hi! i'm an entirely self taught artist (aside from art classes in elementary-high school) and i was hoping to get clarification on tracing?
to what extent is it okay? to what extent is it not okay?
for instance, ive been working on an animatic with frames that are still outside of my skillset for now (hands + full body...) and i've had a really hard time getting the proportions right without outright tracing my references (which are either of myself or posemy.art screenshots with models i posed myself :'))
if i clarified my exact use of tracing / references in the piece would that be okay? its a fan animatic for a book.
or should i build my skills until i can draw it all myself from reference as opposed to feeling the need to outright trace most hand/full body frames to get placement/proportions right?
also: are there any other nuances to tracing? like its alright in sketches but should be redrawn fully at least once? or you should really only roughly trace (ie low detail/basic sketch for shape language and placement) over images? or am i overthinking this?
i would figure the nuances change when tracing to reinterpret a subject and tracing to most accurately represent a subject as is.
(other context: my animatic is being worked on digitally. i recently started the drawabox course to try and get my fundamentals in a better place as ik those need improvement. ive been drawing very sporadically for over a decade; primarily self taught. i am somewhat of a perfectionist 😔.)
thank you v much for your time!