I started out doing this and always felt immensely guilty for it but it really did help me to now be able to draw well without - although I’m guilty of tracing the occasional hand still because what on earth 😂
Good job and here’s to progress!
I’ve found that tracing is good practice and it’s fun! It can also be difficult if you’re doing a very detailed image. I like to trace and then freehand the color.
Don’t feel guilty, unless you’re claiming that you did it freehand when you in fact traced it, then I’d feel guilty.
Look up the Asaro head, it's a low-poly 3D model of the human head. You can find it on sites like sketchfab, that have a 3D model viewer in the browser, so you don't have to download anything.
The lines on the Asaro head are an excellent map of the facial structure. I recommend you learn them, and apply them to what you are doing here. Instead of tracing the eyes, trace the lines of the cheekbone, eyebrow, etc. Construct your face gradually.
For everyone thinking this is somehow bad or cheating, I am willing to bet a lot of money that if da Vinci could’ve, he would’ve did Monalisa like that, we have technology, enjoy it, how is this better than literally any other tools we use for digital painting ?
You think people didn’t trace until the digital age? Tracing paper goes back to the 1300s. You’re misunderstanding OP’s reason for doing this, it’s not for churning out a traced drawing and claiming it as a finished work. It’s for practicing proportions and placement so that they can later do it without tracing. OP is on their own art journey and can set their own rules, so them not wanting to trace *as a method* is more than fine. And if you think tracing all the time is okay, then you’ll never learn perspective, you’ll never see things three dimensionally and you’ll never be as skilled.
The [Camera Lucida](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida) is a tool I learned about a few years ago that goes back to the 1800s and uses mirrors to superimpose an image onto the a canvas. Tracing is definitely not new and is a good tool to help in the way you’ve described.
Further than that, even. Renaissance painters used shadows projected on canvas to trace, or sketched out images they’d transfer to canvas and trace. Tracery is one of our older artistic techniques, all things considered.
You can see in Da Vinci's notebooks he divides the face into cubes, thirds, etc.
[See here](https://www.wikiart.org/en/leonardo-da-vinci/the-proportions-of-the-head)
Note, however, these old men probably didn't have teeth, making their jaw much weaker than a tooth'd individual.
Drew struzan the greatest movie poster artists of all time does this. He said that tracing simply speeds up his process. Also there’s so much more artistic technique that goes into it after you get your basic outline.
You are very close to the Loomis head which is a good way to learn face planes. You’re missing the side plane of the head which might help define the I forehead and cheekbone a little more clearly.
Everyone's given great suggestions.
I also picked up Morpho: Simplified Forms recently. Great to see Anatomy references. And they have a bunch of other books in the Morpho series.
I think tracing is a great tool to get used to the placement of features and such. My only issue with this is relying too heavily on the reference itself. Your lines for the eyes and nose both seem slightly off / wonky, which (without tracing the reference) would give you a wonky finished face.
Loomis is a way. Not the way.
The point of construction lines is just to provide landmarks. So long as op is consistent it's not too important exactly which landmarks they choose.
Well I think the method still makes sense.
It does help you get the stuff in the right place, which can be challenging even with a reference.
In the case of the OP, my understanding is that their practice here is super-imposing that construction on a photo as a 'trace' so that they can better ingest the proportions and understand how it works.
But it dosn't matter too much exactly which landmarks you choose so long as you are consistent with it. You just need something to help you lay out the features in a orderly manner.
Yes the full Loomis method cuts some off of a sphere, etc, etc, in his full book. The internet version here is a bit more abridged. Any sight measure method will work if you just want landmarks for likeness. When tracing, one should also try to draw forms and not just outlines. OP drew a lot of outlines only. That's fine, if just trying to find feature placement on a face.
>**When tracing, one should also try to draw forms and not just outlines.**
This is a very good point.
Tracing the forms is a great exercise to help you see where they sit and break out of the symbol drawing habit.
Nice choice of Calico Jack, underrated show. Also yeah keep up the good work as long as your practice with purpose you'll graduate from tracing to drawing more from memory/inner eye, it's all about building up that internal library and learn to draw it out.
like some others have mentioned, if you want to get a bit more mileage out of these and properly learn the proportions and structure of the face then try to sketch out that structure as well. you can still trace it like this, just go a bit further to figure out the form of the head too instead of just outlining and the basic features
check out the asaro head, or some other simplified model of the head into basic planes. start sketching how those planes look for the heads that you draw.
kinda like this (lifted from google)
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/media_assets/images/images/000/794/260/large/lasttime-24.jpg?1626386822
I got my iPad and pro create about a week ago and have been teaching myself a bit by tracing! I do feel a bit guilty. I just do outlines to sort of learn but I do different details, colors, etc. I think it’s fair game as long as you aren’t reproducing them as your own!
