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jollyjack — Tracing gets you nowhere.
Published: 2014-10-20 16:23:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 50821; Favourites: 336; Downloads: 0
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Description
I remember when I was a kid, I'd record Saturday morning cartoons, play them back, pause the image, put a piece of paper over the screen and trace my favourite characters.Now this was really hard in the VHS era, because a paused image on a VHS is usually either broken up or shakes so much that you’ll have some kind of fit if you look at it too long, it depended on how cheap and sh*tty your machine was.
But I worked really hard at it, man. I spent ages getting the linework just right, I was so careful, and when I peeled the page from the static cling of the bulbous, cathode ray tube screen, the character looked exactly right on the page. And you wanna know what I took away from that endeavour? What all that effort taught me?
Jack f**king sh*t.
You don’t pick up or develop any skills by tracing. You don’t devise and perfect your own methods by tracing. You do not progress as an artist by tracing. All you get is a loss of credibility, especially in this day and age, because even if you rip off the work of a lesser-known, hack-cartoonist like me, someone’s gonna spot it and call you out.
Really?
REALLY?!
F**KING REALLY?!
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Comments: 971
The last two images aren't visible but he didn't trace your work. I know he used to, however he's only referenced it
and he's genuinely doing his own art now and giving credit to the original artist's work if he does use that reference.
He was using your art for a reference in anatomy and that's it but have a look at this:
www.funnyjunk.com/I+done+goof+…
He's posted the same journal on DeviantArt too:
gear-boy.deviantart.com/journa…
The lesson has been learnt, he's owning up to his past mistakes from tracing and he's done his own art while using
some referenced from others sometimes.
Continuing to point hatred at someone who's already realised: "Hey what I'm doing is wrong, I'll apologise and draw
my own art." is a petty thing to do.
I understand you're angry that someone used your art to help make theirs, I would be angry too but have you talked
to him? He's genuinely sorry for the art that he's traced and he hasn't traced in two months.
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He did trace you fucking moron. He traced from both Jollyjack and Jaltoid. I know this dickhead, he also defends himself with an alternate account. He even forgot to log into his alt and told someone he'd slit his throat. He then subsequently cried for Patreon money. Gearboy is honestly talentless scum
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You do realise the date I posted that right? That whole ordeal
has been dead a very long time, so I don't know why you're
bringing it up or why you're being incredibly rude over something
that was already dealt with a very long time ago.
You really should check the dates of posts(especially ones of this
topic) before barging in, because that's how pointless fights are
caused by people not checking the dates. I've made the same
mistake myself and I'm telling you this so you don't repeat it.
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He's so sorry that he's neither removed the offending images, nor edited the description to mention that he traced the images or point people toward the work he traced it from, and he disabled the comments to ensure no one could see the myriad of messages from other people highlighting those facts.
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Do you mean the journal because the comments are enabled on that. He's owned up to the mistake and
he hasn't traced anything in 2 months, not many former art thieves or tracers would do that.
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Well, no. If I was talking about a journal entry I would have said "journal entry" not "image".
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Well can you provide a link to the deviation where he's disabled the comments?
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They are similar but definitely not traced. The anatomy
and body shapes are different. He's only referenced your character's
pose and nothing else.
Have a look at this:
www.funnyjunk.com/I+done+goof+…
In the past he used to trace, yes but he doesn't anymore. As I said, he
hasn't in two months and if you scroll down to his GIF, it shows how he
references from the original drawing.
If he's done an identical trace, you'd definitely tell right away because all
of the lines would be perfectly matched to the original's body.
Here, he's only referenced your drawing and since a lot of people are
attacking him from something he's already admitted to and stopped
doing, I don't blame him.
The arms are posed differently, the chests are different, the width of the
waists are different, the creases on her socks are different plus the tails
are also different.
This is a big problem with former tracers that others automatically assume
it's traced instead of having a look and recognizing something that's referenced
instead of traced.
An example, is someone is drawing fan art of a character who has an iconic pose,
let's say Sailor Moon or DragonBall Z. They have iconic poses that thousands of
people will draw them in as close as they can to the original. They're using an
image from a video or online as a reference, the exact same thing was done for
your drawing here.
If you're still upset I can ask him to enable comments but if he doesn't want to,
that's his choice.
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Be it partial or its entirety: a trace is a trace. I've overlayed the two images myself in photoshop. They match perfectly.
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No they don't. I can tell that from just looking at it.
If they matched perfectly, the poses would be exactly
the same. The Chests would be the same size and shape.
The tails would be identical.
Besides, this happened over 2 years ago, why is everyone
bringing this up now when he's stop tracing?
That's the point of calling out art thieves and tracers, isn't it?
To get them to stop and realise what they've done is wrong?
