Is Tracing Art Beneficial or Detrimental?
Is Tracing Art Beneficial or Detrimental?
The debate over tracing art is a contentious one, with varying opinions on its benefits and drawbacks. While tracing can be a useful tool for beginners, it is important to approach it thoughtfully and ethically. In this article, we will explore the benefits and potential drawbacks of tracing, and discuss how to use it to your advantage while respecting the original artists and fostering your own creativity.
Learning Tool: A Starting Point for Beginners
For beginners, tracing can be a helpful tool to understand proportions, shapes, and shading. It can also help develop muscle memory and improve overall drawing skills. By tracing, you can see how experienced artists approach their work and gain insights into their techniques. This can serve as a basis for your own improvement and artistic development.
Originality and Creativity
While tracing can be a valuable learning tool, using it to copy someone else's work without permission or attribution can be unethical. It can undermine the original artist's efforts and impact the integrity of their work. Originality is crucial in art, and relying too heavily on tracing can stifle your own creativity. Balancing tracing with original drawing can help you develop your unique style.
Artistic Integrity
Many artists believe that creating original work is essential to their artistic integrity. Tracing is sometimes viewed as a shortcut that bypasses the creative process. For many, the act of drawing from scratch is a necessary step in building their own artistic voice and style. By understanding the limitations of tracing, you can enhance your ability to create truly original work.
Commercial Use and Legal Considerations
If you plan to sell or publicly display traced work, it is essential to have permission from the original creator. Using someone else's art without permission can lead to legal issues. It is important to respect the intellectual property rights of other artists and to seek permission when necessary.
Personal Growth: Balancing Tracing and Originality
Ultimately, how you use tracing in your art practice can affect your growth as an artist. Balancing tracing with original drawing can help you develop your style while still learning from others. Tracing can be a valuable tool, but it should be used as part of a broader strategy for artistic development.
Developing Hand Movement and Memory
No good practice exists for steadying your hand movement through tracing alone, but it can aid in the development of your hand movements and memory. For example, drawing a human figure without a reference can be challenging, but with practice and memory of human anatomy, you can achieve cleaner lines.
Tracing itself can help develop your hand movement and memory for the type of thing you are tracing. If you constantly trace a head, you may be able to remake that head in quality over time without the need to trace it again. This repetition can improve your skills and boost your confidence.
Moreover, tracing can be useful for testing new techniques. If you want to draw a person with an arm in a position you've never drawn before, go ahead and test it out. Even if you mess up, you still have the original base to refer back to, and you can improve and refine your work without the fear of messing up your entire progress.
The only drawback to tracing is when you trace a significant number of something and then claim it as your own work. In such cases, it is important to cite the original artist and respect their intellectual property. For example, if you are not good at drawing heads at different angles, you can trace the basic areas of the head and then use reference dots to draw anything of your own design. By using tracing as a building block for your own creativity, you can boost your confidence and improve your ability to make steady hand movements.