IS TRACING SIMPLY CHEATING?

[Eric]

HERES PART OF MY E-MAIL TO SOMEONE
"I use a mouse and yes, I traced the outermost shape..then the hard work begins. With it being a B&W bitmap all I'm really looking at is a series of *shades and gradients* Not Lines...
{which I have to 'punctuate' with simple black lines!] I try to "suggest" certain features, and that's the artistic interpretation bit..."

"But all credit to XARA X because it's line smoothing facility does add an incredible amount of grace to line drawing. I can't wait to try one of them graphics pads though.
If it were just the result of "tracing over a photograph" which some perceive it as, then I would not even bother with the thing in the first place..there would be no fulfillment.

cheers
eric

[Eric]

HERES PART OF MY E-MAIL TO SOMEONE
"I use a mouse and yes, I traced the outermost shape..then the hard work begins. With it being a B&W bitmap all I'm really looking at is a series of *shades and gradients* Not Lines...
{which I have to 'punctuate' with simple black lines!] I try to "suggest" certain features, and that's the artistic interpretation bit..."

"But all credit to XARA X because it's line smoothing facility does add an incredible amount of grace to line drawing. I can't wait to try one of them graphics pads though.
If it were just the result of "tracing over a photograph" which some perceive it as, then I would not even bother with the thing in the first place..there would be no fulfillment.

cheers
eric

[Ross Macintosh]

Not cheating in my opinion.

The photo may have helped you achieve satisfactory results more quickly - but I have no doubt you could have eventually achieved similar results with just the photo in hand or a live model. Of course either of those options would have been more difficult. To me what is relavant here is the final lines you create - not how much time you took.

When I was in architectural school many of the students worked at their design projects in excess of 100 hours a week. There were a couple of (very good) students who'd work maybe 15 hours per week. I always thought it was rediculous that most students felt the 15-hour folks should have had worse marks because they didn't work hard enough. I think there is no added virtue for doing things the hard way. Good results are good results.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Eric]

"I think there is no added virtue for doing things the hard way..."

Yes Ross I agree with you...at this stage in my crazy life i like the "less is more" minimilistic approach to the arts. Sometimes a few minutely subtle brush strokes on a canvas can be very moving, and yet a painstakingly detailed "masterpiece" can bore you to tears.
I also believe this Anybody, but *Anybody* with the right guidance and motivation can become a superb artist.

cheers
eric

[This message was edited by scouse eric on June 22, 2001 at 17:09.]

[Steve Newport]

I believe that copying is the best learning tool. Every great artist has painted/drawn/etc. something staright out of nature whether it be a tree, rock, or the human body. In order to learn, you need to observe and practice, you then become accustom to it and are able to recreate it in many ways, shapes and forms.

Steve Newport

[gwpriester]

Big Frank copied a photo he had made of his pen and ink image.

It is easy to say he just traced his own photo. But if anybody thinks this is easy, try it. I started to do the same with a crystal image of atlas holding the world on his crystal shoulders. I gave up after a few hours. I was getting nowhere fast.

It is not enough to trace an image, you have to know what to trace and what not to trace, what our currently missing friend Klaus referred to as selective simplification.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Early So Humble...

[Luthier]

This is a subject that has been debated endlessly in the "traditional" art field for as long as cameras and projectors have been around. I do not think that tracing is cheating, sometimes it is a method of getting to the starting point of the artwork.

I also can agree with Gary about the difficulty of tracing a bitmap or photo. It is not easy and the output of tracing programs is not easily put to immediate use. A great deal of effort has to be put into distilling the output into a useable format and that requires a trained eye and discretion to keep the important parts.

There are many excellent artists,illustrators and renderers that trace to build the beginning of what they are working on, but the quality of the finished work is up to the artist, not the tracing program,projector or photograph.