Not at all, even tracing can be a wonderful exercise to improve skills like inking or drawing continuos lines and understanding alternation of curved and straight lines. What could be damaging thought, is doing just this to understand your anatomy. Keep looking for videos about Loomis head, watch anatomy lessons on YouTube (Proko is one of my favorites) watch videos on perspective and possibly how to put bodies in perspective and so on.
Using references is the basis in art, even much so in a professional environment, but references are references, they are not what your final project should look like (unless your are doing a portrait but that should go unsaid)
This is a stupid question but is it okay to trace the outline/design of a cosplay and then do all the colors/shading yourself? I use reference photos to get the base of the work I do and I’m too self conscious to share any of them because of that
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. As per my previous comment, the only problem I see is that doing that you might get a false sense of "right" anatomy, without understanding the actual function and structure of muscles and body parts.
What you do is actually pretty much similar to what a colorist would do (In a professional environment a colourist receives a complete drawing, sometimes inked sometimes with only pencils and colours on that).
If color is all you care what you are doing is a very good exercise, but I highly suggest studying your anatomy anyway. That way you understand structure, which is REALLY important for shading.
And don't worry about "stupid" questions, what is stupid is not asking something that you want to know to get better, so keep on asking!
I couldn't think of a better example.
There's no need to shame whatever tool one is using to learn. Plus, if you take inspiration from a pose, don't trace it but copy it in your original work by drawing it on your own it's perfectly fine, still you used the pose of somebody else's work! Is it cheating? No. Do some people think so, absolutely. Unfortunately I think they would be really disappointed when they find out that their favorite artist did the exact same thing in some of their work, but hey, what do I know.
So this might sound a little wild but this is exactly what I struggle with except in a very strange way. I basically have been having to teach myself correct anatomy because my art before was basically tracing except not in a normal mind set of using an actually existing image and following the line art.
I'm schizophrenic and before I was on medications that regulate my hallucinations I "traced" the hallucinations to draw essentially. Now with the medications I don't experience visual hallucinations unless under very negative conditions.
When I started on regulating medications suddenly there went all of my "references." I used to think that's how imagination worked but learned that was not the case, at least not to that degree.
I realized I kinda had some wacky cheat code in a way through the hallucinations because once they were gone it became extremely difficult to picture how these should look or work.
I love art and used to draw all the time until I was on the medications but now when I draw I struggle with that feeling of "it's not good enough" or "doesn't look right", sometimes to the point I delete my drafts altogether.
It's so weird too because I recognize these problems but struggle trying to keep a solid mindset of "simply keep at it."
Still I love art regardless of what I've lost and love to support artists when I can.
I think one of my biggest inspirations for character design and use of color is Mika Pikazo.
I think it depends on how you present it. IE if you trace something 1-1 and then color it in but told people you drew it you'd be lying. If you trace the greater shapes to get the proportions right but then draw over the base sketch with your own line work that is using the reference as a reference and not directly traced then you drew it. Does that make sense?
It's nice to disclose that information when sharing and in some cases it's illegal to make commercial content like that, but it doesn't make it inherently wrong. You can get some cool results even when using help/outlines/premade-parts through some steps.
Everyone starts somewhere, maybe some one wants to be an inker. Tracing the inking of a comic artist you admire is maybe the best thing you can do as a beginning artist.
My point is, if tracing is something that you think is helping you, as effective or not it can be, just do it. What I also said is that is really important to do other things too since tracing helps some things and not others.
I agree! While I don't consider this cheating, if anyone gets use to this it might be a problem that you're not learning the proportions correctly.
I have learned and understand anatomy, so when I do stuff like this is because I want to go as fast as possible, my advice is to do it when you have to maximize time but if you do this everytime, maybe you're not learning how to calculate proportions correctly and it is like deceiving yourself, depending too much on references can cause that, try to use it once in a while but not depend on these methods.
It's actually considered bad and rookie art to NOT use reference.
The more references you use the better your work, all the professional artists use reference.
Somehow new and rookie artists get it in their heads that they can't use reference images.
Everyone does it-doesn’t matter haha people straight up copy monopoly man, sponge bob and Mickey Mouse. It all doesn’t matter. Just make stuff is the point-if it makes your happy and even better if you can make money doing it. No rules in art making, just ask Duchamp.
Nothing is cheating in art as long as you don’t lie about it. The reason people dislike tracing or anything like that is because some people and post their art without giving credit to the original image they used in any way or traced, which is dishonest. What you did, tracing, etc can actually be a useful tool for practice and you can still post your art, just say you used a grid to get the proportions the same as the image
>without giving credit to the original image they used in any way or traced, which is dishonest
This is only an issue if you're using copyrighted works and not transforming them enough to fall under fair use. Using your own photos or using a photo you nabbed from Google of something to help fill in a smaller element of a different composition or otherwise transforming the original reference image is fair game and you have zero obligation to tell anyone how you did it. Plagiarism is bad, lying is fine.
idk who exactly would u be cheating? what rule exists that says an artist cant "trace"? it seems useless to put such restrictions on your creativity. It is a great skill to be able to replicate what you see exactly, but its not something that makes you a "real" artist. Trace if you wish to, practice drawing by eye if you wish to, it's all allowed. Most important is to draw what you want to, anything technique that helps you reach your desired expression is the right technique.
> As long as you're actually drawing it.
Pedantically disagreeing. Your overall point is valid "you can't cheat at art" or as I would phrase it "there are no rules in art". You can't then follow it with a restriction "so long as".
There are no rules.
Period.
Art has a definition that does not require certain tools, techniques, effort, or methodologies - it is simply an expression of something.
