I have to agree with Karin on this one.

I spent 12 years in art schools, from a wonderful high school art teacher, private lessons, Georgia Tech, and LSU. I have multiple art degrees and I absolutely love to draw. I always have. Since I was two years old I would draw everything and everyone. And just to toot my own horn so to speak, I am very good at it.

I would study my father's vet books on animal muscle and bone structure and do countless drawings of our horses and dogs and foxes and any other animals my father had at the time.
But right now it is easier and faster for me to trace my drawings under my paintings than to draw them, especially my large ones.

I also run transparency acetate through my ink jet printer and lay it over my paintings to double check facial features and hand details.

Art for art's sake is a wonderful thing, but portraiture is a business for me and with two small children I need all of the extra time I can get. To me drawing isn't a chore. It is a luxury. And since I am currently driving a Dodge minivan and not a Lexus, I can't afford it right now.

Wonderful post Rebecca. I'm a busy parent, and have two part-time jobs. You've nicely summed up my feelings on this subject. I hereby give myself permission to trace or project or whatever.Thank you!

Stanka, thanks for reminding me what a great habit it is to carry around a sketch book. It's nice to know that a pro still benefits from it. I'm getting mine out again.

Karin, Thank you for the encouragement and instruction on copying the masters. My fingers are practically itching to do so!!!

Steven, Have you considered writing an art textbook?! You are more than qualified, as you must be aware. Thanks for the (original) reference material on sight drawing.

Lon, LOL's on your tracers anonymous post! Made me laugh.

-Margaret

Thanks, but no way. I have an intense but short attention span and I'd probably . . .

Oh . . . right. I'd probably get to about Chapter 3 and start obsessing about those cello lessons I've always wanted to take.

OK, allow me my 2 cents. Just a question...

Tracing is interesting thought: as a teacher how would one teach his or her students to trace the live model and, uh, wouldn't that tickle the model a bit? Hehe - OK, couldn't resist.

Mark

Why do we think anyone can learn to draw?

Sure, most can improve beyond their current ability, but that does not mean that they will ever be great. After all, I can learn to play golf and with practice I can play better, but I will never be Tiger Woods. Many might say that it is because I did not start as young as he did. But the truth is, if I tried to hit a golf ball at the age he started, I would not even hit the ball - never mind hit it well.

Most of us accept that some people were born with the ability to be great at an athletic pursuit and others are not, and some are so non-athletic that no matter how much they practice they will always stink. I feel that the same is true for art. Most can improve, yes, so I would not discourage anyone from drawing and painting for enjoyment if that is what they want. Who knows, they may get quite good.

But I also feel that some people were born with an ability, a God-given talent if you will, that puts their ability way beyond others. And the more they work at it the better they get. But it is much easier for them - it is natural.

We all started as children drawing for fun and along the way those who had that God-given talent for art began to draw things as they saw them and not as symbols that represented the world. This talent shows at an early age: if you have it, you know it - you were the one who stopped drawing trees that looked like lollipops before anyone told you that is not what trees looked like. And if you have this talent you do not need to trace, you may choose to trace to copy a drawing to canvas or to speed things up a bit when under a deadline or as a learning tool. But I would hope that drawing freehand brings you much more enjoyment and sense of accomplishment. Also, IMO, accuracy is not all there is to good drawing.

Now I will admit that there are some who have this talent and did not develop it, and so they are not as good as they should be. And there are others who were not as gifted, that with hard work, have gotten quite good. And the amount of this talent we have varies from one to another. But there is no denying that there are some that are just blessed. At the same time, there are some who, no matter how much they practice, will never have it.

So, yes, just as we can teach music we can teach art, but we must always remember just as there are very few Mozarts, there are also very few Bouguereaus.

So I will say IMO there is no shortcut to learning to draw well. Tracing can help you get to the end but without the ability to see, even tracing won't help you. In the end, only those with a true ability to draw ever will be any good at it. The rest of us must struggle with our weakness and learn to make up for what we lack in talent with hard work.

And the part I hate to say, but really feel is true, is some people should just put down the paintbrush and back away from the easel before someone gets hurt. :)

Michelangelo traced the forms on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Just a thought...

Peter

Transferring is a bit different from tracing to learn, IMHO.

If I draw free form for instance, I can then transfer the form to canvas or to a ceiling.

The idea of searching for an easier method of learning is a good one. I believe we all are doing that to some degree: trying to master a method and learn what is wrong with it so we might make it better.

Tracing a form might familiarize you with the form, but I believe that's all it would do. The familiarity will assist you when you step away from tracing and endeavor to draw what you see freehand.

Then being familiar at that point would help. But no matter what, you will have to learn like everyone else, with a lot of hard work and practice.

As I mentioned in my other post with a little humor: trace a live model, or a live landscape... in order to accomplish these tasks they are back to square one, even if they are familiar with anatomy. To draw from life requires more than anatomical knowledge.