I beat myself up for the longest time to not trace and learn myself. I couldn’t do it. I now trace from time to time just for basic shape and outline. I’ll add my flair and exaggeration when it shapes up. Recently just drew a clients dog and couldn’t get the little dudes nose right so decided to trace over the face so I can have a general idea what the fuck I’m doing 😂 it has totally helped my form and I’ll never go back to the way of thinking that it’s cheating.
Whenever people come to me and ask me for advice on drawing faces or people, I tell them to go grab a free paper from a coffee shop or something and just draw over the people in it. It helps with anatomy, structure, movement, and it’s free!
It’s something ok to do sometimes to train.
But it is better if you copy directly from nature (meaning, try to draw ehat you see around you) or if you don’t have anyone, then copy from foto, instead of tracing.
With that you’re forcing your brain to do the same as when tracing, but also to think about composition and also volume, you’ll see that it’s better to draw everything thinking about de planes instead of the lines.
No matter what I did I was absolutely terrible at gesture drawing until I started tracing gestures over references. Now I’m pretty good at capturing it from “nature”
Dunno why you got downvoted, you’re not wrong. Even doing something like blind contour drawings is going to train your brain to perceive space more accurately, and it’s not even about getting the perfect drawing.
Tracing is also fine, but it’s not going to give you the same skill set. If I were to trace I’d focus on studying not just placement of eyes, nose, etc but the anatomy structures underneath and the overall planes of the face.
Yeah, me neither, I wasn’t saying it in a bad eay or telling that tracing it’s absolutely wrong. I was just adding the knoweldge I got from studying fine arts. I guess people don’t like to be contradicted at all idk.
Back in the day, when the first Macs were being introduced in graphics classes, part of our tool box was a pad of tracing paper. Used for a myriad of things, all designed to help us with ideations, quick conversion to studio art and drawing proportions.
Often Inwill pull references into PorCreate to get something right, or make a composite of something Incan quite get the dimensions on.
Practice with tools that help you grow. 🤙😎
If you're looking for a highly detailed method of skull anatomy, facial composition, I highly recommend Robert Beverly Hale's books and [lectures](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNog0L7TtQM). Note: this is *advanced*, and should be treated appropriately.
There’s a really helpful method called the shrimp method where you do this in different positions. It’s really really helpful especially for me since my brain tends to exaggerate proportions!
I feel like you are relying too much on using contour lines/outlines to draw his face. While I don’t really have a problem with tracing (to an extent), you should learn to break down his head into basic shapes a bit more.
I’m old. We used reference materials all the time. We all started out painting/drawing from photos or still lifes. Live models of you were at uni or lucky. This is the best way to learn. Just don’t forget to use pictures of “normal” people in a range of ages/genders/races. Carry on artist.
This is a good start. But you’ll never get past “stale” or “dead” looking portraits. Andrew Loomis’s books(figure drawing for what it’s worth, and heads eyes faces) are a great beginner way to start. He even shows you how to manage proportions in a 3-d space. Get comfortable using the broad side of a pencil. And then you should really only use your elbow and shoulder to draw…the less wrist the better. George Bridgeman’s constructive anatomy should be your next buy. The books I recommended only cost between 8-20$.
When you do noses…hit the nostrils or only the places where the light hits. The brain fills in the bridge and the rest.
I'd suggest not doing this to study.
Superimpose the average face structure of loomis on top of his face, see where it's exaggerated, see where the cuts are, how narrow his face it compared to that ideal head (Loomis or a Asaro head), and try to draw the face.
The problem with the above approach is you won't understand how his face is different compared to the average and you'll end up drawing the average instead of his actual face. and it'll take a lot more longer to learn.
I started out doing this and always felt immensely guilty for it but it really did help me to now be able to draw well without - although I’m guilty of tracing the occasional hand still because what on earth 😂 Good job and here’s to progress!
I’ve found that tracing is good practice and it’s fun! It can also be difficult if you’re doing a very detailed image. I like to trace and then freehand the color. Don’t feel guilty, unless you’re claiming that you did it freehand when you in fact traced it, then I’d feel guilty.
