Tracing is a good way to define your art style: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/od2en9ibvryxm3U.html

I have never considered tracing cheating. Lots of people do, but most of them are not artists. I trace because I want to paint. If I was a sketch artist I wouldn't trace, I would sketch. It helps build muscle memory and puts the detailed areas in my head so that when I paint I know where I want more definition. I am still the one painting. Many people think that tracing makes it "less" and that anyone could paint a traced picture. Fine, then you do it! I'm for anything that makes creating art easier. Tracing is a tool, just like good paint, or a comfortable brush. Love your video!

To say it is cheating is to imply that we are all in a competition with established rules, which of course we aren't. Tracing or not tracing is a personal choice for one's own art journey, I do not view it as cheating. If we were to consider the case of tracing another person's art work and then presenting as our own we already have laws to protect from that. Drawing and painting are two different skills, it would be silly to say if you can't draw you shouldn't paint. A lot of people are learning to draw slowly as they enjoy painting, to be very good at drawing takes years, there is no reason to wait years to start painting, you can take time to learn drawing whilst also enjoying painting traced pictures.

I definitely don’t think that tracing is cheating. Tracing is a tool in my art box of supplies to help me with figuring out perspective on complex subjects & details. I will sometimes use tracing to see if my proportions are correct with some artwork. I consider it an asset too. It has helped me grow my skills as an artist with drawing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this challenging subject.

People who say tracing is cheating are gate-keeping.

Bonjour, Cecile. A lazy artist who just wants to copy (because he thinks he's not all that good), will never be great. But artists should be free to use any and all tools that are helpful for them to achieve their creations. Is it cheating if a person takes a photograph of a landscape and uses that to sketch/paint from, rather than painting plein air-or photographing a model, rather than painting them live. It's not the same as tracing, but it is still an aid. A tracing is a guide. There's so much more to a painting than those bare lines. An artist doesn't just add paint, but light, texture, emotion, personality, atmosphere... Those are things that make art-art. So, no, I definitely would not consider tracing to be "cheating." Good topic for discussion though. :)

Surprising...i didnt know such great artists used tracing. Very interesting video

Thanks Cecile! I'm going to share this in my membership. :)

I don't think it is cheating. In my scetchbooks I practice drawing, so I do not trace. But when I make big pictures I use a projector to get the proportions right.

I find it really helpful to trace the outline sometimes if I just can't get the shapes right. I'm using it as a tool to learn to draw, to create muscle memory and it also helps me gain confidence and not give up on leaning to sketch and watercolor. 😊

I usually do the sketch myself, but just last night I was tracing. My subject was a map from a game, and I wanted all the borders to be correct. So I guess it would depend a bit on the subject? I used to trace a little bit more when I started painting and it helped me build up a little bit of confidence in my strokes which I could then bring over to my sketches later. While I used to feel like I was cheating though, now I feel more like it's a tool to bring out when the painting calls for it: such as my map, or just for tired days when I just want that colour on my paper.

tracing is not cheating if you do something else with it after tracing.

I didn't even think there were any tracking issues at all. Any person, and especially an artist, can do and create as he likes and as it is convenient for him.😊

Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody's got one. I really liked your treatise on the topic though because it's a tool for all types of contexts. And I can appreciate your pro's and con's. Now I'm gonna go find something to trace! :P cheers

If it's a portrait or something man made like a building I'll trace. Many times, I accidentally loose the outline and have to nudge things by eyeballing it and that always always ends up being a very obessive thing because you see it's off especially not that it's compared to the rest of the accuracy that wasn't lost during painting. Is the right eye too big, or is it the left eye being to small? I've gotten much better at not loosing the outlines though. I draw over them with thin paint and let it dry so that i can use a Q-tip anytime to wipe off the paint to find my original outline again. Nothing more disappointing than to spend hours and hours trying to get accuracy in outline of something backing up, moving forwards...before you have even begun to paint!