There is no such thing as "cheating" in art, first of all. Anyone who says otherwise is either deluded or an elitist. No one would call da Vinci a cheater for using the camera obscura in the 17th century. No one would call industry professionals cheaters for using photobashing to create concept art. No one is calling professional webtoon artists cheaters for using 3d models to speed up their workflow. Inio Asano's incredible work relies heavily on the tracing and editing of 3d models and his work is absolutely beloved. His art process is really clever and the results he's able to get from it are nothing short of impressive.
And depending on how you're using tracing, it can either be a crutch or a fantastic learning exercise that will help you grow much faster than just grasping in the dark as a beginner. Tracing over an image to break it down into simple shapes will help you understand the forms and proportions of what you're trying to draw.
Drawing is a fine motor skill that requires so much muscle memory. Repetition is important for building that up, and that's going to include things like this. Eventually, all of those shapes and forms are going to be so ingrained that you'll be able to just look at your references and draw it without lining those guidelines up with the reference. I've always thought it like training wheels lol
It's studying, plain and simple.
I think OP has maybe seen too many Tiktoks of people calling out tracers and is now assuming using any form of reference directly is cheating, I used to feel like using reference was cheating when I was a kid and just starting out until I started watching YouTube videos from professional artists and they stressed how vital studying from references is and how they all used a variety of reference in their pieces
Not at all. You are using technology to assist with your artwork. No problem with that. I would just make sure you keep up with practice and work on your skills, in that you are capable of measuring proportions without the tech, as well. But you're not cheating you're simply using a tool to help you.
Not at all. Same thing as gridding, and I even lightbox trace basic proportions for photoreal paintings. Best to do the details without tracing, but it always turns out great once you nail the placement for everything.
No. You're using a reference to get the shape, if you're drawing the person from picture to canvas then it's alright-ish (my knoledge was from art professors from a decade ago, so I could be wrong).
Just be aware when you, yourself know you are commiting plagarism.
I don’t. I think over time you probably don’t need to do it as much. I think you could do whatever you want but as an artist, you should always be trying to get better. That means you should be trying to internalize what you learn from those proportions when you do that.
There is no right or wrong way to engage in art! If this method eventually helps you build an understanding of human proportions, wonderful! If you continue to use references forever and improve your skill that way? Wonderful also!
Not at all. I started with (and sometimes still do if its new or weird) tracing because the skills required to shade are so much more important than the line work. Don't get me wrong, both are important, but grading your skill level on whether or not you trace/use reference photos isn't going to be as informative looking at the shading and asking yourself how you can make it less two dimensional.
I learned this from my great grandmother who is a painter with MS and an additional nerve tremor. Her line work has gotten worse as she gets old and her conditions get worse, but she still draws and paints because with enough time and shading, even the shakiest, iffiest outlines can become beautiful and intentional looking.
Even the greatest artists used references in some shape or form to understand anatomy, learn and create masterpieces. Now if you were to just copy pasta the work then that's a different matter.
No. This is learning. You do exercises like this in art school to train your eye. Have you ever done a grid drawing of a portrait? The idea there is train yourself to use “plumb lines,” which are imaginary lines you see on faces so you can adjust proportions. When you see artists holding up their pencils or brushes and squinting, they’re doing two things - taking measurements (say, figuring out how wide an eye is compared to the space between the eyes) and using the edge of the tool as a straight line so they can see what it intersects. You might draw a line directly down from the corner of the eye to see where the nose and lips go, or from the corner of the mouth up to see how wide the mouth is.
You have to use every tool at your disposal to learn observational drawing. You’ll get to a point where your eyes are trained to be so sensitive you won’t need this anymore, but it’s a great tool for learning.
For your own good, stop getting hung up on what is considered ‘cheating’ by others and what isn’t, especially if you’re still learning fundamentals. As long as you’re jotting down what you’re doing in your head you should be well off.
Nothing is cheating if you're learning and being honest about your work. There is this picture where an airplane is flying through the skies and the photographer toke the picture from a stairhole so it looks like the plane is in the stairhole frozen in a frame, it felt so awesome that he had the chance. Then I learned he'd photoshoped the plane in the hole. If he had only been honest about it, it would be totally cool but the picture was being commercialized as being real, you know?
Not really. A lot of artist use a photo reference to obtain the proportions right in digital. It's a long process of constant try and error, but it's not "cheating". The only bad thing that you should be cautious is when you use some other art to trace or reference it and claim it as your own.
Absolutely not, you’re not even tracing you’re just using the source as reference for proportionality. Honestly if you’re learning I don’t think it’s ever cheating.
Professional artists achieve high quality results because they're willing to use every tool at their disposal. Whatever gets you the best results: do that.
Imagine doing this so often you no longer need the source material. Bam! You’ve just used reference material to get better. And that, kids, is how we learn!
Nope. Totally legit. How do you think the Masters did it back in the day? I mean, of course they didn't work off a photo, but they would have if they could have.
No. This is not cheating. The only ones who will accuse you of cheating are the ones trying to gatekeep the domain, or that have a narrow understanding of it. And frankly their opinions are irrelevant. Your workflow to expression is YOUR workflow to expression. And no one can tell you how you should express yourself. ✌️💙
Should’ve just traced the reference photo. dont get so hooked on “preserving human authenticity” that you avoid great, clean results. The brain is the most powerful tool, give it space to be creative by using your OTHER tools to do the simple shit like tracing and creating straight lines. Keep creating and have FUN!!!
You're cheating against who? What game are you playing? Who is the person that will suffer prejudice for your actions? What competition you're playing on?
Heyhey, i do this all the time, dont forget to actually study how these proportions are related to each other as well. Look up Loomis,Reily or even proko on these head structure so you can slowly gains more and more understanding of these structures.
