How TRACING makes you a better artist 🧠

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#learntodraw #learnfaster #tracing

[@YTartschool]

Tracing for the gains is great, tracing for the likes is forbidden. Now go out there and have a fantastic Sunday or go straight to the principal's office 🤓 *Edit Just want to clarify there’s NO POINT in tracing if it’s not followed with a non-traced copy. Using tracing for any step of the final illustration is not helping you, except maybe to get likes. I’m reading a lot of comments that seem to miss that part.

[@etherealdreamerart]

Tracing is great to learn anatomy. Tracing is bad if you steal someone else's art without permission. Tracing your own free hand drawn art is no issue at all.

[@costelinha1867]

So true

[@muteyourbrains4516]

Didn't get the idea. Stealing is bad, not tracing someone's work. You may trace whatever you want in educational matter without posting it in the Internet, what's the problem?

[@etherealdreamerart]

@muteyourbrains4516 Tracing just for education or to study anatomy is fine as long as you don't post it or claim it as your own. If you do post, you must have written consent from the person you traced, otherwise, it is art theft/plagiarism

[@Miraihi]

What's important is to keep analyzing what you're doing and not going through the motions.

[@caelinart]

Bs. Tracing your own sh1tty art Leads you to nowhere. Tracing from professionals is what he should do. Always learn from the best. And get to know the lines of a correct piece. You waste your time when you trace your own art that carries mistakes. With that knowledge of line movement you can go ahead and create your own things. It‘s just important to fill your library (brain) with correct knowledge. Unlearning wrong knowledge will take you sm longer to get where you want to be.

[@kairosragasa]

Fun Fact If you Trace your own Art a little bit to a specific Direction again, and again, and again, you're practically Animating 😊

[@Saint_Wolf_]

The illuminati 📱: bro shut up

[@MinkMane]

​@@Saint_Wolf_ LOL

[@paulinomendes8357]

That Ross roasting in the beginning tho lmao

[@lamphan4333]

True. I told my friend about this (he's an artist too) but he said I was wrong??? And I was like: "Lmao I improved my drawing skills by tracing, paying attention to details, redrawing anew,… what are you talking about?"

[@brosbitz7345]

Show ur art then, how improved are you?

[@lamphan4333]

@@brosbitz7345 Are you suggesting that I should show him my drawings, or are you asking me to put my drawings here for everyone to see? 😅

[@brosbitz7345]

@@lamphan4333 ye, let me see

[@Yonaguti]

@@lamphan4333to show the steady improvement to your friend because of you tracing. (If you still have the old drawings of course 😅)

[@lamphan4333]

@@Yonaguti Oh ofc, I've done that already but he’s a tough one (he doesn't believe in this method and said that my improvement was mainly because of my talents and my luck??? Wth really) so I don't want to waste my time to discuss about this anymore. As you know, we still have work to do 🤣 like drawing and improving

[@Euphoryaaa]

My problem with tracing has always been that there was ALWAYS that kid in class that obviously traced something and then passed it off as their own. Everyone treated them like they were genius or something.

[@nomoretwitterhandles]

The way I would deal with those people is I would say "Oh cool, I've seen the original image you copied that from!" and watch them get really quiet lol. Or they'd get really defensive and accidentally reveal that they were tracing.

[@TheGame2K5]

To be fair I used to trace stuff as a kid for practice and then that turned into being able to replicate a drawing that LOOKED like it was traced.

[@WandererDH]

ok but why it is your problem?

[@bluenosaurus2720]

Focus on your stuff. Fire will tell real gold.

[@novaduck_iv]

*sweats nervously* I used to do that in my early highschool days lol

[@janina3879]

Thanks for this! I was wondering if tracing could be useful to learn, but when I looked it up it was all just "tracing bad!".

[@WingZX1103]

Tracing it and then posting it like it's your own, THATS BAD. but using it to measure your art and learning which lines work and don't work, that's fine

[@hazohappy7060]

Tracing is SUPER GOOD for STUDYING

[@janina3879]

@@WingZX1103 I just don´t get what the point of "tracing and posting it as your own" even is tbh.

