the process  easier, the other is just theft, especially without credit. My art has been traced quite a few  times throughout my.. career, I guess. Right away, I will not be sho

wing any examples because I quite  frankly don't care anymore, and in case those people happen to watch this video, I don't want  to bring it back up for them again. I don't care, it doesn't bother me anymore, but it's on  topic so I want to talk about it as well. Anyway, usually how I'd discover the tracing  is through getting tagged in the post, whether it's by the artist themselves, or by  someone that recognized the tracing. My first reaction would always be to comment  something along the l

ines of "Hey, please don't trace my art. You can reference  it instead if you want." and maybe compliment their coloring or something like that. Most  of the times in response I got an apology, the post would be taken down and I never had  any issues with that person ever again. Awesome. And that's pretty much the  best scenario. But there were a few times where it went more like this: "Hey, I can see that this drawing is traced from-" "Nuh uh" "I can still see that this is traced from me-" "Nuh

uh. I literally drew it 17 years  ago on a napkin I found in a dumpster, but only posted it now. I didn't trace." "This is the original drawing I made  some time ago. They match up completely." "Actually that one line over there  doesn't match up. So I didn't trace." "Look, I can still tell that it's  traced. You can reference my art instead, I'm okay with that. It will  also help you actually learn-" "Nuh uh." "Okay-" This is kind of a mix of the  bad experiences I've had. Again, now it feels

really silly to me. Most of the  people that traced me were young, or beginners, or both. And most of their posts barely  got any attention, so they weren't taking any credit from me. Hell, some of them  would literally tag me as the original. I guess it was just really counterproductive  to spend my time arguing about this. I will admit I would sometimes get into quite  lengthy arguments over my traced art, a few times I even shared those arguments  on my own profile. Luckily anyone that went o

ver to the persons account was respectful and  pretty polite, I'm so glad that there wasn't any harrassment or anything of that nature because  I do not support this behavior at all. And now I think it was stupid of me to even get  into those arguments in the first place. Unless they built a big platform off of traced  art, or are proffiting off of it, I don't see it as nearly as much of a problem now. But still  please don't trace my art and call it an OC, i still don't like it. I am okay with

referencing,  as that's exactly what I did when I was younger and it really helped. Plus it's not going to  look exactly like my art if it's referenced, and you can add your own stuff to it and over  time it will change into your own style. Or at least don't post it if you trace. I  know it can help in studying an artstyle, that I'm okay with. Just wanted to clarify. I feel like often people make tracing out to be much worse than it actually is. This next  example is gonna be a little more spe

cific, but I like watching small art drama videos  from time to time. And very often in these situations tracing gets mixed in with way  more serious allegations and can even be presented on a similar level of severity, which  I think is just.. Like, if that person commited an actual crime, I could not care less that  they traced your friend's drawing I'm sorry- Or they accuse the person of "artstyle  theft" or "pose theft" or whatever. You can't steal an artstyle. It would  either be tracing, o

r copying, or taking inspiration. You can't 100% replicate  another persons techniques and visual style. And don't even get me started on "pose theft".  There are no original poses and accusing someone of copying or stealing from someone else  because they drew the same pose is ridiculous. I feel like it's usually artists that are still  growing and are still pretty possessive over their art that make it this big of a deal. There are so  many art dramas over just tracing accusations. I mean, I u

nderstand. I was like this for a while.  I agree it can be incredibly annoying when someone takes a drawing of yours, traces and recolors it,  and calls it an OC. I get it. But I think either ignoring it or politely educating them is enough.  Some people genuinely don't know that it's bad. And don't make it public. It's better to resolve  things in private, or at least in the comments. But don't get me wrong, it's one thing if  it's a kid with like 5 followers tracing, it's a whole different dea

l when the tracer  builds a whole platform off of stolen art or proffits off of it. I literally saw it on  tiktok the other day. I noticed it's a pretty big problem on tiktok. And I feel really bad  for artists that fall victim to that. It must be very annoying and disheartening, and you  can't really do much about it besides maybe spreading awareness, since reporting  the account probably won't do much. Or so many online shops that sell  stolen art on stickers, notebooks, posters and stuff like

