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AquaSixio — Tutorial 14 Photoref to make the difference
Published: 2012-02-22 21:12:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 130415; Favourites: 4289; Downloads: 7776
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FACEBOOK FANPAGE | TUMBLR | TWITTER[EDIT] Just for information, what you called " tracing " (step 3.1.2) take me ... 2 minutes of work.
There is more than 25 hours of painting after, without "use" the photoreference, as explained in... the tutorial... just read[/EDIT]
En FRANCAIS !!!
Tutoriel #14 : Photo reference
Some WIPs :
Tutorial #16 : Shades
Tutorial #15 : Adjustment Layers
Tutorial #14 : Photo-referencing
Tutorial #13 : Water
Tutorial #12 : Creativity
Tutorial #11 : Three textures
Tutorial #10 : Color
Tutorial #9 : Layer
Tutorial #8 : Cloud 2
Tutorial #7 : Arround a drawing 3
Tutorial #6 : Brush
Tutorial #5 : Arround a drawing 2
Tutorial #4 : Arround a drawing 1
Tutorial #3 : Light and shadow
Tutorial #2 : Cloud 1
Retrospection 2004 - 2012
Retrospection 2004 - 2007
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Comments: 823
thanks a lot bro.. but it's too difficult..
do u have any other tutorial ?
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it's ok.. don't say sorry bro.. 
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photo refrences are a great way to improve, but the truth is I don't really believe in tracing. Anyway, tracing the basic lines is okay. But I can tell you that I learn in a school of arts, and we have digital art class. The teacher want we will copy the entire picture. I never do that, and I think your tutorial is great anyhow, but I don't know, I just felt like I need to share what I think about that. ^^'
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Thank you for sharing you opinion
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The truth is, I wonder what's so ~bad~ about tracing. Sure, it's not completely your own work, but is /anything/ really original? It's not like people can copyright children standing in the snow =/
I personally don't trace things, but I don't have a problem with those who do, and the artist here is really talented ^^ And the layers of color is a unique idea to me; I might have to try that.
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Thank you for shring your opinion ^^
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You better throw away all of your rulers, straight edges, French Curves, and string too... whatever an artist uses to achieve their illusion is THEIR f%$#N way.
Professionals Use Tools. I can draw a perfect circle, sometimes even on the first attempt, but why would I NOT use something round within arms reach nearby to get my circle faster so I can move past the form.
I can't believe I'm still even here writing this... I got better stuff to do with my time....so if you are reading this right now..... 
make better use of your time.
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Your acetous words, like the other sour comments, confirm this tutorial is really really important
As for me, I used to be fine after vomiting !
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This is beautiful, i love all you tutorials i have been reading them for the past hour at work; makes me really want to draw.
I saw your edit of people calling it "tracing" you can copyright the human body.
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Thank you for your support !
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This is more or less the way I allready do it
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Well i think this looks amazing and also your art is so beautiful, this is a great tutorial, so thank you
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I dont understand also why so many people are having a go about you tracing, you are hardly completely copying the picture just simply using a picture to help you get the look of something right, as it is extremely hard to draw a person just from imagination !! I cant understand why people are so against using references and tracing !
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Thank you, I am glad to read your approach of art and don't worry about all these violent messages, I don't mind
Thank you again, don't give up what you do, you too
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I mean not haha XD Sorry
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You too ! They are just a minority of peoples opinions now facts
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Explain.
And regardless, the "minority" is incorrectly accusing Aquasixio of tracing, which it is not.
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All questions of copyright/plagiarism/copying/good/bad/whatever aside, when you put a new layer on top of an image and then draw on top of it as a guide -- like Aqua drew the outline of the pose here -- that is tracing. It doesn't have to be line-for-line. Just the fact that you copied any part of the image by drawing on top of it on a new transparent layer means that part was traced. Even if you're doing it with your own image -- like an illustrator creating the final line work on top of their own rough sketch -- it's tracing.
I don't understand why the act of tracing is so hazy for some people. It's a pretty straight-forward concept.
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Explain what ?