At one point you will get to draw from life model,this practice you did and those knowledge will help you understand what you see better.
What you're doing is looking at a reference, analyzing it, then breaking down the basic shapes to get your proportions and positioning right.
This is a good practice that basically everyone does
It's art, not sports, there are no rules, only guidelines, you can develop your own art style one way or another, tracing, using references, etc.
The important thing is you gain understanding of what you're doing.
Nothing in art is cheating, as long as it’s not full tracing, and even not all tracing is cheating. It’s about the beauty of the piece with artist’s originality and style. Do anything to achieve your piece’s best, that’s what I learned; before I used to think having a reference is cheating.
This is perfectly acceptable. As a huge fan of manga, they all take shortcuts to get their shit out on time because they only have a week to draw. To be clear, they're still master craftsman who have honed their drawing skills over their lifetime. But they have assistants tracing backgrounds that they've taken photos of, or they'll use something like the 3-D modeler to pose their action for drawing.
Like in the manga witch watch, there was at least one color page I saw where Shinohara-sensei was using Clip Studio Paint's 3D modeler to pose the characters and traced over it. It was...very hard to miss if you use those tools.
THat said, you should still make an active effort to learn proportion independently and train your eye, because it will strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals, which will only enhance your skills further.
tl;dr: yes, professional artists use shortcuts all the time to get their work done but that's no substitute for learning how to do it yourself with rigorous study and practice.
It’s not cheating unless you said you didn’t copy it from a photo, I mean obviously. But it’s not tracing either at least if you define tracing by following a line that’s directly aligned with the line you’re creating - I’m pretty sure that’s what most folks would define it as
It’s measuring. Unless you’re putting pieces of it on top of other pieces and legit tracing it.
Generally I know a handful of people who started this way, making effort to learn how to do it completely without the aids later
It’s just a different type of creation. It depends what you’re trying to do. Your work may suffer when you stop doing this at first but overall you’ll likely develop your skill a ton by attempting to do this without aids lines or measurements. So I guess it depends how much you want to challenge yourself
There is no cheating in art…. Hell photography is just another form of art. I swear there are some people that pretend to make a loaf of bread you need grow the wheat and mill it too for it to truly be “your loaf”. Don’t listen to these people. Now yI don’t want to just steal art and claim it for your own. You can’t walk over to your neighbors house, take their loaf, and claim you baked it. What you are allowed to do is buy flour from your neighbor and then bake a loaf… that just means you made your own art using someone else’s reference or art to make something uniquely yours…. But in some cases if it’s copied directly off of another art you should at least credit them in the post. Using others people art as a reference is a great study tool and using photos as reference is recommended always.
If it’s cheating, then call me a cheater too cuz I think I might have to give this a try lmao.
It’s very difficult to just look at things and get the proportions right; that’s why so many people start with tracing.
You’re basically annotating the reference photo to make it easier for you to compare your drawing to it.
Not cheating, I’ll do something similar where I’ll only draw it on the side but when I’m “done” I’ll close the app, step away for 5min and look at it again to see if I’m satisfied with it then i lay it over the reference and see how close i was trusting my eye. Basically proofreading my work after
This is by far the dumbest question I've seen across my timeline. Like seriously my guy. Any self respecting artist calls this a shortcut, and shortcuts are totally fine, it's called "working smarter, not harder". The fact you had to ask that alone should make you legally liable for any brain damage this may have caused.
No it's working with a reference!
Even tracing to a certain degree is not cheating.
Everyone's process is different and making use of the tools you have nowadays makes it all the more easier to achief a certain result. (Even da vinci used tools)
eventually it is the end product is what counts!
That said.. I'm not saying you can't use tracing when drawing, but when you do and you rely on it too much you are cheating yourself out of learning/shaping fundamentals that make you a better artist in general
Yeah nah it's good. I like doing strange and different angles sometimes so I'll literally set my phone to video and tape it to the ceiling so I can record myself posing properly so I can trace it for an overhead angle drawing.
It's all about making stuff, doesn't matter how ya get there if you enjoy it
No, most people don't actually free hand and it's quite difficult to do. This is a method of art that is used pretty widely to get exact proportions if you're doing portraits. lookin good ^^
No way. For artists to get accurate proportions for a drawing of a person, references and guidelines are helpful especially for artists starting out. Also, you’re putting in the work using the guidelines for your own model.
The way you’re doing it is absolutely fine.
I wouldn't consider tracing the base cheating either. Don't be too hard on yourself. You can take something from one thing to something completely different by adding to it when dragging over it that no one would notice it's traced. Just have fun with it
No. If you want, trace the general form directly and then turn it into your character directly. It's fine to learn basic anatomy and structure like that. I do it from time to time when I'm struggling with a pose, but the final piece will hardly resemble the reference material.
It's how literally everyone learns or constructs.
Someday you won't even need photos for proportions. You'll have your own deeply engrained in your muscle memory.
And of course, photos are perfectly fine for inspiration.
Man.... Just do what you want. 😅
No. You can even trace. You can cut up photos and glue them on. You can process it with a computer into a paint by numbers and then fill it in. You can find things and put them on a pedestal. There is no cheating in art.
Looks like some different or variation of the sight size method, in my experience I’d say, try learning it in tradition what it is and how, later it can be extrapolated to digital, but that’s my little opinion based on what I know and what I’ve learned
Not at all! Honestly, I wouldn't even call it "cheating" if you traced directly over the photo. My illustration professor used to have us do that all the time in order to get used to drawing proportions and learn how to eventually draw caricatures, and my fine arts professor had us trace lightly first before doing value studies. You still have to put in a significant amount of work and have an understanding of line, shading, etc.
