Depends on your learning style.
I find for myself, that if I am trying to learn a new body shape, or facial feature that if I trace it a few times it sticks in my mind better for when I try it freehand.
�Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!� - Thomas Gray
Allow me to relate the story of my learning to draw.
1-4: Lumpy poorly structured batman figures.
5-6: Pipe body type over muscled heroes.
6-9: I began tracing pictures from my favorites comics and out of coloring books, typically tracing the outline of a person and drawing my own costume into it.
Sometime around the age of nine one day I sat down with a piece of paper.. and I started drawing.. To my own stunned delight I found myself drawing a very well done anatomically correct picture of NightCrawler that was pretty good for a kid my age.
It was the time I spent tracing, learning via repetition how the body moves, studying various pictures, etc. that helped me the most in learning to draw.
Tracing DEFINITELY helps it's how I encourage any of my friends who want to draw to get started.
Personally never been a tracer, but I did start drawing by coping comic books. So not a trace persay but they were direct copies almost line for line. I think tracing can help, but yes depends on your still. For me the little more trial and error of coping works better.
[ QUOTE ]
Personally never been a tracer, but I did start drawing by coping comic books. So not a trace persay but they were direct copies almost line for line. I think tracing can help, but yes depends on your still. For me the little more trial and error of coping works better.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's the way I do things today. If I see a body shape, or facial feature in a comic or something that I like, I use the image to guide me.
�Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!� - Thomas Gray
Copying is a better approach IMO. Of course tracing will help, so will anything that gives you an oppurtunity to steady your hand and practice your linework. Drawing something on a clean paper without any reference but your eye though, that is something that is a skill that must be practiced constantly, and the beginning is as good a time as any.
Personally, I would start by copying some drawings you like. Comics are a great place to start because the lines are bold and clear. It is much easier to copy these because you can see the basic shapes making up each figure clearly, compared to, say, a photograph or a watercolor painting.
If you want to trace, by all means, it will still advance you as an artist, but I think there are better ways. Plus, I find it more fulfilling to look at a finished work and know that you didn't trace it. Copy it, maybe, but you still did the work without the line right in front of you.
[ QUOTE ]
When learning to draw, does tracing help?
Cosmic
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't see the point of tracing, frankly. Now, copying, where you're recreating a drawing free-hand, is a time-honored technique that I think yields great results if you do it correctly. But I'm not sure that tracing really helps you understand the logic behind the lines, how the underlying structures of objects work together. I don't see much harm in it, but I wouldn't use it as a primary method of learning.
I too started drawing at a very early age by tracing outlines from comic books and then filling in my own details for faces and costumes and such. That quickly gave way to freehand copying as I gained the eye-hand coordination and finger dexterity needed.
Even then I found myself tracing the basic shapes of an existing drawing, but with a different purpose. By tracing just the basic shapes of a character I could then draw in the underlying skeletal structure to get a better feel for the "flow" of the figure. I would then begin to draw, by freehand, from skeleton to shapes to details. This seemed to make my sketches much more dynamic and proportional.
See this example of a piece I'm working on for Thor's Assassin. I haven't drawn in years so I decided to use this method to help get me back in the swing of things.
The small figure in the upper left is the traced shapes to which I have added the skeleton, trying to pull out the countours and spatial relations of the limbs and torso. The large sketch was done in stages starting with the stick figure.
So to answer your question: Yes tracing can help...or it can be a crutch. It all depends on how you use it during your learning process.
PS - if you want you can check on my progress and give me any feedback, advice, or critiques you might have. Sorry for the blatant threadjack. 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
When learning to draw, does tracing help?
Cosmic
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't see the point of tracing, frankly. Now, copying, where you're recreating a drawing free-hand, is a time-honored technique that I think yields great results if you do it correctly. But I'm not sure that tracing really helps you understand the logic behind the lines, how the underlying structures of objects work together. I don't see much harm in it, but I wouldn't use it as a primary method of learning.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with PMD completely; when you trace, you copy someone else's mistakes and bad habits. While you might feel you're learning anatomy, you're also limiting yourself to what someone else does and doesn't know.
If you want to learn to draw human forms, I'd recommend copying rather than tracing. Plus, if you want to learn REAL anatomy, copy from magazines and photographs and NOT comics. Comics are exaggerated on purpose and you won't learn properly. Once you can copy from a magazine with some degree of success, you'll start to see where certain features can be exaggerated into a comic-style without losing the believability of the human figure.
Tracing is 'lazy'; you assume it's all correct and don't think about what you're drawing. If you copy something instead, you're forced to think about the lines and proportions. Thinking about the forms leads to understanding and mastery, while tracing only leads to methodic duplication of an existing style.
So... does it help? Well, yes, you can make a decent drawing if you trace. Will you ever learn to do it on your own? It'll be a lot harder in the long run.
I'd have to agree with many of the above comments. When first learning to draw, I never traced. I would however look at another drawing or object and get proportions from there.
Drawing free-hand on the comp is still my bane though.
[ QUOTE ]
So... does it help? Well, yes, you can make a decent drawing if you trace. Will you ever learn to do it on your own? It'll be a lot harder in the long run.
[/ QUOTE ]
As someone who started out by tracing things in books, I have to disagree with you. I may not be real good at what I do, but it definitely helped when I started to go freehand and began only using images for reference. (granted that was when I was like 7)
It can give you a feel for form if you aren't comfortable with drawing for yourself yet. Does that mean I suggest doing it long term? Definitely not. But it doesn't hurt if you are the type of person who can learn that way.
�Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!� - Thomas Gray
Thanks all!
