The Importance of Tracing

In drawing, there are two things that all good artists do and that is that they trace and that they reference. When you trace, you're starting to see for the first time. But tracing forces you to follow a pathway which feels like copying. It feels wrong because you've been told it's wrong. You haven't really seen a tree. Look around you. Trees aren't brown. They don't have brown backs. Now that comes from tracing. There's nothing wrong with it. What you're learning to do is to see.