Tracing has its place. If practicing a painting technique, color study, etc is the purpose of the work, then drawing takes valuable time and energy from the goal of the piece. However, since I am trying to learn how to draw, I look at it as practice, too. What happens then is I get so involved in the drawing process that I eventually leave it as a graphite work instead of painting as originally intended because I like the result so much. Tracing gets you there faster but does not replace the knowledge and skill necessary to 'finish' a work.

A product from tracing is still art, created by an artist. Painting the tracings can be finessed in ways that make it your own. Just like photography is art, there is good photography and maybe some not so good. But the beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder.

totally agree, tracing and transferring reference is a great time saver....so that we can jump in to paint

Bonjour! I don't think is cheating, some people are not very into drawing in order to spend tons of time mastering something just so they can enjoy the painting part of the process, some other times it saves time, as well as all the things you mentioned, i reckon though, that there's a fineline when it comes to tracing and cheating, like when you pretend you didn't trace the outline of your reference (its a tool, why should you hide? )or when you trace someone else's artwork and claim as yours ( even if you do some small changes, it is still a 'copied base' from someone else, and in this case, you could either trace or freehand, that neither will look right for me ahahaha) . I like to paint portraits, and even though i know how to sketch a face, i dont really enjoy the sketch /drawing part of the process, and not only takes a lot more time as it doesn't get as good as i get if i just trace the bloody reference ahahhahahhaha😂

I don't think it's cheating. Depending on how much mental effort I want to put in I might straight trace it. If I'm painting a portrait and want to get a good likeness I use a doodle grid

Great video Cecile. I wonder what you think about tracing from A.I. art like on Midjourney. Would a one-off A.I. design be copyrighted? Would tracing an A.I. image and coloring it yourself be similar to the way you do your art creations?

I'm an old school draftsman, I worked for an Architect for years, we used to used to trace on a light table, to acquire our perspective points, and main feature lines,. when we do this, it's not easy at all, you have to use the picture for feature positions, but you have tons of detail. I would still end up ruining the rendering with and ink smudge, or something. Often we would have three or four versions before we had one we would be happy with. Keep in mind we were also trying to meet a deadline. That being said, most of our freehand stuff would be trees, people cars, etc. So as a result I'm now still week on inanimate objects.

Thank you soooo much 🥰❤️

My father took fotos in the 1960s And I found some interesting ones that I wanted to paint and do artsy things with. I actually put them in Photoshop and turned them into a line drawing to I could color in the image easier. I didn't want to get bogged down with even tracing the image.

Good artists borrow, great artist steal, smart artist Trace! -Picasso and I. 😅

I am learning to do watercolour but I am not good at drawing. And as they say, a bad drawing does not make a good painting. I practice sketching in my sketch book. But I will still practice drawing. I get to practice my painting after tracing and practice sketching in my sketch book.

I prefer to trace, as drawings take too long and I just want to get to the rendering. I do trace from my own photos I've taken.

Not Cheating

Actually in a bigger picture...it doesnt matter i think...each to his or her own😊

I think if i get comfort of tracing i would make it habit to skip drawing which isnt good habit

art should be about the end product!

I think tracing for beginners can be a great tool if they're learning basic anatomy, but if they're trying to draw poses I think drawing shapes on top of the image is better and when they're skilled enough with anatomy, draw the human body (or animal lol) with no tracing on top of the basic shapes

I think NO...those which are not good drawers need to have guide lines!

Tracing is not cheating...it's our painting skills that counts....to turn the end products beautifully

Because I love sketching I never do tracing in my art and that is what it makes your art unique.

I never would trace art. I could never imagine what I would wanna draw, but I'd find an image and use it while drawing my hand eye coordination is good but my imagination lacks.

Tracing? You're only cheating yourself.

Cecile...for me tracing is not cheating others or audiences....its depriving yourself of drawing which is fundamental in art