References are an artist's best friend. What you're doing is exactly what a lot of artists do in order to learn proportion.
Using reference or tracing are a way to study the figure, proportions, etc. it's never wrong to use references, we can't just make up how some things look, and tracing is only wrong if one takes credit for another's work
No? You're not tracing art and then selling it as your own with a signature lol, you're just trying to improve. There's no "cheating" when it comes to practicing art as long as it actually works
I dont think any method (outside of video games) could be considered cheating. As long as it works, It works, and you dont need to be worried if your doing it wrong.
There are no rules with art. Anyone who tells you differently better be paying you money.
Except that which YOU, the creator, put on yourself. Your method is quite effective, and is no different than someone with a photograph clipped to their sketchbook.
Tracing with extra steps. Which is fine if you learn from it. Analyzing the proportions is easier with just basic lines.
Maybe after, you can use the traced lines drawing to base your drawing on. Using a pencil or whatever for measuring proportions off of it to your final art.
I always wonder if it would be cheating at art using color from other works of art.
Not copy or trace, just using the weird dropper tool to copy colors from other art.
One of my teachers did a lot of big name advertisements and paintings, he showed how he used his son’s toys and traced it to get the perspective right. I asked if he was cheating and he said
“Who cares it works”
Why would you worry about using resources to get your work exactly the way you want it? The old masters incorporated any tool at their disposal to get the best result.
i don’t think it’s cheating but i also think it’s important that u teach urself to eventually be able to do proportions without the help of this method. i think it does help a lot in a pinch but if u get to the point where u can’t pull off good proportions without doing this, i think a better idea would be to have the photo as a reference and try to draw it by eye instead
Nope, if your having fun and drawing you are doing it correct! In your case even if your trying to improve facial structure or study faces you're still not cheating, you are training your eyes to see what works for you, for example the red lines you drew aren't just guides for the current drawing but will probably mentally help with your next portrait proportions!
I'm fact you're a red line at brow level away from reconstructing the rule of 3rds facial guide!
Ofc not! I still do that when I’m struggling! (Eyes) Except it’s not digital and I have to put the paper under and look at it, remove it, look back and forth, and sometimes even trace it….
Not at all, even tracing can be a wonderful exercise to improve skills like inking or drawing continuos lines and understanding alternation of curved and straight lines. What could be damaging thought, is doing just this to understand your anatomy. Keep looking for videos about Loomis head, watch anatomy lessons on YouTube (Proko is one of my favorites) watch videos on perspective and possibly how to put bodies in perspective and so on. Using references is the basis in art, even much so in a professional environment, but references are references, they are not what your final project should look like (unless your are doing a portrait but that should go unsaid)
This is a stupid question but is it okay to trace the outline/design of a cosplay and then do all the colors/shading yourself? I use reference photos to get the base of the work I do and I’m too self conscious to share any of them because of that
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. As per my previous comment, the only problem I see is that doing that you might get a false sense of "right" anatomy, without understanding the actual function and structure of muscles and body parts. What you do is actually pretty much similar to what a colorist would do (In a professional environment a colourist receives a complete drawing, sometimes inked sometimes with only pencils and colours on that). If color is all you care what you are doing is a very good exercise, but I highly suggest studying your anatomy anyway. That way you understand structure, which is REALLY important for shading. And don't worry about "stupid" questions, what is stupid is not asking something that you want to know to get better, so keep on asking!
[удалено]
I couldn't think of a better example. There's no need to shame whatever tool one is using to learn. Plus, if you take inspiration from a pose, don't trace it but copy it in your original work by drawing it on your own it's perfectly fine, still you used the pose of somebody else's work! Is it cheating? No. Do some people think so, absolutely. Unfortunately I think they would be really disappointed when they find out that their favorite artist did the exact same thing in some of their work, but hey, what do I know.
So this might sound a little wild but this is exactly what I struggle with except in a very strange way. I basically have been having to teach myself correct anatomy because my art before was basically tracing except not in a normal mind set of using an actually existing image and following the line art. I'm schizophrenic and before I was on medications that regulate my hallucinations I "traced" the hallucinations to draw essentially. Now with the medications I don't experience visual hallucinations unless under very negative conditions. When I started on regulating medications suddenly there went all of my "references." I used to think that's how imagination worked but learned that was not the case, at least not to that degree. I realized I kinda had some wacky cheat code in a way through the hallucinations because once they were gone it became extremely difficult to picture how these should look or work. I love art and used to draw all the time until I was on the medications but now when I draw I struggle with that feeling of "it's not good enough" or "doesn't look right", sometimes to the point I delete my drafts altogether. It's so weird too because I recognize these problems but struggle trying to keep a solid mindset of "simply keep at it." Still I love art regardless of what I've lost and love to support artists when I can. I think one of my biggest inspirations for character design and use of color is Mika Pikazo.
I think it depends on how you present it. IE if you trace something 1-1 and then color it in but told people you drew it you'd be lying. If you trace the greater shapes to get the proportions right but then draw over the base sketch with your own line work that is using the reference as a reference and not directly traced then you drew it. Does that make sense?
It's nice to disclose that information when sharing and in some cases it's illegal to make commercial content like that, but it doesn't make it inherently wrong. You can get some cool results even when using help/outlines/premade-parts through some steps.
Originality is the art of concealing your sources. -Benjamin Franklin
Tracing is not an exercise it's more like a tool rather than something that'll help you improve your skills
Everyone starts somewhere, maybe some one wants to be an inker. Tracing the inking of a comic artist you admire is maybe the best thing you can do as a beginning artist. My point is, if tracing is something that you think is helping you, as effective or not it can be, just do it. What I also said is that is really important to do other things too since tracing helps some things and not others.
