On Tracing . . .
Relief
Why do people do it? I'm not talking about referencing a piece of art, but full on tracing line for line another piece of work.
It really irks me when people post traces here and play them off as their own, and it irritates me even more that DA condones it. Is the idea of creativity on this site dead?
Furthermore, why do people think that tracing helps them learn? This baffles me, how does it help you learn to draw? What does it teach you about line, proportion, composition, color, or for that matter creativity if you're just playing human xerox machine? I think a lot of people are cheating themselves creatively and not using their abilities to their full potential by doing this. One thing that I think tracing robs people of more than anything else is the use of their own judgment. That's every bit as important to learning how to create art as technique. You have to learn how to use your instincts and know why there's something wrong with a picture on your own, and that's something a lot of people on this site lack. That's why people don't know how to take criticism. They don't know what to make of it. The only thing they know is from the artist which they traced.
I'm not talking about people who copy or emulate a work to learn the techniques another artist used. Hell, I've done that. I'm sure a lot of people have. Sometimes it takes trying on something new to see how it fits. It's helpful for developing your own style. But it's still different from tracing.
I think people want to believe they can learn by tracing because they're afraid to make mistakes. But they don't realize that falling down is part of the process of learning how to learn to walk. Which feeds more into my theory on taking criticism.
That's why it irritates me that DA condones tracing here. They're not doing anyone any favors including themselves. It just ends up with a watered down art community playing to the lowest common denominator giving this place a bad reputation for having weeaboos and bad art.
To me, this place is only as good as you make it. I like the people who I watch and who watch me. I this circle, I think it's a pretty good community. But DA itself has kind of gone downhill. As much as I like the site itself, I think the mods have made themselves into a joke. I've tried to defend them from people who seem to be bitching for bitching's sake out of fairness, really. But their policy on tracing really irks me. And no one takes them seriously because of it.
This rant/commentary was inspired by a certain "artist" on this site. I won't name who because I don't really feel like being attached to some stupid flame war, but I'll give you a hint: He was on the popular page constantly for vectoring screencaps of various anime. He recently took his work down because of flaming.
He blocked me for critiquing him and telling him he should try to do something more original. He then hid my comments and flagged them as spam. (keep in mind I wasn't flaming) And yet he gets fan tards claiming people like me are just "jellus" (no, really) because he gets more page views than the rest of us.
It's crap like that that proves my point.
On a happier note, I finished the last of my finals today. I'm in a really good mood actually. I'll probably be posting more stuff here now that I have the time.
I'll fix this later . . .
Taking commissions!
Pencil sketch: $20 and up
Ink: $25 and up
Marker: $30 and up
Digital Painting: $60 and up
Price depends on how many characters and how detailed the background is (meaning it's negotiable).
Also add in shipping (around $3.50). If it's pencil, ink, or marker I will send the original drawing. If it's digital, I will send a glossy print.
Devious Comments
And I agree with your sentiment on copying. I may suck at drawing, but tracing seems almost like cheating.
Cheating yourself and others. Yourself out of improving your art through real practice, and everyone else who thinks the art is your own, and the true artist who's creativity you've stolen (at least if you didn't credit them).
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"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." - Terry Pratchett
I'm really sorry that you had that bad experience. :s
I'm talking people who trace line for line and don't break from it, or even try using the shape and quideline method.
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Reality is photoshopped.
Yeah cheating is a good way to put it. My biggest problem with it is you don't learn how to deal with failure when you try to draw something and it doesn't turn out right. Getting it wrong is part of the learning process.
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Reality is photoshopped.
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~info-desk~the-ncd~shutterbox*BANetwork~original-club~catgirl-zone~club-chan~hot-gimmick
FYI - I'd rather look at two furries fuck than a bad photo of some goth wannabe covered in fake blood.
Drawing is basically a perception skill, you have to train your eyes to be able to see shapes, forms, shadows, colors, ect that you normally wouldn't pay much mind to otherwise. And granted it is hard to do at first, once you learn how to do that tracing pretty much becomes obsolete.
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Reality is photoshopped.
But although getting it wrong is part of the learning process, it can be good to trace sometimes for practicing the canon of the head and such in consequence with working on basic skills. As long as you recognize that the work is not your own and don't claim it as such it can be quite helpful in learning new styles
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"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." - Terry Pratchett
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