Why trace?
:/
It's a wonder to me that people still trace.
Why do you trace? Does it make you feel you've accomplished something? Have you learnt anything at all?
You know, people can actually tell. I know I can.
I can also tell when someone has 'mixed and matched' traces from different sources, thinking that by putting them all together people won't be able to notice they're actually an amalgamation of different traced parts.
What's worse is that I know other people can tell as well, yet instead of bringing it to the attention of the poor praise starved individual, they applaud and oooh and aaaah and it makes me shake my head and laugh because all it's doing is perpetuating the tracing cycle.
The sad thing is that one day, they will be caught in the spotlight, asked to draw something on the spot or something that cannot be traced because of it's design, and they will be found out red faced, in front of others, for their fraud. Which I bet is a fear they live with every time they publish a traced image.
You're not doing yourself a favour, friend. Contrary to your thoughts you will never ever improve through tracing, the only way to actually learn is the hard way, the way every self respecting artist who cares about what they do has, through practise and life drawing from reference (NOT tracing over photos) and more practise and patience and tears and the joys and disappointments. You've gotta do the hard yards to get to the point where you're actually proud of what you've achieved.
I pity you.
*
It's a wonder to me that people still trace.
Why do you trace? Does it make you feel you've accomplished something? Have you learnt anything at all?
You know, people can actually tell. I know I can.
I can also tell when someone has 'mixed and matched' traces from different sources, thinking that by putting them all together people won't be able to notice they're actually an amalgamation of different traced parts.
What's worse is that I know other people can tell as well, yet instead of bringing it to the attention of the poor praise starved individual, they applaud and oooh and aaaah and it makes me shake my head and laugh because all it's doing is perpetuating the tracing cycle.
The sad thing is that one day, they will be caught in the spotlight, asked to draw something on the spot or something that cannot be traced because of it's design, and they will be found out red faced, in front of others, for their fraud. Which I bet is a fear they live with every time they publish a traced image.
You're not doing yourself a favour, friend. Contrary to your thoughts you will never ever improve through tracing, the only way to actually learn is the hard way, the way every self respecting artist who cares about what they do has, through practise and life drawing from reference (NOT tracing over photos) and more practise and patience and tears and the joys and disappointments. You've gotta do the hard yards to get to the point where you're actually proud of what you've achieved.
I pity you.
*