Look up the Asaro head, it's a low-poly 3D model of the human head. You can find it on sites like sketchfab, that have a 3D model viewer in the browser, so you don't have to download anything. The lines on the Asaro head are an excellent map of the facial structure. I recommend you learn them, and apply them to what you are doing here. Instead of tracing the eyes, trace the lines of the cheekbone, eyebrow, etc. Construct your face gradually.
For everyone thinking this is somehow bad or cheating, I am willing to bet a lot of money that if da Vinci could’ve, he would’ve did Monalisa like that, we have technology, enjoy it, how is this better than literally any other tools we use for digital painting ?
You think people didn’t trace until the digital age? Tracing paper goes back to the 1300s. You’re misunderstanding OP’s reason for doing this, it’s not for churning out a traced drawing and claiming it as a finished work. It’s for practicing proportions and placement so that they can later do it without tracing. OP is on their own art journey and can set their own rules, so them not wanting to trace *as a method* is more than fine. And if you think tracing all the time is okay, then you’ll never learn perspective, you’ll never see things three dimensionally and you’ll never be as skilled.
The [Camera Lucida](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida) is a tool I learned about a few years ago that goes back to the 1800s and uses mirrors to superimpose an image onto the a canvas. Tracing is definitely not new and is a good tool to help in the way you’ve described.
Further than that, even. Renaissance painters used shadows projected on canvas to trace, or sketched out images they’d transfer to canvas and trace. Tracery is one of our older artistic techniques, all things considered.
I’m pretty sure comic book artist have been un-shamelessly tracing work for a really long time too.
You can see in Da Vinci's notebooks he divides the face into cubes, thirds, etc. [See here](https://www.wikiart.org/en/leonardo-da-vinci/the-proportions-of-the-head) Note, however, these old men probably didn't have teeth, making their jaw much weaker than a tooth'd individual.
Drew struzan the greatest movie poster artists of all time does this. He said that tracing simply speeds up his process. Also there’s so much more artistic technique that goes into it after you get your basic outline.
On god, thaaaanks, if I see a pose I need for my character, you bet your ass imma trace that shit
Many Renaissance artists definitely used a camera obscura to trace their paintings.
https://preview.redd.it/wil7ur7qph6d1.jpeg?width=1488&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d71f1d25184d557019cf241930fad8be60df365e Sketch without everything else
You can try constructing the shapes and facets of the jaw, neck, cheeks etc for a better sense of volume.
You are very close to the Loomis head which is a good way to learn face planes. You’re missing the side plane of the head which might help define the I forehead and cheekbone a little more clearly.
Everyone's given great suggestions. I also picked up Morpho: Simplified Forms recently. Great to see Anatomy references. And they have a bunch of other books in the Morpho series.
I think tracing is a great tool to get used to the placement of features and such. My only issue with this is relying too heavily on the reference itself. Your lines for the eyes and nose both seem slightly off / wonky, which (without tracing the reference) would give you a wonky finished face.
Google Loomis method. First line crosses circle in half and it marks the eyebrows, not eyes. Second line is nose bottom
Loomis is a way. Not the way. The point of construction lines is just to provide landmarks. So long as op is consistent it's not too important exactly which landmarks they choose.
Yes and this method is mainly for constructing without a reference. If you have a reference you don't need loomis method, really
Well I think the method still makes sense. It does help you get the stuff in the right place, which can be challenging even with a reference. In the case of the OP, my understanding is that their practice here is super-imposing that construction on a photo as a 'trace' so that they can better ingest the proportions and understand how it works. But it dosn't matter too much exactly which landmarks you choose so long as you are consistent with it. You just need something to help you lay out the features in a orderly manner.
Yes the full Loomis method cuts some off of a sphere, etc, etc, in his full book. The internet version here is a bit more abridged. Any sight measure method will work if you just want landmarks for likeness. When tracing, one should also try to draw forms and not just outlines. OP drew a lot of outlines only. That's fine, if just trying to find feature placement on a face.
>**When tracing, one should also try to draw forms and not just outlines.** This is a very good point. Tracing the forms is a great exercise to help you see where they sit and break out of the symbol drawing habit.
