My tracing habit from 2019 came back to haunt me in a critique
Back in art school in Portland I used to trace photos for anatomy practice and never told anyone. Last month a peer in our online critique group pulled up one of those old drawings next to a stock photo and asked if I'd used AI. I had to admit it was tracing, but the conversation made me realize how similar the ethical gray areas feel, especially when people assume any shortcut means it's fake. These days I keep all my reference studies messy and labeled as studies, so nobody mistakes my process. Has anyone else had an old habit come back and make them rethink where they draw the line?
Learned to sew patches on my jacket from youtube and messed up like five times before my mom showed me her way. Now when people ask where I got it I just say it's homemade. Kinda funny how we hide the messy parts of learning stuff.