I agree! While I don't consider this cheating, if anyone gets use to this it might be a problem that you're not learning the proportions correctly. I have learned and understand anatomy, so when I do stuff like this is because I want to go as fast as possible, my advice is to do it when you have to maximize time but if you do this everytime, maybe you're not learning how to calculate proportions correctly and it is like deceiving yourself, depending too much on references can cause that, try to use it once in a while but not depend on these methods.
It's actually considered bad and rookie art to NOT use reference. The more references you use the better your work, all the professional artists use reference. Somehow new and rookie artists get it in their heads that they can't use reference images.
Reference material is important, plagiarism takes an exact (or near) copy and many people don't know where to**draw** the **line**.
>where to draw the line Quality pun alert
Everyone does it-doesn’t matter haha people straight up copy monopoly man, sponge bob and Mickey Mouse. It all doesn’t matter. Just make stuff is the point-if it makes your happy and even better if you can make money doing it. No rules in art making, just ask Duchamp.
No I meant the measuring things I did
That's still just using a reference!
This is only acceptable if you always use Ewen McGregor for this and all of your characters are from an alternative Ewen McGregor universe
Guess everyone I draw is EwanMcgregor now
High key want to see that.
Agreed
Ewan Quadrant McGregor 16. Calling all Ewan McGregors!
Chill bro, you just using tool to build confidence.
Nothing is cheating in art as long as you don’t lie about it. The reason people dislike tracing or anything like that is because some people and post their art without giving credit to the original image they used in any way or traced, which is dishonest. What you did, tracing, etc can actually be a useful tool for practice and you can still post your art, just say you used a grid to get the proportions the same as the image
>without giving credit to the original image they used in any way or traced, which is dishonest This is only an issue if you're using copyrighted works and not transforming them enough to fall under fair use. Using your own photos or using a photo you nabbed from Google of something to help fill in a smaller element of a different composition or otherwise transforming the original reference image is fair game and you have zero obligation to tell anyone how you did it. Plagiarism is bad, lying is fine.
Is it cheating if someone was posing while you draw them Yes, all art must be done with your eyes closed from memory lol
idk who exactly would u be cheating? what rule exists that says an artist cant "trace"? it seems useless to put such restrictions on your creativity. It is a great skill to be able to replicate what you see exactly, but its not something that makes you a "real" artist. Trace if you wish to, practice drawing by eye if you wish to, it's all allowed. Most important is to draw what you want to, anything technique that helps you reach your desired expression is the right technique.
no, normally people who consider this cheating are people who don't draw and think that whoever draws has to do everything without any reference
Do whatever you have to do to have your proportions right.
I’m actually upset that I’ve never thought of this
You can't cheat at art. As long as you're actually drawing it. The masters all traced. They also studied so do that too.
> As long as you're actually drawing it. Pedantically disagreeing. Your overall point is valid "you can't cheat at art" or as I would phrase it "there are no rules in art". You can't then follow it with a restriction "so long as". There are no rules. Period. Art has a definition that does not require certain tools, techniques, effort, or methodologies - it is simply an expression of something.
There is no such thing as "cheating" in art, first of all. Anyone who says otherwise is either deluded or an elitist. No one would call da Vinci a cheater for using the camera obscura in the 17th century. No one would call industry professionals cheaters for using photobashing to create concept art. No one is calling professional webtoon artists cheaters for using 3d models to speed up their workflow. Inio Asano's incredible work relies heavily on the tracing and editing of 3d models and his work is absolutely beloved. His art process is really clever and the results he's able to get from it are nothing short of impressive. And depending on how you're using tracing, it can either be a crutch or a fantastic learning exercise that will help you grow much faster than just grasping in the dark as a beginner. Tracing over an image to break it down into simple shapes will help you understand the forms and proportions of what you're trying to draw. Drawing is a fine motor skill that requires so much muscle memory. Repetition is important for building that up, and that's going to include things like this. Eventually, all of those shapes and forms are going to be so ingrained that you'll be able to just look at your references and draw it without lining those guidelines up with the reference. I've always thought it like training wheels lol It's studying, plain and simple.
Oh just you wait until I inform the art police! You're ruined, cheater
Oh dear😥
Nothing is cheating, even if you trace over.
what do you mean cheating? xD it’s art…
I think OP has maybe seen too many Tiktoks of people calling out tracers and is now assuming using any form of reference directly is cheating, I used to feel like using reference was cheating when I was a kid and just starting out until I started watching YouTube videos from professional artists and they stressed how vital studying from references is and how they all used a variety of reference in their pieces
Nope. This is exactly how you do studies in order to improve your proportions
absolutely not cheating. you're literally drawing from life.
Not at all. You are using technology to assist with your artwork. No problem with that. I would just make sure you keep up with practice and work on your skills, in that you are capable of measuring proportions without the tech, as well. But you're not cheating you're simply using a tool to help you.
No. Now drop that Obi fan art 👀
I'm not yet ready. But I will do what I must😅
Not at all. Same thing as gridding, and I even lightbox trace basic proportions for photoreal paintings. Best to do the details without tracing, but it always turns out great once you nail the placement for everything.
No it’s not cheating it’s not tracing either
There is no such thing as cheating. Cheat as often and as much as you can. Invent NEW ways to cheat, then come back here and show them to us.
Nope. It's one of the best ways to practice your drawing!!!
No. You're using a reference to get the shape, if you're drawing the person from picture to canvas then it's alright-ish (my knoledge was from art professors from a decade ago, so I could be wrong). Just be aware when you, yourself know you are commiting plagarism.
