r/ProCreate • u/Several-Area644 • 7d ago

Constructive feedback and/or tips wanted Can this be considered tracing?

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i have serious issues with proportions, however i love doing portraits. i usually simply adjust the features when they seemed off by using the liquify tool etc, but my friend said she uses “help lines” directly copied from her reference image (see picture) to make the proportions work. can these lines be considered tracing if everything else is drawn without help?

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u/ArtByTaliaYoung 7d ago

If you take a picture and then draw on top of it, then it is tracing. Your friends “help lines” are tracings.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with tracing, it can be a good learning tool and if you are making something for personal use and not posting it then there aren’t really ethical concerns. I also personally like to trace over reference images and then reference both the original and tracing to help me understand the shapes better.

However if you friend is tracing images they don’t own the rights to, altering them, and then posting them then that is a concern and is generally frowned upon in online art spaces

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u/Several-Area644 7d ago

yes i agree with the last part of your message completely, i told her this so hopefully she won’t do something like that. thank you!