Is it Ok for Artists to Trace?

Is it ok to trace in art? Is tracing instead of drawing cheating? How do professional artists think about tracing?

Tracing is a bit of a taboo in the art and illustration world, but it's actually a tool that is used by many professional artists! In today's video, I want to tackle this hot topic and talk about when/why tracing can be a useful tool, and when it's best to be avoided. Essentially it all comes down to your artistic goals!

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[mindofwatercolor]

Excellent treatment! You mentioned several key truths. The first being that "cheating" is usually brought up by the non-professional. They truly don't get it. Second, tracing doesn't lead to skill as an artist. That has to be developed separately. Well said! If you can't draw, a tracing will show this as well. Third, and a fabulous point, tracing doesn't help you see a subject in 3d space. Quite the opposite. For professional illustrators it's a useful time saver if you know how to use it. It was for me at least and I've been an illustrator for over 35 years. The key point being, I knew I could draw my subject given the time. If I traced, it was usually to save time and get an accurate result much quicker but I still had to do a significant amount of drawing OVER the tracing. When practicing in my sketchbook, which I do frequently, I never, ever trace. I that case, the person I would be cheating is myself. I liken it to giving a calculator to elementary school children still learning their multiplication tables. That would be cheating the student at that stage of their learning. But for an advance math student or mathematician, a calculator is a very useful tool. Thanks for the video!

[MDCampbell]

As a professional, I’ve traced for years to adjust compositions, add & remove objects, and finalize gestures. As a teacher, I’ve instructed students to trace for decades – along with still & life drawing, as fundamentals in understanding various ways of learning how to draw. Sure, it’s a time saver, but there’s so many invaluable benefits to tracing, especially for students: learning to capture accurate proportions and to see them in real form; to understand isolating abstract shapes, like shadow blocking, which may be too subtle for a student to see in life; to identify linear perspectives, see line density, and better understand how values of objects get lighter as they go back in space. Tracing allows students to focus and see 3D objects in a familiar, flat dimension which is helpful when first starting out. Understanding objects in real space can be a real stumbler for new artists. It’s important that we, in the YouTube community, present a full range of both benefits _and_ drawbacks, not just the drawbacks. In my opinion, tracing is incredibly valuable for any artist, pro or amateur. In the end, I’d rather see someone tracing than not drawing at all. Just my 2¢. Cheers! :)

[rebekah]

While I totally agree with you on the time-saving benefits of tracing, I'd like to share that it serves far more purposes for people like me. I've used tracing to help me see a subject in 3d space. One has to bare in mind we're individuals with specific ways of "seeing" and interpreting what we see; some people learn to read or take in data differently (auditory vs tactile). I typically do better learning using sight, sound and touch rather than just seeing and/or hearing some demo or reading a book. But in this sense tracing is still a tool, a very useful tool for folks like me. I've also used tracing to train my hand/eye coordination when approaching certain subjects, or to help me navigate a particularly complex layer of folds in a flower when my eyes confuse me. While I do draw from observation the majority of the time and improving more and more tracing has kept me going when I wanted to give up. On the subject of tracing I've seen quite a few artists/illustrators making statements that are all encompassing which can be discouraging to those who learn differently. I'm so glad you used Norman Rockwell as a sample of great artists who used tracing. He also worked exclusively from reference photos because he could not compose images in his head. He went to great lengths to compose his subjects in person then had the scene photographed. I believe he may have suffered from a form of aphantasia. So to all those who can't just practice observation and "get it" I encourage you to trace it and to use references if necessary. There is room for you in the art world too. Kendyll is right, tracing is not cheating.

[astoria]

Another thing that tracing is helpful with is training your brain. I'm a beginner and although I do a LOT of freehand drawing, I find that when I trace things that are very difficult for me to get proportion with, somehow I get better at it quicker than when I just keep trying to do it freehand over and over again. Somehow the brain/eye/hand coordination seems to get it faster and better. I definitely will keep using tracing as a learning tool.

[ErikaLancasterArt]

Yessss!! I'm SO happy that you put this video out there. I agree with everything you said 100%. As an artist, I believe in drawing freehand as much as humanly possible and leave tracing only for specific situations in which time is an issue. I always recommend my students (whether they're 10 or 50), to see tracing (and even using grids) as sort of "training wheels" that you're aiming to get rid of. This should be the case, at least, if they're really serious about progressing their drawing skills.
When someone has absolutely no experience drawing, then tracing may help develop a certain confidence in line work, but as you said, it doesn't help people develop their observational skills. I always recommend people looking to improve their art to draw/paint from both photographs as well as from direct observation, too. Working from life or from direct observation challenges us in a way that using a flat photograph does not, as it forces us to translate three-dimensional forms that we're able to reach out and touch, onto a flat two-dimensional substrate. It's an amazing experience that certainly makes us progress artistically faster.
I've found beginners tend to want to jump right into shading and detail, and skip the phase of creating that preliminary sketch. I did it too when I was very young, as shading seems to fun and satisfying! But it's that work on that preliminary sketch and achieving effective proportions, etc., that should be first and foremost.
Drawing is the basis for everything. And it's so true! Someone who knows how to draw well will probably be able to create awesome paintings pretty fast, but if one skips learning how to draw and observe, and wants to jump straight to painting, it will be very difficult!