I'm anxious to improve my drawing, but not at the expense of learning bad habits. *Puts away Rob Liefeld "artwork" and tracing paper*
I'll keep on the way I've working. So far, I've been working from the books I've got here at home, as well as just looking for something interesting around the area to draw. Nothing stellar yet, but at least I can actually recognize what I've drawn as what I've been working from (ie a bottle of water actually looks like a bottle).
I'll see if I can find some magazines or anything else with pictures I can draw from as well.
Again, thanks. Having the community here helps a lot, even though I still don't have a way to put up what I've been drawing.
Cosmic
Just for reference, this guy is amazing.
If you want a reference to a limb or other body part for its anatomical structure, go no further than this web page.
[ QUOTE ]
Just for reference, this guy is amazing.
If you want a reference to a limb or other body part for its anatomical structure, go no further than this web page.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ick. The muscle pictures always make me gag *shudders*
They are amazingly good, but eeks
�Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!� - Thomas Gray
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you want a reference to a limb or other body part for its anatomical structure, go no further than this web page.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ick. The muscle pictures always make me gag *shudders*
They are amazingly good, but eeks
[/ QUOTE ]
hey, it really helps ta know what's goin' on beneath th' skin if you ever want to represent the skin appropriately. This kind of goes back to the tracing thing. Tracing will teach you how to do one thing in one way without ever knowing why it looks that way. The first stage of learning art (beyond simple motor skills) is learning to see things. Once you learn to see, then you have to take the next step and know things. Seeing the way something is, is one thing, but knowing why it looks that way will enable you to not only accurately represent it, but to also change it convincingly... and also to be better equipped to spot problems with your work and be able to correct them.
Just as an illustration, here is someone who has no clue what's going on beneath the skin, and here's the work of someone who spent years delving into burial catacombs to examine the bodies and find out what's really going on beneath the skin. I think the difference should be obvious.
To the OP, you chose well, my friend. All you will get out of tracing in the long run is possibly some motor skills and some idea of line, that's about it. If you rely strictly on it to teach you how to draw the figure, as DJ stated, you'll pick up all their bad habits without ever knowing... and beyond that, you'll only ever be able to draw that facial expression or leg in that one position. Need to turn it just a touch to the left? Good luck because you won't know how. You'll just be a one trick pony. You have to learn to see... once you learn to see you'll be able to put to paper what ever might be in front of you, no matter what it is. Then you have to know... and once you know, then you'll be able to put that thing down on paper any way you like without it sitting in front of you any more.
You made a good choice... good luck, work hard, and no matter what, stick with it.
Good god! He mangled Captain America. A pox upon thee!!!
I've noticed that noone's a real fan of Liefeld here.
I'm sorry... I have to...
Collector: You're mucking with a G, you tracer.
Banky Edwards: I'll trace a chalk line around your dead body!
Holden McNeil: [to Security Guards] Will you get him out of here!
Collector: [as he's being dragged away by Security Guard] Hey wait a second! He jumped me, you tracer!
Pure tracing is bad. HOWEVER, tracing paper is GOOD.
For character design, a great way of understanding another artist's style, is to pull out the tracing paper (dun dun dun) but not to trace with it.
But Say! It says TRACING paper, should I not trace?
Oh ho, no my dear young artist. Its name is deceiving!
Taking a prismacolor black pencil, OR a pen of some sort, we were taught to break down the art into simple shapes, to see where and how the lines worked.
They weren't supposed to LOOK like the art, it was an exercise in how to divulge information from a piece. The same can be done with anatomical studies.
I spent hours copying Claire Wendling's stuff in my own sketchbook.
I guess the only thing missing from this discussion is something pretty darned simple:
1. If you do study from someone elses work and POST it, give credit where credit is due.
2. Don't claim it as your own work.
So...yeah. I do not like line for line tracing. But I <3 design pull-a-partingness...
Sleep for Goat!
[ QUOTE ]
Good god! He mangled Captain America. A pox upon thee!!!
[/ QUOTE ]
There was a thread on 4chan a while ago where some guy did a picture of what Liefeld Cap America would look like from overhead.
It was roughly the same shape as a very lumpy pork chop, or perhaps South America.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Good god! He mangled Captain America. A pox upon thee!!!
[/ QUOTE ]
There was a thread on 4chan a while ago where some guy did a picture of what Liefeld Cap America would look like from overhead.
It was roughly the same shape as a very lumpy pork chop, or perhaps South America.
[/ QUOTE ]
I saw on another board a picture that was thought to be the "inspiration" for the Cap America picture.
Im blocked from the site at work but this picture is almost the same one.
Guardian:
ToxicShock LVL 50- Dark/Regen Scrapper
MasterD LVL 32- Mercenaries/Traps Mastermind
Global Chat Name: AgentVesago
Liefield is infamous and therefor disqualified.
Here's my take on tracing:
Don't do it.
When you trace something, you're not understanding what you're drawing. You'll see a muscle shape, but not know why it's there. You won't know what it'll look like at a different angle. In a different light. With or without cloth.
No matter how close of a trace you get, somehow it'll look a little off. The human mind corrects your drawing, and sometimes you leave out the purpose of an original line. If you knew anotomy of some sort, you could adjust. If you didn't, you'll copy a line, without knowing if it's needed there.
For example: When I was starting to do sketch books because of my Disney job, I found that I could capture a figure from a live pose than from a static picture. I had more success from going to the zoo and drawing a lion, than drawing one from a picture in a magazine. Why? By seeing a real lion, I understood the form.
When learning to draw, does tracing help?
Cosmic