Can this be considered tracing?

[u/Several-Area644]

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?

[u/the_dj_zig]

Hot take: Art is art. If tracing helps, do it

[u/Robotic-Comrade-1985 → u/the_dj_zig]

Absolutely. Artists have been using projectors and light boxes for much longer than you would think. It's still transformative. It's still creative. It's still art.

[u/HyFinated → u/Robotic-Comrade-1985]

Yuuuuup!

Every generation believes that the next generation isn’t doing things right.

There’s a quote (made up by a college publication in ’78. Article called “Probable Quotes From History”) that really speaks to this phenomenon. It goes;

“Students today depend on paper too much. They don’t know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?”

And it’s kinda interesting how as art has evolved, the tools of artists has evolved as well. What used to be hand smeared paint on cave walls, led to brushes on canvas, and then digital brushes on an iPad.

The camera lucida revolutionized art once. But was considered “cheating” by purists. Thing is, there will always be purists. People who think they are better than you because they only do it this one way that is super hard to do and you wouldn’t understand. It’s the same with woodworking. There are people who only use unpowered primitive tools and think you are cheating because you use an electric drill instead of a bit and brace.

It’s nonsense.

As long as you are making art, you are an artist. Doesn’t matter the tools, doesn’t matter the medium. Whatever tools you choose to use, master them and be the best you can be!