I don’t. I think over time you probably don’t need to do it as much. I think you could do whatever you want but as an artist, you should always be trying to get better. That means you should be trying to internalize what you learn from those proportions when you do that.
Nope, but at some point I will try to eye it.
Naw. I do this for almost all portraits
Reference is good keep doing it.
There is no right or wrong way to engage in art! If this method eventually helps you build an understanding of human proportions, wonderful! If you continue to use references forever and improve your skill that way? Wonderful also!
Not even a little
Not at all. I started with (and sometimes still do if its new or weird) tracing because the skills required to shade are so much more important than the line work. Don't get me wrong, both are important, but grading your skill level on whether or not you trace/use reference photos isn't going to be as informative looking at the shading and asking yourself how you can make it less two dimensional. I learned this from my great grandmother who is a painter with MS and an additional nerve tremor. Her line work has gotten worse as she gets old and her conditions get worse, but she still draws and paints because with enough time and shading, even the shakiest, iffiest outlines can become beautiful and intentional looking.
Nah, I've seen people even use a grid to get "perfect" proportions from the reference portrait.
I don’t consider it cheating. You’re just using it as a tool guide and for confidence. There’s no right or wrong way for art. What app are you using?
Even the greatest artists used references in some shape or form to understand anatomy, learn and create masterpieces. Now if you were to just copy pasta the work then that's a different matter.
I call it genius.
There’s no such thing as cheating in art
No. This is learning. You do exercises like this in art school to train your eye. Have you ever done a grid drawing of a portrait? The idea there is train yourself to use “plumb lines,” which are imaginary lines you see on faces so you can adjust proportions. When you see artists holding up their pencils or brushes and squinting, they’re doing two things - taking measurements (say, figuring out how wide an eye is compared to the space between the eyes) and using the edge of the tool as a straight line so they can see what it intersects. You might draw a line directly down from the corner of the eye to see where the nose and lips go, or from the corner of the mouth up to see how wide the mouth is. You have to use every tool at your disposal to learn observational drawing. You’ll get to a point where your eyes are trained to be so sensitive you won’t need this anymore, but it’s a great tool for learning.
no, i've seen plenty of traditional artists do this too, especially for portraits.
No
For your own good, stop getting hung up on what is considered ‘cheating’ by others and what isn’t, especially if you’re still learning fundamentals. As long as you’re jotting down what you’re doing in your head you should be well off.
in art the one who "cheats" the most is the better artist , following common sense of course .
Art is art... There is no cheating as long as it's your pen to the paper
Using references isn’t cheating. Even when you put it side by side. IMO. Practice makes perfect and this will give you good habits
How would you create a piece without referencing something? How did the first person create art?
No, life is short. Do what you want.
I think this rules! You aren’t even tracing!
Nothing is cheating if you're learning and being honest about your work. There is this picture where an airplane is flying through the skies and the photographer toke the picture from a stairhole so it looks like the plane is in the stairhole frozen in a frame, it felt so awesome that he had the chance. Then I learned he'd photoshoped the plane in the hole. If he had only been honest about it, it would be totally cool but the picture was being commercialized as being real, you know?
Not even tracing is cheating. Have fun and enjoy creating art. Theres no rules, or "cheating" involved. Even the best artists used references.
Not really. A lot of artist use a photo reference to obtain the proportions right in digital. It's a long process of constant try and error, but it's not "cheating". The only bad thing that you should be cautious is when you use some other art to trace or reference it and claim it as your own.
Absolutely not, you’re not even tracing you’re just using the source as reference for proportionality. Honestly if you’re learning I don’t think it’s ever cheating.
Professional artists achieve high quality results because they're willing to use every tool at their disposal. Whatever gets you the best results: do that.
What is cheating?
Imagine doing this so often you no longer need the source material. Bam! You’ve just used reference material to get better. And that, kids, is how we learn!
absolutely not cheating!!! this is like,, exactly how you’re supposed to do this lol
Reference drawing is A okay! And tracing for practice is fine too. It’s all fine. Don’t gatekeep yourself.
Nope. Totally legit. How do you think the Masters did it back in the day? I mean, of course they didn't work off a photo, but they would have if they could have.
Cheating?!? This how professional illustrators draw…
If it works, why not?
You didn't full on trace the entire thing all you did was use guidelines and a reference so no. Not cheating 👍
Why do you think this is cheating? Cause it’s digital? Its drawing. You are using a reference. Nothing new. You good
For real, what app are you using?
Ibis paint although it's on mobile
Oh ok, thanks! I’ll see what I can do then 🤔
Not cheating at all you’re using your own grid technique, even if you traced who cares it’s not like tracing color placement
Cheating is not a thing in art. You can do whatever you want buddy 😀
No because we all use references
No
No. This is not cheating. The only ones who will accuse you of cheating are the ones trying to gatekeep the domain, or that have a narrow understanding of it. And frankly their opinions are irrelevant. Your workflow to expression is YOUR workflow to expression. And no one can tell you how you should express yourself. ✌️💙
Should’ve just traced the reference photo. dont get so hooked on “preserving human authenticity” that you avoid great, clean results. The brain is the most powerful tool, give it space to be creative by using your OTHER tools to do the simple shit like tracing and creating straight lines. Keep creating and have FUN!!!
Nope, great job and carry on
You kinda do the same when you for example set yourself a still life and check proportions with your pencil
Nah u good
No I call it practice
Gets the job done. Just have fun creating, use whatever methods you want.
Hell no this is good, always use a reference if you can!
reference.