[@thanhnguyentri7836]

Tracing isn't bad as other people have pointed out its benefit. Whether it's good or bad depends on what you are going to do after that. Are you posting your traced work on social media and said "I made this"? You've just thrown yourself into the fire pit. If you're posting your work with original artwork including crediting to original artist, then there is absolutely nothing wrong.

[@TriScaleCreations]

@@janina3879 Well, that just goes to prove you have nothing to worry about. If you can't understand the impulse, you'll be fine. Trace to your hearts content.

[@rowan404]

I thought the last one was a normal step for making art. 1. Sketch 2. *Lineart* 3. Coloring 4. Lighting and shading

[@Kyuubey0406]

Lineart too hard

[@rowan404]

@@Kyuubey0406 It’s my least favorite part of the process, but I push through it.

[@arandomreplyguy3382]

​@@Kyuubey0406in tge beginning it's hard, but it's one of the best parts when you obtain the skills for it

[@re57k]

I am ashamed to report to all of you that ever since my tablet broke, I just skip line art, go straight to shading, and don't even use solid black lines anymore.

[@Biouke]

@@arandomreplyguy3382 And it's good muscle memory training to draw nice lines and curbs ! My last hour in a nutshell : 1. Draw a face. 2. Adjust the eyes size and position. 3. F* it, just redraw them. 4. Clean and adjust with eraser. 5. I should have just kept the first sketch, this is worse ! 6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 until step 5 goes away for a vacation in the Caribbeans (don't worry it always comes back) . Optional #7 : Unhide the layers to realise my lineart is now way more fine-tuned on the face than on the rest of the body and I will have to apply this level of nitpicking everywhere. Oh, that will be fuuun ! /¤==' (> w

[@2rato]

I like tracing to check if my anatomy matches. Most people have rules that make absolutely no sense. Art is free and even a coulage is art and it simply consists of putting together photos.Yes, you learn less, but in the end it's the result that counts. What I like to do is put together scenes from photos and then paint over them. This creative part where you don't have to think about drawing or anatomy, but just about the composition is great

[@nomoretwitterhandles]

Actually, tracing is a great way to learn more, especially if you are a beginner (or if you are learning a new technique). If I were a complete novice at art, it would take me twice as long to observe on my own than it would if I traced to figure out *what* to observe. In fact, when I was a child, I drew all the time without tracing. It wasn't until I started tracing as an 11 year old that I made any significant progress. By 12 I had quit tracing, because I felt like I learned a lot! I started putting my new observational skills to the test. My art lost quality after I quit tracing to learn, but I kept drawing anyway--and this time, I really knew WHAT to improve. By 13, I was extremely proficient in art *without* tracing or references. When I got into high school, I got pretty popular pretty quickly for my art, and even though I didn't take extracurricular art classes, one of the art teachers asked me to make stuff for her classes anyway lol. And I did, because that teacher was awesome and I felt bad for not taking their classes. Nowadays, I don't draw as much as I used to, but those skills I gained when I traced to learn have stuck with me all these years later. It's almost impossible to lose that knowledge. Learning something too slowly really doesn't help anyone; it's easier to lose information that way.

[@AlreadyFallenOut3]

Tracing is an amazing thing to do to improve your art skills! I always encourage artists to do it for studying purposes. As long as you dont claim its your own work, no problem at all 😊

[@whosadaman8326]

Tracing really helped me when I was still learning, it helped bridge a lot of the gaps i couldn't see when doing studies

[@TheKsenpai]

Tracing is like having training wheels, helps to keep on track. Probably the best way for any new artist to build up experience.

[@TriScaleCreations]

I too wasted a lot of time resisting the trace-over sketch process, as I felt it was a waste of time to draw the same thing twice, but I too have since given in, and while it has slowed me down some, it's vastly improved the quality of my art, as well as forced me to process different steps that I was ignoring before, making me learn better structuring, anatomy, and proportion.

[@VuKohl]

I just realized that because of your videos I can now draw many more poses without seeing an image and only with my visual library, thanks although sometimes I feel like I'm copying but I don't recognize

[@charlieianzo5513]

Tracing makes sense if your mind makes it easier to draw by visualizing the already finished sketch. But it sort of relies on intuition and focus, the kind of focus that doesn't require any effort whatsoever.

[@SofieArts]

Not even really intuition imo, just looking where the lines are and following them

[@zephyrias]

4:23 I recently did this! 😂 i can say that it helped so much with making character poses!