That's exactly what's happened. He hasn't traced in over 2 years,
the lesson has been learnt. People are just digging up dead news now.
He's used your image as a reference and yes when people do that to
such an extreme it will look like the original but it's not identical, that
can be seen from just looking at it.
If I were to try and have a go at drawing such a "curvy" figure as one
of your characters, I would need a reference, wouldn't I? So naturally
I would look at some images to see how theirs is drawn and try to
draw the anatomy as closely as I could to the original, then later
apply that technique to any original drawings I would do in the future.
It's the same if I wanted to learn how to draw a cat, or a car or a tree,
I would find either a photo or the actual item and sketch it as closely
as I could to what I'm seeing and the same's been done on his drawing.
That's what Gear-Boy has done here. Have a look at his gallery:
gear-boy.deviantart.com/galler…
He may have traced in the past but he used your art as a reference and
he's now creating his own art. He's no longer tracing and he's given
credit to any references he used, isn't that good enough?
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You're the one who brought it back up!
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Sorry they're bothering you about this. I don't know why it's so hard for people to understand the difference between tracing and inspiration or reference.
I know a trace is a trace. I have friends who are in art professionally, I know first hand what tracing is. He is tracing.
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Actually I'm only here because someone filed a report and brought it
to my attention. Based on the earlier comments and user's activity,
it looked like this was ongoing, despite the original date's submission.
If this has already been sorted, then I'm not needed here, I apologise
for the inconvenience and have a nice day.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
so wait...he already apologised to you and everyone. and it's not even line for line tracing. he just referenced your work without giving credit. Your work is good but are you so full of yourself you can't appreciate that an admirer wants to learn to draw as good as you some day? he didn't make any profit off your work neither did he hurt your reputation in any way yet you sent your followers to harass and spam his profile??
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So wait... you're a moron?
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He was tracing he work of others on commissions he accepted payment for. This is all old news and was mentioned a long time ago.
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i don't understand how people think this isn't traced. it is SO CLEARLY traced.
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can you show me these commissions he's made money off of?
and if this is old news and the matter is resolved why do you still have your journal up? After reading past the spam of your followers comments I eventually found your discussion with Gear-Boy. It seems he's already "removed the offending posts", why haven't you?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
why should he have to delete something if the offender didn't even delete?
sorry, but no. the original artist would know if their art is traced or not.
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ah yes the famous spammer who's been harassing gearboy with all her alt accounts. You really have no shame do you?
I've noticed that he has deleted all controversial art he's posted, the reason he hasn't taken down the bikini contest however is because it's the only one he could prove he drew with his speed paint video. Heck, maybe everything else was drawn all by him too, he just referenced poses without giving credit.
everyone has there own method of learning but what bothers me is when a role model shuts down and publicly humiliates a fan for simply trying to learn to draw like him. Even after he had learned his lesson (seeing as he now links references in his descriptions), he still gets berated by users like you for...what? Referencing too much? Even though they're giving credit? (yes I saw your post before you took it down) people like you really make me sick.
Lying and half-truths will 'get you nowhere' mimiilop. hiding behind an alt account, spamming people's profiles and making bullshit journals is a new level LOW.
"now that drama is over, i just sort of want a break from all my accounts 
oh and good job blocking me, really says a lot about you and you know...gives you like 0 credibility as to what you say from now on
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If I can lay one image over the other and line them up perfectly: it's a trace.
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Maybe some specific parts are traced, but things like the hair, the ruffled of the socks, the lace in the pants are all protruding past the lines of the original. Also the arm of the original man is straight while the colored one is bent, his hand is different, his hips are wider and even things like the crotch are different. Also the original girl is holding a wrench and the colored on is holding her tail while the original's tail is sticking way past the colored's lines, the boobs are angled differently, and the hair is again, different. Yes, this picture's anatomy and character position are heavily referenced and they should have included their reference in their description, but it was not perfectly traced.
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if you can line an image up and it matches almost LINE FOR LINE it's traced. how is that hard to understand?
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He advanced this stealing with a "Speed Painting" : www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSlk_L…
Sorry, I just found the video. How in the world did he do that?!
@ - @
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All he needed to do was put the keylines in place. My guess is that he had the image he was tracing on a separate layer, which he kept turning on and off. After the video was recorded, he just went back and cut out the parts where the layer was visible. Played at speed, the cuts to the video wouldn't be noticed.
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Question here from a noob: Is using photographs (while giving credit) for reference without using overlays still tracing?
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Oh no.....similar poses......
end of the fuckin world......
Seriously who gives a shit, the dude might trace a few things, but most of the art i see from GB is straight up his shit.
