I posted this on forums in a topic on weither or not tracing is a form of art theft, and a friend convinced me to repost it here.



"As an artist who has had work traced before, and having had my best friend be victim to a 'tracing thief' several times [to the point she has almost stopped posting her work online entirely] it actually feels like more of a violation than just having that person outright steal the original artwork. At least if someone steals the original piece, you can credit it a bit to "well that was really stupid", and get the offending duplicate taken down. With tracing, it falls into a grey area that shouldn't exist at all- people trace one of your works and people go "Oh, it's flattering!" or "They were just practicing", but in reality it hurts the perpetrator AND the victim.



For one thing, tracing repetitively and drawing the same poses over and over again won't teach anyone anything except how to trace. You are in no way training your hands, or your brain in anything except for rote memorization. The original artist drew this from their mind- after honing their brain extensively- and training it to render things from their mind's eye. If the person who traces is told to draw a different pose from the ones they've traced, chances are they cannot- they didn't learn how different parts look from different perspectives- they just learned to do one thing over and over again.

The tracer- their model is 2d and on the paper [or layer] underneath their own. The original artist will have their model in their mind's eye, in 3d and be able to move and turn it to render it effectively. Tracing is just an easy self-gratification ritual.



I'm gonna say it- tracing is artistic masturbation.



On the other hand, tracing is the hip new way to get around watermarks. Tracers abound right now because it's a fast, easy way to steal and not get in trouble, it's an instant 15 minutes of internet fame/fast internet forum currency, because it's a thin grey line.



If people wish to trace as 'ractice', they shouldn't pass it off as their own complete work, much less turn a profit from it. But for the sake of the argument as a whole, if tracers have any ounce of self-respect as an artist, they'd spend their time practicing drawing their own interpretations of things, and creating their own 3d model database in their head, instead of tracing someone else's interpretation and building no usable skills whatsoever."




Take it as you will. The tracing debate is a hot topic over here right now. <.<



Oh! Also, I know I haven't posted much but that's because I've been busy PACKING. We're moving in a few short weeks and I may be without internets for a week or so. [unless I manage to sneak onto an unsecured connection on my laptop or until Friday where there is internet at Coffee night] I am also working on a very large and detailed picture- I've only just now finished adding the flat color, and I started it back on the 13th. -_- [I work so slow nowadays...]But you may get to see that soon, and I hope it makes up for the lack of art.








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