A practical guide from Sketchso
Is Tracing Cheating? What Artists, Exhibition Rules and Copyright Law Say
Asking whether tracing is cheating is really three questions. Is it a legitimate way to make art? Is it allowed in this competition or class? And is it legal with this particular photo? The answers are different, and mixing them up is how artists end up either ashamed of a normal working method or in trouble for something they did not realise was a problem.
Artists have used optical aids for centuries
Painters have long used devices that put an image onto a surface for them to follow. The camera obscura, a darkened box or room that projects an image through a lens, was described by Renaissance writers and has been debated as a tool for painters ever since. Philip Steadman’s book Vermeer’s Camera (2001) argued that Vermeer used one. The same year David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge proposed that optical projection influenced European painting from the 1400s onward. Historians still dispute how far either claim goes, but no one disputes that the devices existed and that artists knew about them.
The clearest modern case is Norman Rockwell. The Norman Rockwell Museum holds an archive of roughly 18,000 study photographs that he staged with neighbours as models. Exhibition notes from the Brooklyn Museum and an NPR interview with curator Ron Schick describe how Rockwell projected those photographs and traced them as the basis of his drawings. Schick said Rockwell felt the camera was a kind of cheating at first, used it openly anyway and never went back.
Where tracing can disqualify you
Competitions and juried exhibitions set their own rules, and some are strict about references. The Colored Pencil Society of America is a good example because its rules have been published for years. Recent “Explore This!” calls require the reference photo to be taken by the artist, or, if taken by someone else, to be incidental rather than the main focus. Earlier calls and the society’s international exhibition went further and disallowed work copied exactly from someone else’s photograph even with permission.
Most of these rules are about whose image it is, not how you transferred it. Tracing your own photograph is normally fine. Tracing a photo you found online is often not. Read the prospectus for the specific call before you start, not when you are filling in the entry form.
Schools are similar. If an assignment is meant to test observational drawing, tracing defeats the purpose, and your teacher is right to object. That is a rule about the assignment, not a verdict on tracing.
Where tracing can infringe copyright
A photograph is a copyrighted work, usually owned by whoever took it. Redrawing it by hand does not automatically make the result yours. In Rogers v. Koons (1992), a federal appeals court found that Jeff Koons infringed a photographer’s copyright by having a sculpture made closely from his photo, despite the change of medium. In Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (2023), the US Supreme Court held that licensing a Warhol silkscreen based on Lynn Goldsmith’s photograph of Prince to a magazine was not fair use. Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster, based on an Associated Press photograph, ended in a 2011 settlement in which Fairey agreed not to use AP photos without a licence.
In practice this means three things. Your own photos are safe to trace and sell. Photos released under a licence that allows reuse, such as public domain or CC0 images, are generally fine within that licence’s terms. Anyone else’s photo, including one a client sends you, needs permission from whoever took it if you plan to sell or publish the result. This is general information, not legal advice; the law varies between countries and courts decide similarity case by case.
Commissions: what to tell your client
Clients pay for the finished portrait, its likeness and its quality. Very few care whether the outline was measured by eye or transferred from a print, and you are under no general obligation to describe your process. If someone asks directly, tell them the truth. A short honest answer, such as “I trace the main shapes from your photo so the proportions are exact, then everything you see is drawn by hand”, reassures far more people than it puts off.
Where commissions do go wrong is ownership of the photo. A pet portrait from the owner’s own phone photo is straightforward. A portrait from a professional photographer’s session needs the photographer’s permission, which many will give if you ask and credit them.
What tracing does and does not do for your skill
A traced line tells you where an edge is. It does not tell you how dark the shadow next to it should be, whether the edge is sharp or soft, which details to leave out or how to make fur look soft and glass look hard. Those decisions are most of what makes a drawing good, and tracing leaves all of them to you.
What tracing can cost you is practice in judging proportion. If you want to build that skill, separate the two activities. Do short freehand studies to train your eye, and use a traced guide for finished pieces where accuracy matters more than practice. Comparing a freehand attempt against a traced guide is one of the fastest ways to see your own habits, such as drawing eyes too large or placing them too high.
Questions before you start
Did famous artists trace?
Norman Rockwell projected and traced his own staged photographs, according to the Norman Rockwell Museum’s archive and curator Ron Schick. Whether earlier painters such as Vermeer used optical projection is argued by historians but not settled.
Can I sell art traced from my own photos?
Yes. You own the copyright in photos you took, so tracing them raises no copyright problem. Competition rules are separate, so check those if you plan to enter the piece.
Can I enter a traced drawing in an art competition?
It depends on the competition. Many care mainly that the reference photo is yours. Some ban copying another person’s photo even with permission. Read the specific prospectus.