[jwilliamson]

I know what you mean about the non-professional thinking it's cheating. I trace my own drawings. I use the same subject matter in several paintings, so i perfect them in my sketchbook and then use them in several of my paintings. My boyfriend saw me transferring a sketch one time, and his comment was "so you don't draw those yourself". I was upset at first that he thought i couldn't draw things myself, but then i remembered i did draw it, i just drew it yesterday.

[YelidaHierroArt]

I agree that this topic is definitely not as cut and dry as some people see it and it depends greatly on your goals as an artist and the type of work that you do. For me, any method of transferring such as tracing, grids, etc. are very tedious so I don't use them on my sketchbook or personal work, but I do find them necessary for commissions, mainly due to time constraints but also to keep my work as clean as possible. I'm a very messy sketcher so I usually do the drawing separately and transfer it to my final paper.

[FarlyCreates]

I couldn’t agree more with your points for tracing as a tool and photo references in general. Unfortunately for me, I rarely have a subject for a commission right in front of me. I receive a lot of memorial and pet portrait commissions so photo references are key. BUT I prefer drawing from life because you lose so much detail and form in photos. I work from life for my side projects all the time.

Tracing has this stigma with it, however, when I have 10 commissions, as I do this month, I have to be able to quickly lay down eye and nose placements. It doesn’t mean I don’t know how to place them already on my own but it’s a guide so I don’t have to process it like I normally would, which shaved off 15-30 minutes off each drawing.

Drawing and painting can be very cathartic but when it’s your profession, it’s actual work. There are so many unsaid layers behind it that you may not even realize it. Stress of payment, charging too much, charging too little, supplies, upkeep, getting more commission work, spacing them out appropriately, etc. and that’s just with the actual process let alone personal things going on.

So thank you for clarifying to your masses because I’ve felt that tracing as a tool is vital for artists like me, at times like these. Okay...monologue over. Have to keep going on this pet portrait. Haha!

[laurasrecords]

I agree tracing can be a bad habit in the long run. However Ive know how to draw for a long time and only recently learned how to color and paint. As I'm already late, I find tracing a time saver for my fast learning in coloring. When I get the hang of it and more confident I will certainly stop tracing to produce a more origin work.

[roxanachitanu]

Thank you, Kendyll, for sharing your thoughts and showing different contexts in such a levelled way. Appreciated it.

[christianaodum]

Thank you for sharing this video. I’ve historically been in the “tracing is cheating” camp and have recently been questioning my beliefs about that. My thoughts are pretty much exactly everything you’ve discussed. Honestly, I had no idea those famous artists you mentioned used tracing, but just a few days ago I was thinking about how famous historical artists would use any tools they have available to them to make their jobs more efficient. I still haven’t used tracing in my work. It feels like cheating to me, but I’m more open minded about it and am considering trying it to save time. I’m not going for total realism at the moment, so I’d use tracing as more of a blueprint for a more abstract work. :)

[myartpixie]

Great topic! Back in college, for my painting II class, we painted on a larger scale. This called for a projector that projected our image up onto the large canvas and then we would trace the basic outline of our subjects. I agree that having fundamental drawing skills helped. It was a tool to use toward the end result. These days I have used that tool for set design because the set pieces are so grand. Same idea. Good job!

[brooklynstory]

Amazing video! I feel like so many people get really angry and heated over this subject and artists can get torn to pieces for it. This was so calm, clear and completely rational. You made some excellent points and I'm happy this is out there.

[Pearberrie]

Very well put! I’ve seen a lot of younger artists sing the praises of tracing to learn which I never understood I think you put it very nicely as to why that doesn’t help.

[artygilly]

I mostly trace my own stuff like if I’ve drawn a successful drawing then I’ll trace it a few times onto watercolour paper which gives me freedom to experiment while not ruining my original. Btw I learned to draw by tracing 60 years ago made me very aware of how to construct my art 🖼
Love your work Kendyll and good luck with the baby 👶👍🏻🇬🇧💖

[sarahcroft]

All of this! I agree completely. I also use it when I’m sketching things to help my brain wrap itself around 3d objects being transformed into 2d, but only in the sketching phase, and then ya, transferring my own work onto a better paper. Great video, and even though you were nervous about it your authenticity breathes confidence into it. :)

[MrsTiffanyGrey]

Thank you, Kendyll! So very helpful! I will pursue a drawing class now instead of a tracing machine!! 🧡

[michellevance]

I use tracing for muscle memory. Also I use tracing to later become confident enough to manipulate a drawing to where I can add elements from more than one image.

[nerueru]

Thanks Kendyll! I think frustration leads to tracing too. The it's taking too long! I like the qualification: if you can draw it fine use it speed the process. But if you can't you'll handicap yourself. (Your drawing from observation for 10yrs before you ever traced, now that's a real salient point there.)
I know from experience tracing isn't observing. If you have a bit of skill you'll pick and choose which parts to highlight and accentuate. Ignore all the superfluous bits that detract from the focal point. If you dont know of anything beyond this is a pretty image, you'll want to copy everything. Which is fine, but are you realy fine with not learning from the piece?

[azzuparis]

Hi Kendyll, great subject. I mostly paint. I don't draw often, because I'm not great at it but sometimes I find it relaxing (or funny, when I draw faces 😂). But I agree with you. Tracing is faster and easier but but you don't learn a lot from it. Thanks for the video and have a great day 💕