Ever see some doctors draw? My uncle is a bone specialist, surgeon. I have seen him draw out the skeleton. You know it's accurate as far as a skeleton goes, but its not pretty. (LOL)

The fundamentals of drawing or learning to draw simply must be put into practice if one is ever going to learn to draw.

My 2 cents - take it for what it's worth and I hope it is a help.

Mark

In the sense in which tracing is suggested here as an exercise, the point isn't familiarity with the subject, but with the choreography of line. What you're doing in these exercises is training your mind and hand to absorb and replicate the process of creating descriptive, accurate line that, paradoxically, disappears in its representation of form.

Ted Seth Jacobs' introductory remarks to his "Drawing With An Open Mind" are instructive as to what we're on about when we try to represent subjects and shapes within them with contour outlines. I very highly recommend the book, not just for the drawing instruction but for the profundity of the philosophy that Jacobs imparts along with it.

In sports, for example, there are many "Inner" regimens -- "Inner Tennis", "Inner Golf" -- in which the practitioners are encouraged to cultivate a mental image of what they're intending to do. Tracing, in the sense urged here, isn't about a scribe's copying of texts. It's about training mind and muscle memory to learn and remember what an accurate, uninterrupted, intentional line of definition and description -- whether contour or shading, hatchmarks or blending -- feels like, so that when you're not tracing, when you're working from life (or even resketching from another source), you can do the same with confidence and accuracy. Having worked through the scales, you can sight-read the sonata. It makes all those piano -- and drawing -- lessons worthwhile.

Hello, Steven.

Respectfully, I disagree. Also what we have here is a play of words. Familiarity, what is meant in other words would be so even if one is knowledgeable of the thing - be it anatomy or otherwise.

Knowledge itself of a form (anatomy for example) does not make one an artist. Understanding the choreography of line it is exactly what I am talking about. This form of practice teaches you to be familiar or to become, to a certain degree, knowledgeable of anatomy, in a limited way.

Yes, one might recall from repeated tracing attempts the curve of a line, the placement of landmarks even, shape of a feature and so on. This will help, and I agree it will help. But it will not teach the fundamentals of drawing. Tracing will not teach this, but drawing will or painting will.

You mentioned the piano; I have been playing the piano for 30 years and have taught as well. I have had those that have strong ability or training even in the reading of music, who, however, couldn't play at all. They would say they always wanted to, and even tried, but wish they had someone to teach them. Did they learn faster? Yes, in some cases they did; because they were familiar, I could go right to teaching them the fundamentals without having to teach them to read the notes in front of them. However, amazingly, they had to start just like all the rest, and learn where those notes were on the piano, and the scales, and so on. They had to go home and practice the same things the others did and were graded in the same and so on.

Also, for many years I was a Karate instructor, and have trained children, adults and even law enforcement. I used to love it when many of the teens I taught would come in thinking they already knew so much. I mean, they saw someone, or watched TV, or read a book, or saw a training video, or even had various Martial Arts magazines with step by steps in it. From this they felt they had learned so much. TRUE, they were familiar but when it came down to execution they had no concept. Point being, they had to be taught just as anyone else did and in most cases even unlearn improper techniques.

From my experience, I don't see it as a benefit, but as I said before it is my opinion - take it for what it's worth. :)

Mark

The Benefits of Tracing
 

I'm not usually one to get involved in debates but I couldn't resist this one! :sunnysmil

My mom used to put papers, pens, pencils, markers, etc. in front of my older brothers and me when we were all very young, and have us draw while she caught up on her own artwork. At first, I would draw huge heads on top of tiny bodies, and all sorts of inaccurate subjects. Luckily she had many books about drawing, 'How to Draw the Head and Hands' and other books of that nature and I began to trace the drawings from the books. My brothers tormented me for it! They even tattled on me, telling my mom I was never going to learn if I just traced. I traced and retraced heads, hands, cartoons, trees, animals, National Geographic pictures until I got them right.

By no means am I perfect at drawing today, and I am certain I never will be, but I sure did excel at it very quickly. I learned a great deal from tracing! The proportions of the face, shading, line quality, etc. By the time I was in 2nd or 3rd grade I stopped tracing and just started drawing what I could see, which was a whole new world after all that tracing and training of the eyes. My abilities had increased so much and so fast that I began creating designs for a silkscreen company at age 11. Which of course quieted the teasing of my brothers and made me very happy! :D At 16 I had my first portrait commission for a couple's 50th wedding anniversary (talk about pressure! I cried the entire time!). But I really don't believe I would have been at that point so young if it weren't for the tracing. I still have a long way to go and a whole lot to learn, but I think what I learned from tracing gave me a strong foundation to build on.

Thanks for listening, I'll step off my soap box now.