[@zephyrias]

Tracing your own art… 👁👄👁 wdym not many ppl do that? 😂 i have too many final lineworks of the final lineworks. Definitely helps a lot, ive been inking that way for years. Sometimes instead of a final lineart pass, I will tidy up the sketch and add in line weight and to it. Often my sketches look final depending on the style I’m going for. Over time this method will make inking more final, as one gains experience. Some artists ive seen say this is a sketch and it looks clean like the example above! 😮 I cant spot the difference corporate, they’re the same picture

[@yuan813j]

great tip for tracing. I also trace my drawings for final lineart as well. it is really useful. ofc the first, is a good tip for studying poses and cloth fold

[@AiStrous]

i use tracing for anatomy and poses.. feel like ive learned alot through tracing

[@WarFoxThunder]

I can confirm! I got really depressed over the early months of this year, and traced CSP models to make up for my art (that i thought sucked), and now after quitting tracing, my anatomy skills are amazing!😊💖

[@Miraihi]

What's good about tracing is how low-stress it is while being a useful learning tool with right approach. This may be a way to defeat the blank canvas syndrome for artisits struggling with anxiety.

[@MoolsDogTwoOfficial]

I trace over lines and circles everyday as a linework exercise. I gotta say I can finally draw perspective with confidence now.

[@alenezi989a3]

I only improved through tracing, it's literally like learning from the artists you love, but instead of the artist being there you learn from their art, how they draw the hair, the eyes the nose and so on, until your hand starts gets used to drawing these shapes. Tracing is one of the best beginners practice tools.

[@badpixel3248]

my exam is the day after tomorrow. After this, I'll come back to this video as part of applying myself more to drawing. I hope it goes well Thank you, Mark Brunet, for your years of instruction and guiding us to draw better. I hope your year goes well

[@IftiharAbdillah]

The prime example of this is Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, a lot of pose are traced from model magazines and it's not even 1 on 1 copy of the reference image. And he is someone who got a collab with Gucci

[@benedits5206]

I used to trace your drawings 😅 but now I know why I improved so fast⏩. Thanks for the incredible class Marc

[@ZAre1_]

I confess to you, teacher Marc Brunet... Since I recently decided to try to learn how to draw again when I first saw your channel a week or two ago... although I mostly drew in the traditional style (drawing on paper) and I really wanted to draw in digital (since on my 15th birthday my parents bought a drawing tablet, which I really wanted when I was in elementary school, but I very rarely touched it because I’m constantly afraid of making a mistake and constantly scold myself for every wrong one line, expecting great results from myself, having high expectations for myself, forgetting about the drawing process itself... which makes me feel sorry for my drawing tablet).. Now I'm 17... And the first time I wanted to become an artist... was at 7-8 (I don’t remember exactly, but I drew a very clumsy drawing of Sailor Moon at that time).. But I grew up... time passed..... And I began to compare my clumsy drawings with others, more experienced artists.. because of which I began to lose interest in drawing and hate my drawings... Although now that I have grown up.. and you can say I'll be 18 next month.. this means that I will become an adult and a fully capable person... who will not have much free time to draw.. And I kept thinking, is it too late for me to start drawing? After all, I see that some children draw better than me, because of which envy eats me up... not just envy, but dark envy... Which is not good, although I try to calm myself down. And I understand that all artists started from where they drew terribly and they put a lot of practice and time into their drawing skill and knowing this I calm down a little, although not completely.. I’m just trying to bring back that same love and passion for drawing that I had as a child... will I again learn how to love my drawings and not hate myself for them, not to give up on drawing without even starting to draw just because I couldn’t draw a simple sketch, not to procrastinate, but to go towards the goal and draw how I love and what I love.... Overcoming my fear, overcoming my envy and procastination... and just start drawing what I like and how I like... In a sense, you even inspired me and instilled, albeit small and weak, but a glimmer of hope.. that if I put at least a little effort and time into drawing... that I can really call myself an artist in the future.... Thank you.❤

[@cickovic91]

I would love to see a video on hue and changing hue to add more color variation to our drawings, I understand it is about ambient and how light bounces from objects but something about it doesn't click, don't know why but I find it difficult. Your simple way of explaining things is really good so maybe you could simplify hue even more for us, to not be intimidated by millions of combinations color vise. Thank you Marc for your time!