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The only thing I trace these days is what my mind sees on a blank sheet of paper. I remember TRYING to trace as a kid, but quitting because it wasn't my art. That, and all the lines were messy and I was frustrated with it. So I just began teaching myself how to draw. Hell, I made my very own shitty picture books. With no traces. It wasn't pretty and I spelled 95% of everything wrong excluding the names, but I was pretty happy.
Sure, I participate in photoshop contests to make pre-made dragons have color, but that's the contest. Everyone colors it in. But when you take a person's art and claim it as your own work by modifying it? That's disgusting. I know most of you are defending this behavior, but if they really want to get good... Then do so WITHOUT tracing over sketches.
It's fine to use one for practice to look then draw, but NOT trace over. And doing either should not have the results of it posted to the Internet without copyright to the original owner. Please don't flame me...
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There is a small flaw in a bit of this but there is also a truth.
I never truly did trace but I know that I did at one point and posted it somewhere. But at the same time, I did trace over pony bases a lot and soon developed the ability to draw ponies without the base after tracing base... after base... after base.
It works for some people. Sadly not all.
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Yes, yes. case we AAALLL get a style when we start drawing.
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Tracing doesnt teach you style, it simply clones someone else's artwork
If you're so weak that tracing is all you can do, too scared to start with a poor work, use copyright free material, because tracing copyrighted material is illegal, and becomes a worse sentence when profit is made
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You do know that Art Classes taught by Teachers have at least one lesson that involves copying directly or tracing someone's art style right?
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[You know if its for a school project its specifically exempt from copyright, right?]
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So we've all committed a crime at age 6?
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[*facepalm* Exempt = Excused]
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So you never traced? Ever? Or used a reference? You can honestly say that 100%?
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Tracing as practice (But not posting it) and looking at art as reference is fine but the person mentioned in the journal who traced claimed it as their own, from what I remember.
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[Traced, no, closest to tracing I did was using crayons on a stencil board [Y'know, the wavy plastic things that make your paper look waved, not like letter stencils], which wasnt illegal as 1. I didnt use it for commercial use 2. It was for use in school and 3. the stencil was sold for the intended purpose of children using it, thus copyright free]
[Using a reference however, is actually completely different from tracing, referencing is not illegal, I've used references, which I go for copyright free material to avoid any confrontation]
[So to properly answer your question, no I never stole anyone else's artwork, in fact I generally just use my own thought process to make my work, never once using another work for even shaping in the majority of what I do]
[I dont breach copyright law because I dont want to spend money on lawsuits and have people hate my work, that's just bad practice, you want people to like your work and not make you lose money because of it]
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funnyjunk.com/I+done+goof+d/te…
he admits and apologizes.
If you don't accept the apology you're a douche
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
No, if he doesn't accept it he has at least a little self respect. Some integrity.
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it's so gross too because he's still tracing and i tried to bring light to it and i got shit on by people who are supposedly against art thieves and similar.
He still won't admit to this day that he's tracing.
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1) He hasn't taken down any of the art he traced.
2) He's still tracing, and got caught posting more traces after the 'apology'.
3) He kept the money he made fraudulently from those traced commissions.
He's just looking for asspats.
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Stop looking towards the bad in people. That's only showing your ugly side.
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Yes, I'm the bad guy here. Not the guy who ripped off quite a lot of people, committed fraud, and continues the same practice of taking people's money for tracing better people's artwork... but me, for pointing out that he actually didn't stop doing anything, or actually apologize to the artists.
I had my art traced for child porn by someone like this idiot, and so yeah, I kinda DO take a dim view of non-apologies. People have a right to point out liars.
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Draco just sent the link to his apology, so uhm, there isn't a non-apology from this guy.
You're automatically assuming he did this on purpose. Did he? I don't know. All I know is that he took the majority of his art down, plus even gave a public apology via internet too.
Is his apology legit? I don't know. But it's there.
As for him taking money for such traced artwork, the artist whom he took it from can take that to legal matters. Was it you? If not then you really have nothing to complain about to be honest.
I'm not defending this guy but I've also learned that throughout my years being on DA, I, too, used to show such hatred to ALL art thieves until one day I learned that not all of them really knew that it was considered art theft. I've heard many stories of him supposedly doing this for years. Okay? Should have reported him all those years ago. If DA didn't do anything about it at that time, then they felt that it wasn't theft.
I was once a pessimist.. I still am from time to time, it keeps my guard up, but I also know I'm tired of living as a pessimist and I'm trying to be an optimist.
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i've seen someone trace before. they did just as depicted here, they flipped it and then traced. do they honestly think that flipping the image and then tracing it is going to hide it? hell no, i instantly recognized it as a copy of the original. i'm just glad the person doesn't do it anymore and got rid of the image.
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