Let's Talk about Tracing (And 3 Useful Art Strategies)

Alright, so I’ve been sitting on this video for a long time and I have rewritten the script a couple times to try to make it short. But the reality is this is a really detailed topic to go through and I can’t give you honest advice without really covering all of the bases. So this is gonna be kinda long compared to my other videos, but I’m going to include some visuals to help make this easier to figure out. I also know that some of this, particularly when we get to tracing, can be a really contentious topic among artists. I’m going to try to talk about several ways that you can avoid getting into trouble here but I acknowledge that there are a lot of different opinions. Anyway, let’s get to it!

It’s time to talk about tracing. And studying, and referencing, and even drawing from imagination. Because they’re all different but connected ways of approaching an art practice. Over time as I’ve taken in advice from others, I’ve started to piece patterns together, and I’d like to share that with you now because I think you might find it useful too, especially if you’re new to art.

In my head I’ve laid out the process of learning and creating art as a sort of spectrum with four main points. In the middle we have studying and referencing which is where a lot of art is learned and made. And then on the far edges we have two very opposite things: drawing from imagination, and tracing. The order of these things is very intentional and you’ll start to see why later. But this isn’t some official art resource, just how I’ve pieced things together in my head.

We’re going to start out by talking about studying. This is where most of your learning is going to happen. Anytime you are improving a skill in art you are likely doing some form of studying. Studying is the process of looking at a thing and attempting to draw that thing yourself. Maybe you’re adding in a bit of your own style, or maybe you’re just trying to draw it exactly as you see it. This is where you might apply some construction or do some gesture practice to hone those skills as you study. But there’s a very clear separation between the thing you are studying and what you are drawing. Yes you are trying to copy what you are seeing, but you are trying to challenge your mind to draw it from observation. You’re building up your mental library of objects and training your skills of perspective and form.

So what kinds of things can you study? Well you can study traditional art subjects like different models, objects in your home, landscapes, pets, or photos meant for art study. But you can also study other artists’ work. You’re going to have the most effective improvement studying things from real life, because studying other artists can cause you to learn some mistakes that they made that you might not realize. However if you want to learn a particular style and want to try what another artist has done to get there, It’s certainly useful to try it out, and can be quite fun.

“But Kanjon, this is just copying”, you say. Well, yes and no. This is where things begin to get complicated. Yes you are trying to reproduce what you see exactly as it is on your paper. But you are doing it to improve your own art skill, and not to share. This is the key part: It’s not art that you have made. You did not create something but you reproduced it to learn. If you studied something in real life and went to share it online, people are pretty accepting of that. But if you studied someone else’s photos, you probably want to check to make sure that it’s ok to post art remixed from that. Quite often people are OK with and even excited to see art studies of their photographs! But use some caution.

It gets even muddier when you start to study someone else’s art itself. Sure, it’s ok to study another art style if you want to try some other things out and learn different approaches. But again, you didn’t create the work, you reproduced it. If you’re on really good terms with an artist online that you want to study, share your work with them privately first and ask if it’s OK to post with credit. In rare circumstances some people will be OK with that, but expect many people to be uncomfortable if you’re essentially re-doing their hard work even with credit.

Now, we’re not really talking about fine arts here: if the work you’re studying is of something far in the past, that’s generally OK. People aren’t going to get mad at you for your recreation of Mona Lisa. Nor will they be upset at you studying with a Bob Ross follow-along. But think carefully on it: use your best judgement and think about how the artist you’re studying might feel. Are they a small artist and will think you cloned their work? Be sure to consider their feelings as much as you can, because their feelings and emotions went into that piece that you’re studying.

Studying is basically how art classes work! Art school teaches you the methods of studying and shows you how to properly observe and draw values, forms, lines, and more, through many different kinds of subjects. Ultimately what drives this along is repeated practice, but at its core, it’s studying. All that stuff said, you can and should freely study whatever you want in private. Just be mindful when sharing your studies with others.

Next, I want to touch on references. I have a whole heckin’ video on this which you can see here. But in short, there are two big secrets to creating art. One is that there aren’t really secrets and yes you do have to practice. The second is that EVERYONE uses references and you’re not cheating or devaluing your work by using them in your creations. Just be sure that you’re using enough references to make your work your own: if you’re only using one reference, you’re basically back to doing a study. Again, useful to learn, but you didn’t necessarily create much with just one reference.

Then over here on the right we have imagination! This is how a bunch of people think art is made, and sure, a good bit is. But there’s two sides to this: one side is that you’re very skilled at a particular subject and can easily draw it correctly from memory. Plenty of people reach this point through development of their visual library, but it can take a long time, and remember that some of the best art pieces are still made by referencing. The other side of drawing from imagination is just having fun: maybe you just want to sketch some little goobers, and you just want to have fun or destress. Nothing wrong with that. This is the sort of art that you created completely, and if you like what you’ve made, share it to everyone.