[@mintycandyyumyum]

This is what I've been trying to teach!! Tracing isn't evil if you use it for learning. Way back then, sometimes I can't figure out WHY a pose looks good, or what I'm missing in anatomy. So I trace something similar and just pay attention to the shapes and strokes I'm making.. then it clicks! Then I scrap the image and do it on my own and it's much better then before. BUT, do not rely on it to teach you constantly. You'll want to learn how to measure, replicate, put shapes together of objects you haven't traced before on your own. I find tracing is mainly a good early new artist's tool for learning and grasping things.

[@ThePowerofStoriesDK]

Great video, Marc. Tracing is a good way to level up your skills. It seems a lot of people are getting hung up on the idea you shouldn't use tracing for ANYTHING, not even training and practice. Tracing for use in final art and not disclosing it to your audience is gonna hurt you as an artist in the long run, while tracing to help develop your fundamentals should absolutely be encouraged.

[@txghostxtarts]

4:15 the most important thing, i started doing this last year and my proportions improved so much. i also check the observed one with draw over one, to find mistakes and do it a few times. to make my brain fully understand it.

[@illyuziyaaa]

Yes! This is true! I usually trace to find character proportions if I want to study a character. And then I draw the character on the blank space with those proportions, it works really well :D

[@lewiitoons4227]

As an animator the last one has just always been part of my workflow I don’t even remember where I learned it from but the “lazy” option of using the eraser tool to clean it up is so much tedious finicky work that it absolutely takes longer and doesn’t look as good

[@DragmoraProductions]

Im thinking about tracing the faces of people in my morning newspaper every day. Just to learn the right proportion of the face.

[@OKUNIEART]

So simple rules, but so useful. I also laugh how Ross was roasted in the beginning, LOL

[@crazycowcraft350]

Haven't seen the video or comments at all and have zero experience in drawing anything but I think I know why it's good to trace By tracing you learn how to employ principles that the original artist used that you then get to use yourself as you familiarize yourself with which brush strokes to make and techniques to use. BOOM

[@tommcfeely8707]

When I had a lot of trouble with free handing, I would trace over the lines of the artwork I wanted to make, I would only copy the pose, I would make the head the character I was aiming to draw. I didn't have to do it too often, because tracing over the lines helped me figure out how to maneuver my hand/arm better to make my line work better. I was actually surprised at how much it helped me, because I was not improving with my art for the longest time and I was struggling to continue working with drawing.

[@aovierlia]

Broooo, the lineart advice was so useful, came in exactly at the time I was wondering about it 😭😭

[@dralinkushinen]

Man, you have no idea how much this video helps my mental! I am VERY aware of the reasonable stigma around tracing because of its use to fake artistic capabilities, but also very much knew that it can be very beneficial if done right and either kept to yourself or with clarification. I usually struggle getting certain structures right, so tracing from existing examples would help a ton, but even just thinking about trying it turns my stomach. I need something done about it, and hearing this from you is definitely the first step to that.

[@andrewong143]

Man! As a newbie artist this makes a lot of sense. Thank you 🔥

[@ianhall7513]

Great stuff. Thanks!

[@hollowedboi5937]

Ooh I like that, trick the brain into thinking line art is tracing your own art while focusing on line thickness and quality. I often find it scary to do lineart cuz I think it has to be PERFECT, but in reality it just has to have intention. Why is it lighter to darker, thinner to thicker, why is there shading under or above certain parts, are certain things overlapping? This way you aren’t mindlessly inking, you’re thinking about the WHY.

[@julienbrightside8635]

I think that get a lot more done with arts if you think to yourself: "It doesn't have to be perfect."

[@catscat1112]

I use tracing after making a Frankensteins monster model to help me make my art, like i take an arm from one pose, a leg from another, etc. Very useful

[@lunarfifthstudios]

I also started doing the cleanup trace step - I am now well on my way to making my first portfolio that I am confident enough to actually share and apply with! This is an excellent video that I also could have used 20 years ago - but hey, its all in the journey. ✌️😘

[@TheMotionComic.]

Thanks for your tips.

