[Karin Wells]

Beginners SHOULD trace in order to learn. Life is short - so why suffer when you are learning to draw? Art is supposed to be fun.

OK...so shoot me....I hate to see people suffer and fail. My advice for all beginners who think they might have a little talent and want to "jump into" art and learn to draw in as short a time as possible is to TRACE.

It is a little like "training wheels." Beginners should trace the drawings (and sometimes the paintings) of the Old Masters. After all, you might as well learn from the best. I can't think of a better way to learn how to draw (fast, easy and accurate).

Drawing is basically just training the hand to accurately respond to what the eye can see. The more you do it, the better you get. If you trace the old masters, you will get a feel for their greatness.

Tracing gives you positive results. Making all your old mistakes over and over again teaches you nothing, is frustrating and makes for giving up too soon.

For example, a person who is learning to play the piano isn't asked to invent music in order to learn...they are given exercises and asked to follow the music written by those masters who have gone before. Oftentimes, playing this music is simply enough to give them pleasure and is all the farther they will go with it. But sometimes, a student has a little "extra special something" and goes on to compose his or her own beautiful music.

Learning to draw is both time consuming and expensive (i.e., model fees, classes, etc.) and if you didn't go to art school as a youth, you probably missed the opportunity of spending a few years learning to draw the hard way. I contend that tracing is an inexpensive and fast teacher...my students learn to draw much faster this way than I did the hard way.

I am NOT suggesting that if one traces, they fib and claim the resulting work as original. I do NOT suggest that tracing a photograph (most especially a bad one) is a good way to learn much of anything.

At some point, tracing becomes a bore and when the sudent has had enough of it, drawing on their own becomes much faster, easier and a joy. This is the time to start drawing that which is in front of you.

I encourage every beginner (and those who may be classified as "mediocre" and want to improve) to consider this unorthodox method. Whoever reads this and wants to learn to draw, I say TRACE....but be careful who you tell. The purists are harsh judges. They will say that you cheated, and they will be very angry that you didn't "suffer enough" and do it the hard way. (Some of those "purists" still can't draw very well - even when they have suffered mightily for years and paid their dues by doing it "the right way"). Sometimes I wonder if they just don't want others to get ahead of them...

Also...painting is simply drawing with a brush....it gets really easy when you know how to draw. Good luck guys...the world needs more good artists.