Is It Possible to Cheat at Art?
- One could debate this topic endlessly and at the end of the day, it is up to individual artist to decide if they can live with what they did that can be viewed, by some, as 'cheating'. One could take the view that if tracing will assist the artist to evolve and the viewer/buyer is happy with what they are looking at/purchasing, who has cheated? I have trained myself for several years not to judge others and am committed to win-win situations and thought. So... if the artist wins and the viewer/purchaser wins, who has cheated?
- —GraceFUL8
One Cannot Stop Progress
- I think that it is necessary to use all the possibilities the technical progress offers us. Great artists of the past used glass to draw contours of their models and cardboard with holes to transfer the resulting drawings to the canvas. Now we use camera and tracing paper for the same purpose. That is all. These are just tools saving your time and nothing else. If you work with your own reference photos in a proper way it expands your possibilities and your creativity as well. If you consider it to be a cheating yourself, then it limits your freedom, but when you consider it to be a tool then it provides new horizons of your creativity. There is a great exhibition of Ruushan Akiniyazov in Ashgabat now. He stuck his own photos to painted canvas, made photos from them processed them in Photoshop, printed and put some paint on these prints producing great abstract works. This is combination of tools from different fields but still it is Art. Time changes and the tools change with it.
- —Natalyakalugina
Wouldn't Necessarily Call it "Cheating"
- There's a balance between completing a task with efficiency and maintaining a level of discipline in your dedication to a project. Easier and better ways to speed-up and more efficiently complete tasks are always great, but unless you have a deadline, anything you're giving any time to at all really deserves your very best effort, and it never hurts to go all the way and further improve habits by pushing yourself a little more. At the end of the day, why should the necessary steps involved make or break the results of doing what you love?
- —djdk224
I Believe it is Cheating
- While, when things are not working out for you in your painting, you might feel tempted to trace a subject, I believe this is dishonest. I believe in originality, even if I never sell a painting.
- —Artylouie
Cheating at Art
- It's shortsighted and cheating oneself for artists to think that tracing photographic images is a time saving technique and the analogies with tube paints and pre-primed canvases are irrelevant. The art maker's main problem is abstracting compositions from the environment and the better way to do this is to make thumbnails in roughly the same proportions as the proposed painting. Doing thumbnails regularly trains the eye to see, the hand to draw and the mind to abstract and simplify shapes and relationships from nature. The border line and proportions of the thumbnail defines the space where this comes together to create an aesthetically pleasing composition at a scale that is easily perceived. The thumbnail practice develops the essential creator within the artist: the tracing of photographic images does not, in fact it leaves the artist worse off in the long run. Art is not about artists saving time; it's more about artists using their lifetime to fully develop their creative.
- —Guest Audley Sue Wing
Well, Depends on What You Copy
- It using any kind of tracing tool or grid cheating? Well, it depends. If the photo you are slavishly coping is not yours, ie someone else took the photo, then yes. So much of a work of art depends on the composition, that simply coping the composition of another artist, the photographer, yes that is cheating. Now, if you use these tools to copy your own work, such as a drawing or something that consists of your own composition, either to transfer it to a canvas or to scale it up, no I don't think it is cheating. I can assure you, that if the old masters had had the option, they would have used it! The key is, is it your own work or someone else's?
- —StarrpointHost01
The Ends Justify the Means
- "The Ends Justify the Means" says it all for me. However, a truly astute viewer can usually tell if tracing or projecting has been used. The result is that this will show in the finished product. With some artists drawing free hand is the only way that a figure, be it human, animal or bird will show true character or personality. With the economy the way it is today, can you really criticize an artist for trying to maximize his profit by taking short cuts. I guess what I am really trying to say is that some artists should never use short cuts while others are good enough to not let it show in the finished product. Therefore, only the quality of the finished product should be what determines whether it is acceptable, or not.