that. I have a few  of those sticker packs from aliexpress, and so many of them are just stolen fanart,  especially if it's anime stickers. And again, you can't really do much about it as  the original artist. It's unfortunate. But it all goes for the art you plan on posting  online. There are certain rules on the internet, but offline I believe you can do whatever you  want. Whatever helps you learn, or maybe you just do it for fun. No one will see it, you are  not taking away credit from the

original artist, though it would still be nice to acknowledge  them, but again, no one will see it. It would also be nice to reach out to  the original artist and ask if they are okay with you taking inspiration  from them, or studying their style, especially if you are planning on posting it.  It's a nice gesture to ask first. Personally, I am completely cool with referencing,  taking inspiration, studying my style, even if that includes tracing, and all that, I am  only against just tracing, r

ecoloring my art and calling it your own. I will not make it a huge  deal if it happens, but I still don't like it. Though I don't really understand when established  artists are completely against any sort of inspiration or referencing of their art. If  you post it online, it's kind of inevitable that someone would at least take inspiration from  you. That's how it works in art in general. Plus, it means that someone likes your work if they are  getting inspired by it. It's a positive thing. It

reminds me of a certain situation where an artist  with a very popular artstyle, that has made tutorials on how they draw by the way, blasted a  young artist for drawing similar to them, causing them to get harrassed, and then said they'd do  it again and were happy they got clout from it. But anyway, I feel like tracing and copying  is just part of the journey for most, if not all artists. Personally, I remember I  would copy pictures of cartoon characters I liked at the time. I did a lot of W

inx  characters, powerpuff girls as well, or random pictures of animals from books  I had. Then later I would try and copy instagram artists I liked, sometimes it would be  to figure out my own artstyle, or maybe I just liked a specific drawing so much I would try to  replicate it. I don't think I traced back then, but it was honestly just because I didn't know  it was an option. I wasn't smart enough for that. But it's just my experience. A lot of people  shared their own on my community post.

"I think tracing is okay at a certain level. For  instance, when I was younger and still learning how to draw in a way that i liked, i would look  at those anime how to draw books (MADE FOR YOU TO COPY WHAT THEY DRAW) and trace them and i would  also reference pictures and draw them in my style, which is a great alternative for tracing.  Now i think tracing is NOT okay when you’re tracing another persons own art style  that has been proven to be their own, and then you post it and claim it as yo

ur own.  Tracing peoples art that they spend their time on isn’t okay. Just because you might think  their art style is cool, you don’t need to copy it exactly, you could just make something  inspired by it, but not exactly the same." "In my experience, when I was a child, I used to  trace Pokemon pictures on top of a computer from screen to paper and then call it my own so I  could get praise, and there was nothing else to it. I didn't learn any basic anatomy  of the characters, the lines were

shaky, and the colors were just poorly applied  and copied from the original. Later on, I realized that it would be better to  just start practicing more on my own, and I was right. Since then, I improved  significantly more than with just tracing the object i wanted to draw without acknowledging  the different shapes within the object. So yes, I think tracing can be a good thing, but it needs  to be used carefully and for good purposes." "Generally tracing is a good way to learn, as  long as yo

u credit the og. In school I would trace animals in my guide to animals learning book  and it helped immensely. However it is a tool, that can be abused. Don't always trace  your art, you gotta go free hand sometimes, or else you will be confined in a box. Use  tools when needed. Like everything in life. If you use a tool way too much, everything will  look like a nail to your hammer. Hope this helps" "Oof this is an interesting one. When i started  out drawing i used to find pictures of humans

doing poses and trace over them and add my OCs,  as well as getting those “draw your squad” ones and tracing. I personally feel like tracing  did help me grow as an artist, but it didnt really help much i think. I can't say that tracing  helped me learn proportions for human anatomy or helped me with posing(something i still struggle  with). I really think that if you are a beginner artist and you strongly believe that tracing  will help you learn, then go for it. HOWEVER, tracing other peoples

art for LEARNING PURPOSES  is okay with me as long as you don't post it to social media saying that YOU CREATED IT AND NOT  GIVING CREDIT cause that's stealing. If you do trace something and you want to post it on social  media, always ask the person who the art belongs to first. I also used to trace other peoples  art, this time to help me learn and i do feel like i learned a few little things. So long story  short, trace for LEARNING, not for PERSONAL GAIN" "I have a long history with tracing.

