I was a professional tattoo artist for 21 years. In that time I apprenticed 7 artists. I. Would make them trace every sheet of flash (flash is the sheets of art hanging in shops that you can
pick from) over and over again. At some point they all would complain that they were wasting their time just tracing. They wanted to draw their own ideas. Of course they were allowed to draw their own ideas, but first they had to trace a certain amount of flash each day first. I explained to them that if you traced say a butterfly, or a skull a hundred times in different angles and
Positions you could then draw one with your eyes closed. People think that tracing is a form of cheating, but it's just another tool. It also helps with hand control. Once you can get your hand to draw a perfect circle, or whatever else your brain is telling it to do, then you can spend more time being creative and less time erasing over and over again. Remember, the first 1,000 drawings are your hardest. Then it starts to get a little easier. So you might as well get them out of the way as soon as you can. Your drawing looks good. Keep it up and you will be a great artist.