[@souza9369]

I actually use the second method a lot, now i just need to come back to drawing more

[@jpeckdraws3932]

Great as always man thank you 😊

[@LowellLucasJr.]

Tracing helps with accuracy and to study the figure better. You can learn from it and always add but it does help in tandom with using refference. In all, a useful tool with studying your subject. Hell, I trace my own work to tranfer to better illustration boards and canvas for painting❤ 🖌️

[@littlemissanonymous8868]

Haven't watched your videos in awhile, just started watching them again and they've been very helpful 👍. I thank you for being there for us and helping us in our journey, and I hope you continue to be there for all the new artists.

[@allseing278]

Thanks for the tips i needed this

[@mackenner956]

Best teacher fr, also just got your ART School!! SO EXCITED

[@willnoname]

Man I love your way of teach, you are the best

[@divineswine2780]

the first art tutorial that i think will help me for sure

[@metovir8109]

Thanks, Mark!

[@tetaguilla1814]

Hi marc I always watch your videos I hope you do more master studies in the future! I mean other master artists since you are a master yourself too.. thanks a lot!!

[@jadoaesra3011]

it depends on the quality of the picture I am trying to produce. a very simple toon might not need anything beyond the first sketch. we're talking gilbert, garfield, that sort of stuff. if I'm shooting for a good picture though, I'm going to have the phase where I block out the anatomy's position, the phase where I sketch over that anatomy while looking at a reference to draw shapes that look like human meat, the phase where I use a line tool to create non-weighted smooth lines, and finally the phase where I go do the smooth lines with the vector correction tool to apply line weighting. but to be honest with you, I don't do weighting until the very last step- all the way after the coloring and shading. but it cleans a picture up very nice.

[@elenaborie2605]

This is great! I just watched your other video on deliberate practice and I’m excited to combine that approach with learning to break down anatomy proportions and shapes.

[@xpgaming7063]

Extremely useful tips!

[@tannersloan1949]

I really needed this video. I've practiced with tracing for a little while now, and though i like to think its helped, i always felt like i was cheating or looking for a shortcut to improvement. Now i see how to properly trace and practice, and i feel alot more confident in this practice! Great video

[@willtejeda1897]

I've actually been putting off redrawing my lineart for so long I think I'm just gonna give up on that and work like I should. I've been doing sketch->lineart and I just spend so much time on the lineart because I have to do double work - clean the sketch and have good lineart. It's so funny when my laziness just makes me end up working more.

[@hugepines3990]

Thank you for sharing this advice, I can especially relate to the latest. I picked up drawing again a few weeks ago and I'm reaching a point where I really have a good time doing it (while still producing mediocre art); what really changed everything was that I got a light pad (I mostly draw on paper) so now I would start laying out ideas on printer paper using a pencil, transferring it to my marker pad using a micron or a dip pen, and then coloring it with markers. This allows me to go hard on the printer paper with my eraser and to refine my sketch as much as necessary, and to lay a satisfying line art on the expensive marker pad. I then hopefully have clean lines on clean paper and can fully commit to coloring and shading using markers. I'm having more fun at every step and I can always look back at the sketch to reflect on the lighting or to correct mistakes. Also, thanks to the whole community for having so much content out there. Drawing is proving to be a very therapeutic addition to my life and it wouldn't be as effective without all the help and advice I found!

[@cliftut]

I would imagine that alternating between different approaches that get different info and skills "into the brain" and network your learning between them is probably really good. Gesture drawing, detail drawing, drawing by eye, drawing with grid method, shading volumes, drawing guidelines and wireforms, tracing exactly, tracing volumes and wireforms over things to practice thinking about how you would plan to draw or paint what you're looking at. Drawing from reference, drawing from memory, drawing from imagination. Shading smoothly, using textures or stippling, or cell shading. Drawing realistically, drawing patterns, drawing cartoons and anime, different styles of all kinds. Exercises to develop your muscle memory and ability to make precise strokes and shapes more quickly. A similar assortment of approaches for painting. Collaging. Maybe more extended periods focusing on just one aspect, with lesser amounts of the others. Just thoughts.

[@Trid3nt861]

Thanks for the info.