Typically  when I do trace it's either with bases and real life photos because of the posing, and on the off  chance i do trace someone else's work it's for the same reason, the pose, but because of social  media (TikTok) I remember beating myself down a lot and feeling as if I wasn't a real artist  and that I couldn't create anything my own or new and unique. This did lead to me referencing  photos by just looking at them a lot more often and trying to break them down, which is a good  thing t

o learn yes, but the means of getting there was not. It's part of the reason I don't really  feel comfortable posting speed paints of my art, but honestly as long as you're not outwardly  stealing a persons work I see no problem with it" That actually reminded me that bases exist  literally so that you can trace and draw over them if you can't draw from scratch.  I definitely remember using My Little Pony bases in MS Paint in my computer class.  I've also seen a lot of bases from anime, or Winx

Club, there are artists that  draw their own bases from scratch as well. I have seen some discussions about  bases, I know there are people that don't like them and think it's lazy to use them. I  don't see any issues with bases personally. Tracing is also a huge part of the animation  process, since you're literally going over frames to make sure they line up. Hell, rotoscoping is  a thing. It's when you literally trace a video frame by frame to make your animation. It can be  used for practice

or to simply save time. I've done something similar with some of my old South  Park animations. Granted the animation isn't super complicated there and I didn't trace it exactly.  I would just pause it frame by frame and reference that. It didn't look exactly like the original,  but it definitely made the process much easier. The animation meme community is also a thing.  They literally reference each other and make similar animations to one another all the  time. Though some people still start

drama over copying or stealing, but that's besides the  point. It's usually kids or teenagers that are, like I said, still very possessive  over their art. If you post it online, at some point somebody will see  it and get inspired by it. It's unavoidable. Especially in a community that's  all about copying and referencing each other. Okay, I don't really have anything else to  add. The opinions on the community post were pretty much unanimous which is awesome. So, in  conclusion, is tracing ba

d? It's part of the journey honestly. It's kind of impossible to  be an artist without ever tracing or closely copying someone else. And a lot of more skilled  and proffessional artists do it as well. Just don't trace mindlessly, use it as a tool  and not a permanent step in your process. Don't use it to steal from other  artists, and don't proffit off of it of course. It's scummy and very bad.  And don't feel like you're not allowed to take inspiration and borrow things from  other artists. No

one is 100% original, everybody gets inspired by something else, so  don't rush yourself to be completely unique and original. Over time your art will  change and become more personal to you. And from the other perspective,  don't be so possessive over your art being copied or an inspiration to  someone else. If you share it online, it will happen one way or another, and  it means that people like your work so much that they want to do something  similar. Making a huge deal out of it, starting d

rama or trying to cancel someone for  being inspired by you is honestly pretty stupid. On the other hand, if you see  someone tracing an artist you know, in my opinion the best way to go about  it is let the original artist know, and politely tell the poster what they're doing  wrong. Some people genuinely don't know it's bad. And lastly, if you happen to be the tracer,  just be honest about it. Whether it's a study, or a piece inspired by someone else,  it's always great to credit the original

and show them some appreciation. If you  get asked to take the traced piece down, apologize to the artist and take it down. If  after that they keep talking about you badly when the issue has been resolved already,  that's on them, not you at this point. But it's also better to not post traced art  without permission in the first place. But anyway, that's all from me for today. If you  have more to add, leave it in the comments. This topic can get pretty broad so I'm sure there are  things I did

n't even touch on. Thank you so much for watching, you can like the video, comment,  subscribe, all that. Check out my other socilas, they will be on the screen and in  the description. Stay safe and bye