So that’s three parts of this spectrum of drawing. The fourth is… (Here we go.) tracing. You’re going to find quite a few opinions on this subject, but most boil down to this: yes, everyone’s traced some art at some point. No, it does not feel good to have your art traced by someone else. There are limited, LIMITED, cases where tracing can help you, but it’s often just not useful. Let me get to the end of this before you start typing out your comment. But let’s break this apart first and talk about what tracing IS, because some people get confused about it. When people in art communities talk about tracing, they mean taking someone else’s work, drawing your own lines and colors on top of it, and then hiding their work and sharing it as your art. Whether you give credit or not, basically no one is okay with this.

But there’s a couple things that people get confused about when the word “tracing” comes up. First: if you’re using a template someone made, perhaps for a character reference, or sticker bases, that’s not tracing. That template was made to be used and modified, and as long as you have permission to do so from the original artist you can use them to your heart’s content without guilt. Second, tracing your own lines is not “tracing” in the sense that we’re talking about here. If you’re sketching something and then tracing that digitally to make clean linework, that’s totally fine. Pretty much everyone does that and you’re not cheating at all because you did the work in every step of the process. Some of you might laugh at that point, but it’s a common question I’ve heard from beginners. You probably wondered it at some point too.

With those two points out of the way: my plain opinion on tracing is that not only should you never share work you’ve traced, but I also don’t think it’s useful for learning to draw. (Hang on, I’m not done yet!) When you’re tracing something, you’re simply not learning how it was constructed, or how to approach proportions, or gesture, or… anything really. You’re just following a line. You should always try studying first. Draw what you see NEXT to your study reference, not on top of it, because that’s how you teach your brain how to break down shapes and learn proportions and perspective. It’s hard! But it’s how you learn. If you REALLY feel like you can’t figure it out, you can then trace some forms on top of the image you see. Break them down into shapes and 3D forms. Then, and this is important, try drawing it again separately, while paying attention to the forms you marked on the drawing. Then you’re applying some of the information you see and you’re helping to train your brain. This is the ONE exception that gives tracing some merit: it can help when paired with a separate study drawing IF you’re having trouble. But it should never be the first thing you try, which is why my blanket statement is that you should not look towards tracing for learning. If you’re not studying, you’re not learning.

So that’s a lot of information. I hope you were taking notes, because there’s a quiz on Friday. Naaaaah, here’s some nice pictures summarizing what I just said.

Here’s that spectrum of drawing with some of my commentary. On the right, you have things that you can say you made! Be proud of them. In the middle are things you can share with some caution: the more heavily you reference the more things look like a study, so be sure to credit appropriately and ask for permission if you’re at all unsure. And on the left, tracing. I’ve said enough about this one, I think.

Here’s that spectrum again, in a slightly different manner. The parts in the middle are what you can do when you want to learn art, and those at the right end are what you do to create art. Again, leaving off tracing here.

Finally, because it can still seem really tricky, here’s a chart on studying, because studying is what you do to get better at art, and that’s what we all want to do. Up top: if you studied from real life or your own photos? Share to your heart’s content, and you probably learned a lot from that study too! Studied someone else’s photos or reference material? That’s still very useful for learning, but give credit when sharing. Studied others’ art? Totally OK to do in private, and you’ll probably still learn a bit. But be careful and consider asking for permission when sharing. Personally, I draw the word STUDY in big fat red marker on top of any study sketches so that I don’t accidentally think they were mine months later. And once more, my thoughts on tracing repeated at the bottom.

I’ll put all of these diagrams in the description if you want copies to keep. This has been a super long video for my usual standards, but I really wanted to talk about this stuff completely and accurately. While these are my own opinions, I think they are relatively “safe” ones you can use if you’re beginning your art practice. And I’m curious if you’ve got other ways of picturing the art learning process. These four sections on a spectrum are my way of thinking about it, but everyone is different. Anyway, I hope I didn’t make you go too crazy today. Really, this all boils down to being an honest, good person. Don’t copy others’ work, and if you want to be extra awesome, credit your studies and references if you used them heavily. Giving credit doesn’t devalue your work at all: you still did the work! People like honesty. If you make a mistake and forget to credit something, own up to it and fix it: that’s very respectable.

Let me know what you’ve been studying in the comments! If you found this even the tiniest bit useful, I’d love the usual like, subscribe, and share with your friends. 💖 This video took me a good bit more time than my others, but I enjoyed every part of making it. I promise I’ll get back to the short bite-sized programming. Whatever part of the drawing spectrum you’re after today, I hope you have some fun with it. Go draw!