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It's not a line-for-line copy; it's a recreation/interpretation of a photo reference. The photo and Aquasixio's drawing are similar, but that is it.
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Do you know what I am so glad I found you. I do something very similar to you, I love drawing and have done since I was a child, but I too never attended art school but wanted to learn anatomy etc, so when I see a picture I like, so teach myself anatomy and shapes I put the image underneath and trace it, then draw in the skeleton and colour it all myself based on the picture, though my aim is to make it look as much like the original as I can with the colouring as practise. Once I have done this a few times I feel confident to do my OWN pictures rather than using references and tracing the outline.
But I sometimes get accused to copy and pasting my work and that I havent actually done it myself, when I hve spend hours, sometimes days of hard work doing the picture myself and it really upsets me that people think I simply copy and pasted it from screenshots etc 
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Your tutorials were only now brought to my attention, and this one appears to have far too much drama attached.
First, I want to say your work is amazing, your use of colors and the surreal environments you create are inspiring.
Second, to offer my thoughts on this tutorial;
Everyone starts somewhere. You did not encourage anyone to trace, merely showed how you did it. To me this is part of the learning process.
When you have no idea how to build a form, even with a perfect reference, what are you supposed to do? Many kids learn to draw by tracing. Not line for line, just basic forms (like you've done here). Just to get a feel for their tools, how to move their hands to make those shapes. It's a very important step for a lot of artists.
Most I've seen who begin this way quickly drop it when they're comfortable with their hands. Whatever works to help someone learn is the best way for that person.
All you did was borrow a basic form. You've grown beyond this method since, and your work is all the better for it. I'm betting you would not be where you are now without this small step in your learning. And there is no shame in that. = )
As an aside; There are far more shameful uses of tracing by professionals in the comics industry.
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It's really nice to read your point of view !
You get it, everyone starts somewhere and the " tracing " isn't the startpoint ! In the world, I borrow moods, forms, sounds, songs, lyrics, .... and something happens
Now, I used to make video, it helps to understand how I process : [link]
thank you again for sharing your opinion and happy new year
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I don't know why people are complaining about tracing and such. If it's done purely for practicing purposes, there's no harm done. Photoshop's not easiest program in the world for some and hell you gotta start some where*
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This is helpful and I'm sorry you had to go through a lot of some not appropriate comments. I understand that when people see this, they immediately point out that it's tracing which is true to an extent. To me, I don't feel this is completely tracing because you don't copy the whole picture. You use the outline of the boy to get the position you want, but that was it and it wasn't a complete copy of the boy's outline. You changed parts of it to fit your needs. Though I agree that looking at a photo instead of simply drawing over it would have been better, but I used to have issues with that because I felt that wasn't wrong to use refrence pictures. 
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I do love your art, and of course there's so much more to just the actual getting the subject (particularly the whole colors inspires me), but... I mean, I'm really on the fence about this. I feel like actually drawing it out from scratch while looking at a photo would be referencing (actually having to get down the proportions, outlines, etc.). However, unfortunately, I would have to agree that this is pretty much tracing. Even if it's not line for line, you're still... I mean, it's still tracing pretty much. I don't really know any other way to put it. I'm not going to make a huge deal like some others. I'll still watch you and admire your art, because like I said, there's still so much more than just the subject. However, I will admit that this does sort of take away a bit of what I see now and I am a bit disappointed...
~Toki-chan
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Hello Toki
Like I replied to a lot of persons, I understand all the reactions about this tuto, sincerely
It won't change the fact the building a tutorial it's a hard exercice... But finally, explaining how I work is more fair in video : [link] [link]
But, thank you for sharing your point on view on this tuto
Have a nice day !
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You shouldn't be encouraging artists to trace. When I saw your artwork I thought it was amazing, but seeing this tutorial completely demolishes that. I don't deny you are talented, but it's just something about this 'cheating' that puts me off. You could have just as easily sketched out that drawing without tracing, couldn't you? To me this just shows you aren't fully developed as an artist, and should seriously consider classes to better your skills and not be so dependent on reference images..