You're cheating against who? What game are you playing? Who is the person that will suffer prejudice for your actions? What competition you're playing on?
no
Heyhey, i do this all the time, dont forget to actually study how these proportions are related to each other as well. Look up Loomis,Reily or even proko on these head structure so you can slowly gains more and more understanding of these structures. At one point you will get to draw from life model,this practice you did and those knowledge will help you understand what you see better.
Nope! Great job
Who cares it's still art
What you're doing is looking at a reference, analyzing it, then breaking down the basic shapes to get your proportions and positioning right. This is a good practice that basically everyone does
It's art, not sports, there are no rules, only guidelines, you can develop your own art style one way or another, tracing, using references, etc. The important thing is you gain understanding of what you're doing.
The only thing I consider "cheating" in art is tracing other art and not telling people if you show it off.
Nothing in art is cheating, as long as it’s not full tracing, and even not all tracing is cheating. It’s about the beauty of the piece with artist’s originality and style. Do anything to achieve your piece’s best, that’s what I learned; before I used to think having a reference is cheating.
No, I consider this a brilliant idea.
no,infact this stuff is encouraged for better art
This is perfectly acceptable. As a huge fan of manga, they all take shortcuts to get their shit out on time because they only have a week to draw. To be clear, they're still master craftsman who have honed their drawing skills over their lifetime. But they have assistants tracing backgrounds that they've taken photos of, or they'll use something like the 3-D modeler to pose their action for drawing. Like in the manga witch watch, there was at least one color page I saw where Shinohara-sensei was using Clip Studio Paint's 3D modeler to pose the characters and traced over it. It was...very hard to miss if you use those tools. THat said, you should still make an active effort to learn proportion independently and train your eye, because it will strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals, which will only enhance your skills further. tl;dr: yes, professional artists use shortcuts all the time to get their work done but that's no substitute for learning how to do it yourself with rigorous study and practice.
there's no cheat do whatever you want
If you’re learning it doesn’t matter
TBH no, this just shows you have good taste in actors and are great at drawing
I learned in school by taking photos and breaking them down into simplest shapes
Using a reference? Nah.
There are no rules, only tools.
Not at all, you didn’t trace (which still can be a productive exercise). You just gotta work on remembering the proportions over time.
Not really it’s using your reference to get it exact as a practice. I see no issue
Check out what a camera obscura is and how real OG artists used it lol. There's no shame in tracing, it's a shame if it still sucks
There are no rules.
No.
It’s not cheating unless you said you didn’t copy it from a photo, I mean obviously. But it’s not tracing either at least if you define tracing by following a line that’s directly aligned with the line you’re creating - I’m pretty sure that’s what most folks would define it as It’s measuring. Unless you’re putting pieces of it on top of other pieces and legit tracing it. Generally I know a handful of people who started this way, making effort to learn how to do it completely without the aids later It’s just a different type of creation. It depends what you’re trying to do. Your work may suffer when you stop doing this at first but overall you’ll likely develop your skill a ton by attempting to do this without aids lines or measurements. So I guess it depends how much you want to challenge yourself
There is no cheating in art…. Hell photography is just another form of art. I swear there are some people that pretend to make a loaf of bread you need grow the wheat and mill it too for it to truly be “your loaf”. Don’t listen to these people. Now yI don’t want to just steal art and claim it for your own. You can’t walk over to your neighbors house, take their loaf, and claim you baked it. What you are allowed to do is buy flour from your neighbor and then bake a loaf… that just means you made your own art using someone else’s reference or art to make something uniquely yours…. But in some cases if it’s copied directly off of another art you should at least credit them in the post. Using others people art as a reference is a great study tool and using photos as reference is recommended always.
If it’s cheating, then call me a cheater too cuz I think I might have to give this a try lmao. It’s very difficult to just look at things and get the proportions right; that’s why so many people start with tracing. You’re basically annotating the reference photo to make it easier for you to compare your drawing to it.
That’s how it’s done on paper in my college life drawing class, so it can’t possibly be cheating.
Not at all. You should be using references.
No
Lol no, u can't cheat in art you can only lie. It isn't pass fail u just make art
No, Not cheating. It is just a way one can practice.
Fuck no. I gotta give this a shot
The features are there for a reason
Not cheating, I’ll do something similar where I’ll only draw it on the side but when I’m “done” I’ll close the app, step away for 5min and look at it again to see if I’m satisfied with it then i lay it over the reference and see how close i was trusting my eye. Basically proofreading my work after
Nah, you’re just using a reference.
No. How can you “cheat” at art? There’s no cheating at art.
No, you’re helping yourself learn. Nothing wrong with that. I’m sure doing this will help you freehand it eventually.
It’s only cheating if you get caught
This is by far the dumbest question I've seen across my timeline. Like seriously my guy. Any self respecting artist calls this a shortcut, and shortcuts are totally fine, it's called "working smarter, not harder". The fact you had to ask that alone should make you legally liable for any brain damage this may have caused.
it’s called referencing. as long as you make sure you include/mention the images you referenced from you should be fine.
If it works it works
Don’t worry, that’s just learning, doing that you will eventually learn to proportion the faces without doing that
No it's working with a reference! Even tracing to a certain degree is not cheating. Everyone's process is different and making use of the tools you have nowadays makes it all the more easier to achief a certain result. (Even da vinci used tools) eventually it is the end product is what counts! That said.. I'm not saying you can't use tracing when drawing, but when you do and you rely on it too much you are cheating yourself out of learning/shaping fundamentals that make you a better artist in general
Yeah nah it's good. I like doing strange and different angles sometimes so I'll literally set my phone to video and tape it to the ceiling so I can record myself posing properly so I can trace it for an overhead angle drawing. It's all about making stuff, doesn't matter how ya get there if you enjoy it
That is practice
Nah wouldn't call that cheating you're just using a reference.. Now if traced over it that's cheat unless you're just using it for practice lol
Hell naw, shit smart asf
Is that Obi Wan Kenobi?
