stop tracing photographs:

Stop Tracing Photographs For Comic Book Art by John Chalos

I'm of the opinion (and this is just my opinion) that watching an artist create a freehand drawing using his memory and his imagination is always going to be infinitely more impressive than watching an artist trace over a photo reference in Photoshop.

If drawing were performance art and crowds gathered in stadiums to watch artists draw and paint, I feel like freehand drawing would be the main attraction. I picture half the crowd hitting the restrooms and the concession stands during the portion of the show when the guys who trace photographs come out to do their thing.

It's just not as exciting (for me, as a fan) to watch someone trace a photograph and it's just not as exciting (for me, as an artist) to see traced photographs in print. I prefer freehand art. I prefer its aesthetic charm and its character. I have a deep appreciation for the required level of craftsmanship that goes into creating freehand art.

It's the same, in my opinion, as a connoisseur of music preferring a delicately composed violin concerto to a few chopped up violin samples sprinkled into a techno beat for a pop song. The difference is easily discernible. The difference is substantial and meaningful.

Some will argue that it takes a lot of skill to properly and seamlessly incorporate a tracing of a photograph into a piece of original artwork. It does take a lot of work and it does take a certain degree of skill, I agree. What I'm saying is that it takes far less work and far less skill than it does to create the entire piece from scratch. It's a shortcut. It's less impressive in terms of artistic prowess.

It's not "cheating" in most cases. No, it's not cheating in the same sense that riding around the block in a car instead of jogging around the block isn't cheating. Tracing is just a tool, right. It gets you where you want to go. But, of course, riding in your car during a marathon race is cheating. Riding in your car during gym class is cheating. In the same way, tracing photographs but representing your work as freehand art (or simply refusing to dispel that illusion) could definitely be seen as "cheating" in some arenas.

Tracing is art, yes. The end product is beautiful, more beautiful than freehand art in some instances. It's still not as impressive as freehand art. It's still not the same thing as freehand art. It still doesn't carry the same intrinsic value as freehand art.

I'm not disputing the fact that there are multiple disciplines within the realm of what we consider to be "drawing" these days. Some artists trace photographs (or even trace another artist's drawings) verbatim or near verbatim. Some artists drop manipulated photographs right into their drawings (having adjusted the levels and contrast). Some artists merely use photographs as loose templates when they trace. Some artists use projected photographs or slides as loose templates. Some artists reproduce or transfer photographs onto canvas using an open grid system. Some artists "draw from life" using photographs or live models for direct reference. Some artists use photographs or live models as indirect reference or inspiration. Some artists draw from memory, perhaps using construction lines  or perhaps using no guidelines at all, drawing upon years of research on anatomy, kinetics, value, tone, perspective, color, composition, etc. Some artists draw from their imagination, creating new worlds and creatures never before seen in waking life.

Each of these types of drawing takes discipline. And, of course, photography itself takes discipline. It's all art. It's just not the same kind of art and these different types of drawing techniques are not equally impressive regardless of the end result.

Why does it matter?

First, let me give you a few practical reasons why this matters. Though it should be obvious to any skilled artist or art aficionado which pieces in front of him are freehand drawings and which pieces in front of him are traced photographs, it's not always so obvious to customers, to collectors, to judges in contests, to employers, to fans, etc.

Customers and collectors might pay way too much for a traced photograph thinking they've come across the next Michelangelo. Judges might award scholarships and cash prizes without realizing they're passing over highly skilled artists to shower recognition and praise on a representative of the "paint by numbers" crowd (a mistake akin to favoring a page from a coloring book over the Mona Lisa). An employer might award a job to the guy with the most flashy portfolio not realizing this artist's ability to create comparable work is limited to the depth of his collection of reference photos.

All sorts of problems come up when artwork is misrepresented or judged together with other types of artwork without the proper categorization or distinction.

Then there are copyright issues. It's perfectly legal to take your own photograph and trace it for your own drawing but things get a little bit tricky when you start tracing over the work of professional photographers or the work of professional freehand artists without paying for the right to use their work or giving credit where credit is due. Recent law suits involving Shepard Fairey and Thierry Guetta come to mind. It's not as impressive when your artwork is copied from another artist. It's also a bit shady at best, a bit illegal at worst.

But, really, what matters most in terms of comic book production is this…

Traced artwork in comics sucks!

Let me be clear, traced photographs look great for covers and pin-ups but it's just not practical for interior story art. Compiling the reference material and sorting through it takes too long. You're limited by the physicality and athletic prowess of your models. You're limited by the poor acting ability of your models. You're spending too much time figuring out how to fit photographs together and not enough time coming up with ways to tell a story both efficiently and effectively. The end result often looks like a bunch of awkwardly posed models from a Sears catalog slapped onto a page from National Geographics. It's wooden. It's mechanical. It's not alive.

Making a collage of photographs look like an original freehand composition is extremely difficult. Making it work for panel after panel of sequential art is exceedingly difficult, not to mention tedious and time consuming. In the end, the result almost never looks fluid or natural.

People will still buy it, of course. It looks cool and it's sometimes very popular. But a large portion of the popularity of such artwork stems from the fact that fans don't realize they're buying traced photographs. If they knew, they probably wouldn't be as impressed or as eager to pay so much money for it.

Traced artwork in comics devalues the comic book industry as a whole. Comics are one of the few remaining bastions of freehand art in this day and age. Tracing is rampant in commercial art, promotional art for films and games, portrait art, art for sports memorabilia, fantasy art, animation, flash tattoos, some graffiti and murals, etc. Freehand art can still be found in museums, in some concept art for films and games and in comic books. Take pure freehand art out of comic books and you reduce comics to just another form of mass produced commercial entertainment in a world swimming in it — just when comics are finally beginning to find a modicum of respect for their unique artistic value.

There's no substitute for true craftsmanship. Don't take shortcuts. Don't trace. Take the time to learn how to draw freehand art. Study textbooks and online tutorials. Practice. Challenge yourself. Because, in the end, what makes you successful is having your own voice, your own style, your own excellence — not the ability to mimic those who do. You can only get so far with "lip sync" art. Work hard and take the time to develop the chops. Create from your heart. Do it right. That's the path to greatness.

Some books I recommend for study: Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life by George Bridgman, Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth, Figure Drawing For All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis, Secrets to Drawing Heads by Allan Kraayvanger, Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner, Framed Ink (Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers) by Marcos Mateu-Mastre, How To Draw Noir Comics (The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling) by Shawn Martinbrough, Force (Dynamic Life Drawing For Animators) by Michael D. Mattesi, Drawing the Head & Figure by Jack Hamm, Cartooning The Head and Figure by Jack Hamm, Vanishing Point (Perspective for Comics from the Ground Up) by Jason Cheesman-Mayer, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, etc.