Hot take: Most "anime style" artists are just tracing photo reference

I've been browsing this community for about 6 months now and I keep seeing these digital paintings that look exactly like a screenshot from some anime. Clean lines, perfect proportions, same face every time. Then I go check their process video and it's just them tracing over a 3D model or a photo with the opacity turned down. No judgment on using reference, but calling it original art feels like a stretch. Why does nobody else call this out? I learned to draw by studying anatomy and construction from books. Is that just old school now?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_charlie9d ago

It's the same thing with people using filters on their phone cameras and calling it photography, everyone wants the shortcut to the end result instead of putting in the actual work.

wren2179d ago

Started doing daily 10 minute gesture sketches from line-of-action dot com about a year ago and it completely changed how I see poses and weight distribution in my own work. I notice those traced pieces always have that weird stiffness even if the proportions are perfect, like the character is floating instead of standing on the ground. One artist I followed admitted they'd never drawn a hand from imagination because they always traced from a 3D model, and that really hit me. The shortcut might look good in a single image but it falls apart when you try to create something totally new.