Tracing -- is it cheating?
Years ago a friend of mine was going an assignment for school, and asked her peers in the industry about some of their process and tricks when it comes to drawing. Here is what I wrote, because I figured it was something that a lot of artists probably wouldn't talk about due to its negative stigma:
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I utilize a lot of reference when I draw, because I like to do a mix of cartoony and realistic. So what I first of all is find (or often take) a photo of the thing that I'm drawing and I will alter it in photo shop, taking out elements that are extraneous or adding elements from other photos, and then I print that out, which is often a frankensteins monster of a result. I then take that to the art desk, and I either eyeball or (more often) trace the general shape and elements of the thing so that I get the "realistic" part down. Then I go back through it and change elements, and make it mine.
The point is not to recreate the photo, but to use the photo as a drawing tool, and this process is great because I really like the way it gets my brain working and thinking about how that thing is shaped and put together. It's very helpful and a HUGE time-saver, and a trick I learned from living with an animator -- an artform that literally relies on tracing.
This process changes if I'm, say, drawing a character hundreds of times over the course of a comic book. Then I don't often use photo reference at all unless it is for a very specific pose (a crazy kung fu kick, or a baseball swing, for instance) that I'm not quite sure how to compose without seeing it, and I find that works well.
I think using photo reference and tracing have gotten a really bad name over the years because of artists who have misused it -- such as using it for plagiarizing other peoples work. However, just like any tool in the artist's arsenal, it can be used for good or evil!
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Here's an example from a recent illustration where I referenced this young woman's face. That skirt is also copied from a photo.
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I utilize a lot of reference when I draw, because I like to do a mix of cartoony and realistic. So what I first of all is find (or often take) a photo of the thing that I'm drawing and I will alter it in photo shop, taking out elements that are extraneous or adding elements from other photos, and then I print that out, which is often a frankensteins monster of a result. I then take that to the art desk, and I either eyeball or (more often) trace the general shape and elements of the thing so that I get the "realistic" part down. Then I go back through it and change elements, and make it mine.
The point is not to recreate the photo, but to use the photo as a drawing tool, and this process is great because I really like the way it gets my brain working and thinking about how that thing is shaped and put together. It's very helpful and a HUGE time-saver, and a trick I learned from living with an animator -- an artform that literally relies on tracing.
This process changes if I'm, say, drawing a character hundreds of times over the course of a comic book. Then I don't often use photo reference at all unless it is for a very specific pose (a crazy kung fu kick, or a baseball swing, for instance) that I'm not quite sure how to compose without seeing it, and I find that works well.
I think using photo reference and tracing have gotten a really bad name over the years because of artists who have misused it -- such as using it for plagiarizing other peoples work. However, just like any tool in the artist's arsenal, it can be used for good or evil!
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Here's an example from a recent illustration where I referenced this young woman's face. That skirt is also copied from a photo.