Why Didn’t I Trace?

Someone asked in response to my recent Elora newsletter why I didn’t project the reference photo and trace it straight onto the surface.

It sure would be a lot faster, wouldn’t it! But would it have made me as fulfilled? And would I have learned as much? Probably not. That’s all it comes down to, really.

There’s nothing wrong with tracing. But it does take your judgment out of it. It’s like bowling with the bumper rails up.

It’s certainly a good option if you only want to work on your use of color and brushwork. Projecting and tracing could get you to the fun color work a lot faster and with an accurate foundation to work with. But if you want to improve your drawing ability as well, then I suggest against tracing. It will only hinder you in the long run.

If I were a more experienced and skilled artist, I would not even have relied so heavily on grids. I only did so in this case to ensure accuracy, as it is my daughter and it must be accurate for it to work. But even with the grids, I still had to use a fair bit of judgment with the drawing.

Kind regards

Dan Scott

Draw Paint Academy