illustration = tracing
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- ovalle
hey this might provoke fights and bitching ,, but what else is NT good for... anwyays..
when i go see portfolios of designers now days, they all claim to do illustration using freehand or illustrator, alot of these so called illustrations are beautiful and detailed while some remain very minimal which is equally great. however i get confused by the terms when many of these illustrators describe their process, claiming they trace their photos of portraits to landscapes, to make these so called illustrations?
so in actually arent they just tracers? not really illustrators? i hope i can get some serious feedback on this.. maybe someone can tell me the difference since i am not sure what it is.. thanks in advance.. and if this has been discussed already sorry for the post then.
- john0
I wonder who will make the first Chasing Amy reference?
Oh wait... damn.
- latinlyngo0
fuck tracing. how about making something that does not already exist, and paying hommage to respected shit is a lie.
- JohnDoe0
John I think you beat me to it.
- ovalle0
you did, and i thought baout that when i wrote this... it was actually inker right?
- o0o0
I don't think illustration excludes tracing. Illustration is just creating an image somehow. Doesn't matter what technique you use.
That said, tracing is really really easy. It's a cheap trick, basically, you get impressive results with minimal effort. It's been used a lot, so it will die out soon, I think...
- john0
seems perfectly legit to me if their involved in the majority of the process, including composing and taking the photos they 'trace'
- ok_static0
Tracing I think is only part of it, equals to sketching.
- dopepope0
I've thought about this too.
Yeah...the technique is tracing. but the skills aquired as an actual illustrator would make for a better tracer. But a chimp could trace too. I guess a true illustrator may feel that they can very well draw the image or just realize the image faster by tracing. The result is the same. Are they NOT illustrators then if they trace? Must they draw the image EXACTLY to be a true illustrator?
- brooke0
I am not a tracer.
I am a renderer. :)
- john0
God gave me a gift... I outline well!
- dopepope0
see...right here is the problem. TRACER as a word is insulting.
so what ever new word we decide to use...the technique is essentially the same.
- ovalle0
my background is in architecture for over six years, and i have been drawing well before that as a child, anyways.. i guess coming from an architectural background i can understand the process and importance of setting up a drawing and the ability to do freehand drawings, but i think one cant or maybe shouldnt call themselves an illustrator if it is actually tracing an image is actaully what they are doing, and i dont think there is anything wrong with tracing either... i guess i just dont see what people call themselves tracers if infact that is what they are doing... does that make sense?
- john0
- dopepope0
if all one does is trace EVERY time they do an 'illustration'and it exhibits nothing further than that mere tracing, then they shouldn't really be called illustrators. But ILLUSTRATOR is extremely vague as a label. What if the illustrator is good at one style but admires the creative potential of what tracing can contribute to a knew piece...are they now TRACERS?
- ovalle0
doperope, i guess you can be onto something... maybe the word tracer has a bad connotation so it does sounds insulting,, but i find it interesting that mnay desingers process and end result is in fact tracing with of course their implented skill of adding their own style ..
- Bluejam0
Illustration.
It's all about the placement of the pen and the strokes you make.
Tracing.
Masquerading the above through necessity and self satisfaction.
- brooke0
So what do you consider me? Yes, I render photos. But I also render photos that I've personally taken, hand drawings, etc. Sometimes I even start from scratch. And I always add a little extra something to each piece. So what am I?
- ok_static0
qué? brooke usted es reno?
- arlo0
Creating a drawing by drawing over an existing image directly commands a lot less respect than translating what you see in reality into 2D.
- brooke0
Reindeer?