[@elinabur9148]

Working as a professional tracer (clean up animator) improved my art crazy so I can confirm this

[@nicolasdumont4373]

Oh look, a clever and thoroughly explained stance on tracing. I particularly liked the bit on " i figured it took me less time to re-draw cleanly my sketchy-sketch rather than erasing my lines." I'm right in the middle of such considerations atm, helps a lot, thank you :) .

[@matsubokkuri6194]

im just starting out art digitally ( i say that as if i had prior working knowledge of traditional art, which i dont) and all do is just trace photos i take. so this is a muuuuuuuch needed topic for me.

[@BradmyrEdits]

Tracing is how I improved my line art in just 60 days. It's such a big improvement that I could not believe how quickly my lines became smoother and faster. I did it 1 hour a day everyday. A professional artist actually taught me this years ago and I ignored it. But I tried it out recently coz I was having artist block to pass time. I could not believe it at actually works!

[@Dyoakie]

Yayyy been doing this recently. 😌 I use it as a reference before drastically change it to some super different entirely

[@narky5071]

I remember asking a question similar regarding the measuring proportions and it's great that this video came about almost like a follow up to the answer I got! Very, very helpful. Been doing it in a way where I trace the image initially, and then try again without tracing next to it. It's led to several big "Oooooh, that's how I was messing up" moments xD

[@miqolysa]

I like to trace something and use the traced as reference later. So I can see how it looks correctly and can see how it would look in my style or in a different body type f.e. Sometimes I let my final scetch overlap with the traced-reference to check for bif differences and check if it was intended or not.

[@ezequielsanchez5722]

Ohh. Revolutionary!

[@luckrequired5382]

2:39 Helllllooo cute smile! Hehe. Btw, Marc love the shirt, very summery. 👍👍

[@angrymushroom26]

I am always happy to see these. So many people out there need somewhere to start with art but people will make things seem taboo or have no real advice just restrictions. A lot of people could have gotten much better at art or even gotten into it at all with some practices that are seen as negative because of bad actors.

[@BenJonesart]

I know as a western comic book penciler/inker, those ugly detail lines are used moreso to help establish form so we don't get rid of them and your line clean up stage is effectively our inking stage, though many penciler now concentrate on this things such as a line weights ect.

[@alexandrumicu6895]

I use tracing to learn proportions and how the body parts twist and move in each pose..and all that is saved in my memory..anytime i want to draw from my imagination i just simply acces that simplified structure i memorized...😉if i do a tracing, i can replicate it from memory right away.😉tracing is a faster way to improve ur pose and gesture drawing witout strugling to observe from referennce...it's more like a cheat... For exemple, trace a pose 2 times with simplified forms...after that do it from memory..u will be surprized 😉

[@mundozeo]

Thanks for the video Marc! I've actually been doing this for the last year as well. Getting the main structure from a reference, then removing the reference and using the base form to create an original work. Works especially well when you extract the perspective from an existing piece, or a photo. I was kind of shy to mention I did this due to the stigma tracing has, but seeing this video has reafirmed that I'm using it the right way. Always love your videos, gets me pumped up to go and do some art of my own!

[@YTartschool]

Hold up that’s not what I’m doing! Super important distinction here is that you need to do it like my second example and copy without tracing as a second step, otherwise there’s really not much to learn from the process and it’ll forever be a crutch you have to rely on!

[@mundozeo]

@@YTartschool My bad! I worded that very poorly, I didn't mean to imply I just traced the base and drew over that, though rereading my comment that's certainly what it sounds like. to be clear it's more like 1) Trace the base form, usually from a photo, 2) Remove reference, complete manequin or an overall simple shape 3) put that at the side, make a new copy through observation from the manequin to "build" the basic forms, usually exagerating features or changing as suited, like changing arms position, rotating the head, increasing foreshortening or the like. (flipping in the process to make sure the form still makes sense) 4) create new actual drawing sketch over this new "copy", refine actual features. 5) Do lineart over this new sketch and move along. The point is, using a photo as a main reference can be overwhelming, and trying to setup a manequin or a 3D model us usually cumbersome and time consuming, but by creating a "traced manequin" to then use THAT as a reference is what actually helps and is usually faster. Just tracing and drawing over it doing a different work hasn't actually helped much other than to create a "skin" of the original work if that makes sense.

