How many of you have either been told this, or heard this said in the art world? Especially when it comes to drawing commissions? If you haven't yet, wait a while! It can become quite an in-depth discussion and people will often have very strong views on this topic!
So, what are my thoughts? Is it cheating?
When it comes to creating an outline for my art, I have always freehanded. That is just the way I learned and the way that worked best for me.
But, it doesn’t come without its challenges; sometimes there were ( and still are) pieces that I have trouble getting the outline right with and I end up frustrated.
This happened very recently and the more I tried the worse it seemed to get!
The thought occurred to me that, to spare my own sanity, maybe I could trace the outline! But I’m rather stubborn and I wanted to keep trying to freehand. That was the point I realized that I felt like if I traced it, I was cheating. I felt the whole process would no longer be me.
However, with the level of frustration I was feeling at the time, I thought to heck with it! I will trace it. So I ordered some tracing paper, traced the outline and I was away! It saved me so much stress and honestly, I wish I had started doing this sooner!
This is what I learned:
The reason I couldn’t get it right was because the way my brain was seeing the reference photo was actually pretty different to the actual structure in the reference. The thing here is that, even if your outline is very slightly off, it can throw off the whole drawing and when you are seeing it differently from the reference photo, it can be so hard to figure out what on earth is actually wrong! Making it almost impossible to fix! Tracing makes it clear that sometimes what you think you see, isn't actually accurate; it teaches you a lot about composition!
Having an outline, takes absolutely nothing away from the work that is put in to create a realistic looking drawing. Tracing is simply a tool! Like using a ruler to draw a straight line. Its the exact same thing.
Imagine for a moment you are creating a piece of architectural art, maybe a cityscape or a drawing of a specific building. Is it cheating to use a ruler to get the edges straight? Of course not!
Tracing saves a lot of time and stress! I spent a whole day trying to get that drawing right and I wasted it because of my stubbornness! Sometimes, it’s really not worth making things more difficult for yourself!
You can also check out my YouTube video on tracing where I talk a little more on this topic!
Thanks for reading and i hope this was helpful!
Rachel
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