Transferring what you see

We've now entered the next part of the process, where we finally get stuff transferred onto our canvas! Before we get too far into this, we must make a decision that is pretty important: exactly how are we going to transfer this information? There's a topic that I need to bring up right about now, as there's been an intense stigma around this topic for generations.

What could I be referring to? Well, in Chapter 5, Implementing Layer Blending Modes, we discussed the use of references in varying capacities. We even mentioned a little word, a dirty word, that may have captured your attention or caused wide-eyed gasps: tracing.

Tracing isn't cheating

The idea that tracing is "cheating" is an art stigma thing that I have some strong opinions about. In my opinion, to put it simply, tracing is not cheating. Now, this does have some caveats, and they deal with artist intent. Can relying on tracing slow your artistic growth regarding...