[@modern1429]

Can you make a video about anime art style please I’ve been trying to draw like demon slayer

[@stephanelarocque1766]

J'peux pas croire que ce video sort en même temps que je recois mon Ipad pour faire justement ça! Merci et bonjour du Québec!

[@kurotesuta]

I always get confused how to trace clothing, hard to pick some times which are the relevant fold, or sometimes the lighting is not the best.

[@duongtrongphu2978]

3:40 Marc you forgot to link the video in the description

[@MugiwaraRuffy]

For me personally in the last couple of weeks, it has mostly been case #3. Where I "trace" over my own squiggly, messy sketches or unrefinded older drawings to refine them. And yes, I can feel that my stroke confidence improves partially. So does my proportion recognition, when just draw from reference, not directly tracing. Yes, sometimes they are still a little bit off, but it gets better with practice.

[@niilanteybadu1]

your facial expressions alone are perfect for art references

[@delicious_seabass]

This is actually a great technique. Drawing the underlying form to understand the proportions and anatomy is an excellent way train your eye and for it to come effortlessly when you draw from memory. It's not to learn how to "trace", its to study the subject.

[@jeikuuthegreat]

True, tracing is what I do rn as a practice. It helps me be more comfortable with my stroke and know what things should be. I have less time for learning anatomy and I cant afford to put more effort to learn it starting from the basics. I just want to draw cool art and eventually be natural making arts without tracing it

[@Straight_to_dust]

Thank you, exploding sensei 🙏🏻

[@bamkyre9801]

Cool shirt Marc

[@TWDub]

Tracing definitely has its place as a tool in every artist's tool kit. But, it shouldn't become *the* toolkit. For me, I've traced references to practice proportions for a long time. And early on I had to trace faces because of how hard eyes and mouths were for me to get just right. These days I don't need to do that anymore (cue the kids cheering "yaaaaaay" sound bite). But it was a tool to help me improve the fundamentals at a slow and reasonable pace for me. The only tracing I still do nowadays is, as Mark showed, tracing my own lineart if I feel I need to refine it or, in some cases, redo it completely.

[@user-ht3ri8xh3f]

I was just thinking about this. my little 8 year old daughter told me, I trace daddy, that's how I learn... xD And honestly she has improved at drawing. it incinerated any cartoonist pride I might have had lol, but it certainly helps.

[@rasuru_dev]

Your intro cracked me up, liked your vid instantly

[@filypa101]

"Its very...sketchy" 😂

[@Monster_Lover]

Thank you.

[@Pixelsurgery]

Many MANY top commercial artists back in the day traced from photographs and it was norm part of process. There is a great video of Drew Struzan talking about it on YT.

[@ZaLagho]

The acting in the First 10 seconds were PEAK

[@Oishipotato3554]

Tracing just for education is always be the recommendation to learn shape. stuff looks like that for a reason if you cannot logically figure it out how it does certain pattern, trace it to learn how it works.

[@L0rar3]

Ah yes, my favorite time of the week coming around Tracing to me is an especially helpful tool when I feel like something's off but can't quite tell what it is Especially considering shapes and proportion

[@nesevinge9796]

You know he is good when the copy is better

[@luismiranda8944]

I trace photos and then convert them to a manga shading style. I think it looks neat. Maybe one day I'll be able to draw using construction techniques, but until then, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing and have characters that have correct proportions

[@YTartschool]

You do you of course, but fyi unless you do a second drawing that’s not traced like in my 2nd example, you will never get there. That step is essential :)

[@notapplicable8957]

6:00 - This actually has a name, they're called secondaries. You can actually do this over and over again until you hone your sketch into something more precise and interesting.

[@user-uz7do5gh6v]

ty Master

[@rarecorgi]

As a beginner hobby artist, I'm super happy to learn that tracing isn't all bad. I use 3D models to trace over the pose, then spend the time adding clothes afterwards. After seeing this, I think I know how to make the poses less rigid thanks to how you explained it c:

[@YTartschool]

I wouldn’t recommend keeping anything you traced in the final drawing without copying it again (without tracing) like I did for the second example though. You really don’t learn much without that second step!

[@boring_yt8324]

Man has broke down what I've been trying to explain to people for years. Will be sending this to people I know.