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The Joys of Tracing
Oct. 11th, 2016 12:05 amAfter drawing stuff for longer than I can remember, I have finally discovered the joys of tracing.
Just my own stuff for now, mind, but I might use official art and photographs for reference in the future.
The thing about tracing that I didn't understand until just recently, is that it's essentially a more efficient way to erase things. I get a pencil draft down on paper, there's messy lines everywhere, I plop another piece of paper down over it, and boom! Only keep the lines I want to keep, no more worries about ripping or bending paper from erasing too hard, no more worries about smudges, just moving my art to a clean work space.
Obviously this only works for certain types of paper, and I imagine that a lot of people are already doing this electronically with this "layers" thing I keep hearing about, but I've always loved pencil-and-paper and definitely appreciate the new directions this is giving me.
Here's some examples, so you can see what I'm talking about; the Tumblr posts include image descriptions.
Whisper Hair: Draft | Final | Post on Tumblr
Pokemon Professor Holtzmann: Draft | Final | Post on Tumblr
I seriously wish I'd thought of doing this when I first drew the Violin Dragon. I might try it anyway; I think I still have the original pencil drawing, and if not, there's always printers.
Anyway! This totally beats out my previous understanding of tracing, which was just, "Use tracing to replicate something and move it elsewhere. Also, tracing paper exists." Bo-ring! This is much more useful. I may finally get some good use out of my lightbox.
Just my own stuff for now, mind, but I might use official art and photographs for reference in the future.
The thing about tracing that I didn't understand until just recently, is that it's essentially a more efficient way to erase things. I get a pencil draft down on paper, there's messy lines everywhere, I plop another piece of paper down over it, and boom! Only keep the lines I want to keep, no more worries about ripping or bending paper from erasing too hard, no more worries about smudges, just moving my art to a clean work space.
Obviously this only works for certain types of paper, and I imagine that a lot of people are already doing this electronically with this "layers" thing I keep hearing about, but I've always loved pencil-and-paper and definitely appreciate the new directions this is giving me.
Here's some examples, so you can see what I'm talking about; the Tumblr posts include image descriptions.
Whisper Hair: Draft | Final | Post on Tumblr
Pokemon Professor Holtzmann: Draft | Final | Post on Tumblr
I seriously wish I'd thought of doing this when I first drew the Violin Dragon. I might try it anyway; I think I still have the original pencil drawing, and if not, there's always printers.
Anyway! This totally beats out my previous understanding of tracing, which was just, "Use tracing to replicate something and move it elsewhere. Also, tracing paper exists." Bo-ring! This is much more useful. I may finally get some good use out of my lightbox.