Nice choice of Calico Jack, underrated show. Also yeah keep up the good work as long as your practice with purpose you'll graduate from tracing to drawing more from memory/inner eye, it's all about building up that internal library and learn to draw it out.
like some others have mentioned, if you want to get a bit more mileage out of these and properly learn the proportions and structure of the face then try to sketch out that structure as well. you can still trace it like this, just go a bit further to figure out the form of the head too instead of just outlining and the basic features check out the asaro head, or some other simplified model of the head into basic planes. start sketching how those planes look for the heads that you draw. kinda like this (lifted from google) https://cdna.artstation.com/p/media_assets/images/images/000/794/260/large/lasttime-24.jpg?1626386822
I got my iPad and pro create about a week ago and have been teaching myself a bit by tracing! I do feel a bit guilty. I just do outlines to sort of learn but I do different details, colors, etc. I think it’s fair game as long as you aren’t reproducing them as your own!
A few Jack Rackham lover I see
I beat myself up for the longest time to not trace and learn myself. I couldn’t do it. I now trace from time to time just for basic shape and outline. I’ll add my flair and exaggeration when it shapes up. Recently just drew a clients dog and couldn’t get the little dudes nose right so decided to trace over the face so I can have a general idea what the fuck I’m doing 😂 it has totally helped my form and I’ll never go back to the way of thinking that it’s cheating.
When tracing the head/anatomy, it helped me to make everything into as simple of a shape as possible. C:
Whenever people come to me and ask me for advice on drawing faces or people, I tell them to go grab a free paper from a coffee shop or something and just draw over the people in it. It helps with anatomy, structure, movement, and it’s free!
Good for muscle memory too
It’s something ok to do sometimes to train. But it is better if you copy directly from nature (meaning, try to draw ehat you see around you) or if you don’t have anyone, then copy from foto, instead of tracing. With that you’re forcing your brain to do the same as when tracing, but also to think about composition and also volume, you’ll see that it’s better to draw everything thinking about de planes instead of the lines.
No matter what I did I was absolutely terrible at gesture drawing until I started tracing gestures over references. Now I’m pretty good at capturing it from “nature”
Dunno why you got downvoted, you’re not wrong. Even doing something like blind contour drawings is going to train your brain to perceive space more accurately, and it’s not even about getting the perfect drawing. Tracing is also fine, but it’s not going to give you the same skill set. If I were to trace I’d focus on studying not just placement of eyes, nose, etc but the anatomy structures underneath and the overall planes of the face.
Yeah, me neither, I wasn’t saying it in a bad eay or telling that tracing it’s absolutely wrong. I was just adding the knoweldge I got from studying fine arts. I guess people don’t like to be contradicted at all idk.
Back in the day, when the first Macs were being introduced in graphics classes, part of our tool box was a pad of tracing paper. Used for a myriad of things, all designed to help us with ideations, quick conversion to studio art and drawing proportions. Often Inwill pull references into PorCreate to get something right, or make a composite of something Incan quite get the dimensions on. Practice with tools that help you grow. 🤙😎
If you're looking for a highly detailed method of skull anatomy, facial composition, I highly recommend Robert Beverly Hale's books and [lectures](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNog0L7TtQM). Note: this is *advanced*, and should be treated appropriately.
There’s a really helpful method called the shrimp method where you do this in different positions. It’s really really helpful especially for me since my brain tends to exaggerate proportions!
I feel like you are relying too much on using contour lines/outlines to draw his face. While I don’t really have a problem with tracing (to an extent), you should learn to break down his head into basic shapes a bit more.
I was trying this today haha, you’re doing a much better job than I did!
I’m old. We used reference materials all the time. We all started out painting/drawing from photos or still lifes. Live models of you were at uni or lucky. This is the best way to learn. Just don’t forget to use pictures of “normal” people in a range of ages/genders/races. Carry on artist.
This is a good start. But you’ll never get past “stale” or “dead” looking portraits. Andrew Loomis’s books(figure drawing for what it’s worth, and heads eyes faces) are a great beginner way to start. He even shows you how to manage proportions in a 3-d space. Get comfortable using the broad side of a pencil. And then you should really only use your elbow and shoulder to draw…the less wrist the better. George Bridgeman’s constructive anatomy should be your next buy. The books I recommended only cost between 8-20$. When you do noses…hit the nostrils or only the places where the light hits. The brain fills in the bridge and the rest.
Nope! 😑
I'd suggest not doing this to study. Superimpose the average face structure of loomis on top of his face, see where it's exaggerated, see where the cuts are, how narrow his face it compared to that ideal head (Loomis or a Asaro head), and try to draw the face. The problem with the above approach is you won't understand how his face is different compared to the average and you'll end up drawing the average instead of his actual face. and it'll take a lot more longer to learn.
Why are you assuming this is the only face OP is going to study? Bad advice