True artists are those who crate masterpieces not from tracing / heavily referencing, but from pure imagination and knowledge
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Referencing is good only to practice, you should keep them at minimum, and only on certain occasions to create.
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Actually, this tutorial is precious because there is a big polemic, a big drama arround it. I have been insulted, discredited and threated. It was really violent.
But I will never delete it or change what I wrote. I don't believe tracing allows to give a " soul " to a painting. I don't promote tracing. I work on the " emotions ", tracing is a cold and uninteresting work.
Thanks to this drama, I dare to make video [link] [link] [link] and today, I really enjoy this way to " share " the birth of a painting
Everybody needs to be hurt to grow !
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That is terrific, I'm glad you have learned from this. You have a very humble attitude, and that's nice to see.
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aww i love it. helpful, helpful, helpful !!
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That's really helpful o.o
Cool thing
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So many jealous luddites around here.
Luckily you were never their student, so they could not steal the 'music' out of you man.
Keep up this wonderful work.
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Aqua is indeed skilled when it comes to painting things, but balking at the fact that he's encouraging young artists to trace photos they don't own isn't jealousy, nor is it "stealing the music out of him". It's pointing out an artistic crutch and the perpetuation of the incorrect notion that tracing and referencing are the same thing.
Discouraging the use of process crutches like tracing is the OPPOSITE of "stealing the music" since having crutches like that hinders creativity in the first place since it limits you to only drawing what you can find photos of.
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I love aqua, but I agree with you, what I think is: aqua is skilled enough to do that, he can perfectly draw and paint, but someone less talented, or with less practice, could trace the whole picture and then add a poor coloring (sorry, maybe you don't give a damn about this... I just red your commentm and wanted to say it 
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Yesterday somebody replied to a comment I made here a few months ago, hun, and I came here to see what the conversation originally was. That's why I'm here again, not that it actually matters.
Everyone who has voiced concerns over the bad habits he's teaching young artists aren't jealous of anything. It's silly to say they are.
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I have to admit this does make me kind of sad seeing this tutorial. I really really love your work and it has inspired me greatly in many of my not so brilliant attempts at digital paintings like this (none of which I've put up for good reason). However, one of the reasons I haven't put any up is because my best works so far are one's of which I have traced some of a reference for. In my mind there's just something not right in doing so. Something that really bothered me in highschool was the number of people in my art class that would use the projector to trace out images (not their own) onto their paper or canvas and then would simply modify this to create their artwork. One of the biggest struggle as an artist is getting all your proportions right and it always drove me crazy that I would spend hours trying to perfect mine while they would trace things in a matter of minuits. In fact over the past year this has been what I've been trying to master with the inspiration of you're work and your other tutorials with the dream of some day being able to compose images like your's but of things I imagine. To me it's not about whether or not you have the skill to sketch it yourself. It's about putting your full two bits into your piece of artwork. That being said while I don't think it's great to trace things I don't think it's totally WRONG so long as you go about it the right way. Crediting someone who's work or picture you've used or referenced is the most important. If someone was using my artwork I would like to think they would let me know they were doing so. Partly, because they're using something technically they and I have worked on so we should both be credited and partly because I would like to get to see what they have created from my work. I'm still in great admiration of this guys artwork and can see he really does have loads of talent. I just think he could do better than working off other people's stuff without their knowledge.
This all being said......the biggest issue I have with people using references is when they use full blown pieces of artwork as "references" and essentially copy chunks out of them. There was a guy at my school doing this and everyone thought he was such a good artist. He drew lots of dragons that looked so well designed....well, I suck at drawing dragons but I love looking at other people's work of them and I imediately recognized that 95% of them were neon dragon peffer's works and some from the practical guide to dragons or something. HE HAS BEEN SELLING THESE ROUGH SKETCHES OF OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK!
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Thank you for sharing your opinion, it was really interesting to see how you think the reference use
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Great tutorial
I have just begin using digital media for my artworks, and it is curius but I have also done the tracing stuff with a referece image on photoshop XD
(but I don't have patience or time to finish my work properly...)
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