Is it cheating to trace?

Nope. Tracing is a tool, and if you can’t draw, tracing won’t solve the problem.

Yesterday, I said that we often trace the main shapes first, and then draw by looking at the tracing. If you look at the photo, there are many distracting details. If you get the skeleton of the picture on the page first, then you know the details will fit inside.

Rosemary took photos of this giraffe, and then we cropped it down to the essentials. She is now ready to copy the shapes on the tracing.

A tracing is no guarantee of accuracy. I can see that the head-knob (what are those things??) on our right isn’t just like the photo.

The tracing is a starting point. Many corrections happen throughout the entire process. Rosemary will look at this tracing in every direction, evaluating the shapes around the giraffe rather than just the giraffe itself. (In Artspeak, that is called “negative space”, in case you were wondering if I know the real term.)

You can be fast or you can be good. Rosemary is good. This giraffe will be wonderful, because that is how she draws!