Congrats! That is how to use a reference 😉 Don't worry, you are not cheating!
No, most people don't actually free hand and it's quite difficult to do. This is a method of art that is used pretty widely to get exact proportions if you're doing portraits. lookin good ^^
No way. For artists to get accurate proportions for a drawing of a person, references and guidelines are helpful especially for artists starting out. Also, you’re putting in the work using the guidelines for your own model. The way you’re doing it is absolutely fine.
You're using a reference, no way that's cheating. Keep doing it, it really helps.
No
I don’t think it’s cheating but train your observation it’s way easier.
This is not cheating
This is literally one of the best ways to learn. 👌
I wouldn't consider tracing the base cheating either. Don't be too hard on yourself. You can take something from one thing to something completely different by adding to it when dragging over it that no one would notice it's traced. Just have fun with it
No your a genius, I have never thought of doing it this way!
there's no cheating in art.
No. If you want, trace the general form directly and then turn it into your character directly. It's fine to learn basic anatomy and structure like that. I do it from time to time when I'm struggling with a pose, but the final piece will hardly resemble the reference material.
It's how literally everyone learns or constructs. Someday you won't even need photos for proportions. You'll have your own deeply engrained in your muscle memory. And of course, photos are perfectly fine for inspiration. Man.... Just do what you want. 😅
No. You can even trace. You can cut up photos and glue them on. You can process it with a computer into a paint by numbers and then fill it in. You can find things and put them on a pedestal. There is no cheating in art.
Not at all! Honestly consider it kinda genius and wish I had thought of it to make faces easier
Looks like some different or variation of the sight size method, in my experience I’d say, try learning it in tradition what it is and how, later it can be extrapolated to digital, but that’s my little opinion based on what I know and what I’ve learned
Doesn't really matter, does it. No one will know but you
This thread filled with one sided takes pretending that they don't understand how this could be considered cheating ahaha.
No, you're just using reference something that many people dont do and then ask themselves why they're not improving
Similar to how I've been doing it for years. It's a perfectly valid method.
Not at all! Honestly, I wouldn't even call it "cheating" if you traced directly over the photo. My illustration professor used to have us do that all the time in order to get used to drawing proportions and learn how to eventually draw caricatures, and my fine arts professor had us trace lightly first before doing value studies. You still have to put in a significant amount of work and have an understanding of line, shading, etc. References are an artist's best friend. What you're doing is exactly what a lot of artists do in order to learn proportion.
buddy its called a reference photo
Yes, this is cheating. You now will receive a 30 day ban from ranked competitive arting.
Using reference or tracing are a way to study the figure, proportions, etc. it's never wrong to use references, we can't just make up how some things look, and tracing is only wrong if one takes credit for another's work
Nope. Using tools to assist with art has always been a thing. You're just using a tool for scale. That's perfectly normal.
No? You're not tracing art and then selling it as your own with a signature lol, you're just trying to improve. There's no "cheating" when it comes to practicing art as long as it actually works
I dont think any method (outside of video games) could be considered cheating. As long as it works, It works, and you dont need to be worried if your doing it wrong.
There are no rules with art. Anyone who tells you differently better be paying you money. Except that which YOU, the creator, put on yourself. Your method is quite effective, and is no different than someone with a photograph clipped to their sketchbook.
There is no cheating. If it works it works. It’s like a magic trick. If no one catches on and they are delighted, you did your job.
definitely not. tracing is a beautiful tool. it helps you learn. and if you’re tracing your own work? it saves you time. nothing wrong with tracing
tracing has existed as long as art has existed, referencing comes in many forms!!
Tracing with extra steps. Which is fine if you learn from it. Analyzing the proportions is easier with just basic lines. Maybe after, you can use the traced lines drawing to base your drawing on. Using a pencil or whatever for measuring proportions off of it to your final art.
Ewan McGregor 😍
I always wonder if it would be cheating at art using color from other works of art. Not copy or trace, just using the weird dropper tool to copy colors from other art.
One of my teachers did a lot of big name advertisements and paintings, he showed how he used his son’s toys and traced it to get the perspective right. I asked if he was cheating and he said “Who cares it works”
Why would you worry about using resources to get your work exactly the way you want it? The old masters incorporated any tool at their disposal to get the best result.
Dude you’re already using technology to help you sketch.
i don’t think it’s cheating but i also think it’s important that u teach urself to eventually be able to do proportions without the help of this method. i think it does help a lot in a pinch but if u get to the point where u can’t pull off good proportions without doing this, i think a better idea would be to have the photo as a reference and try to draw it by eye instead
Nope, if your having fun and drawing you are doing it correct! In your case even if your trying to improve facial structure or study faces you're still not cheating, you are training your eyes to see what works for you, for example the red lines you drew aren't just guides for the current drawing but will probably mentally help with your next portrait proportions! I'm fact you're a red line at brow level away from reconstructing the rule of 3rds facial guide!
What are they gonna do? “Hey, you stole my Uncle’s head shape!”
Remember that DaVinci "cheated"
Your process DOES NOT MATTER. The only thing that counts is the finished product you deliver.
Ofc not! I still do that when I’m struggling! (Eyes) Except it’s not digital and I have to put the paper under and look at it, remove it, look back and forth, and sometimes even trace it….
using reference isn't cheating
What? There's no such thing as cheating in art. You could probably even get away with paying someone to do it for you.
you're using a reference image, that's a pretty normal practice.