- —Guest Bud Fields
Cheating Implies Something Dishonest
- Using tools to arrange layouts in painting has been done since the beginning of artistic time. The masters used view boxes and grids to get proportions right. So, we're a bit more sophisticated with our cameras. How else are those of who don't have a photographic memory supposed to work? It's the actual painting which is creative.
- —jAlida
Cheating Art
- If you try to draw a face of a real human model without any sizer or ruler helper (like a simple pencil or your thumb and arm) to check the right proportion... wouh!! you are a exceptional artist. If you use a real frame grid or a proportional divider to make your measurements of the real model, then it's normal. If you take a photo of the real model and draw in it a grid to transfer to a canvas, it's okay too. For the same reasons, if you make a proportional xerox amplification of your model photo an use a transfer paper to transfer to a canvas, I think it's okay too.
- —Guest Jorge Ayala
Cheating At Art
- If it is good enough for watercolour artists here in the UK, Terry Harrison for instance to offer books with tracings, then it is good enough for me. As one who has designed patterns for knitting, crochet, and cross stitch, I don't consider it cheating if somebody uses my designs. So why should using a tracing be any different? I am not very good at drawing, rubbish in fact, nor do I have the time nor the inclination to learn how to draw. Lazy maybe, but life is short, I want to paint, but I also want and need to do other things. Painting, like any other hobby, to my mind should be fun, not an exercise in tearing out ones hair. I am not painting for posterity, just for my own enjoyment.
- —RosaleneW1
Yes and No
- I think, frankly, we try at times to make art into a religion, what I would call a bad sort of religion, and by that I mean legalistic. At the risk of being legalistic, let me say that's bad! I don't think it's possible, at least to my way of thinking, to cheat at how we make art. But it is possible to cheat or be dishonest at how we represent our art. Notable artist Joseph Zbukvic paints enchanting transparent watercolors on location but adds highlights of gouache white at the end of some of them. Some would call that cheating. White paint in transparent works is a big no-no. Stephen Quiller paints en plein aire but completes the painting in his studio. Some say the only good way to paint landscapes is outdoors. Fabulous daughtsman Glen Vilppu, who has instructed animation Disney artists on figure drawing says, often, "There are no rules, only tools." You're an artist, draw and paint anyway you want, but for my part I will be honest about how I go about it when asked.
- —billpolm
Nope! It's Not!
- I draw on tracing paper, so I don't mess up a pricey paper or board. After I'm sure I have what I want I trace it on. I do not trace from another's work. I like my way better.
- —Guest doolie
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
- I think some of the responses are harsh, some people may have a shaky hand, or maybe they just don't want to learn to draw. Should we say then that they shouldn't paint a beautiful picture that brings a smile to a viewer ? The reward to a creator is the finished picture. Feeling proud of something they have done. The copyright laws we must abide by, but I would encourage any of my students to do what ever they need to, to complete and be satisfied by the end result!
- —Guest Sherry Damm
No Cheating
- An artist told me that artists are liars, because they take an image from the real and remake it into something of their own. I think that is great to be an artist, it is to be a creator and artists created shortcuts like tracing, even using the traditional red powder to make holes and to trace the image onto walls was the technique used by the old artists. Artists created these methods to lay down the foundations. Once laid down, what you do with it is called art. Forgery is criminal, but remaking something done into something else is inspiration. It has taken a lot of time to figure this out for myself, but now I can create works laying down a foundation that will make the buyer happy; especially for realistic portraits.
- —Guest Bear
Yes, Be Original
- Except if you paint for a commission for a precise scene then you better take a few reference photos... But, if I am free to create what I feel, I do not need photos, I do not cheat on my own personal creativity. Well we all know that creativity comes from our memory and something that impressed our mind sometimes in our life; maybe this is why it is said that the older you get the more creative you get. I cannot copy some other artist's work because I don't want to repeat errors they have made and I would feel like a fraud... an artwork should reflect the artist's personality and be original otherwise it is just like manufacturing art.
- —gdexart
