Tracing is not cheating. It’s how we can learn from others who have worked out how to draw something. I fear that children don’t do tracing anymore as they are given photocopied worksheets to colour in instead.

When you trace an image, the shape of that image goes into the brain. Colouring in is a gentle pastime – it’s not learning. Tracing increases hand-eye coordination and builds up muscle memory to allow you to draw things you’ve not tried before. It’s a kind of rehearsal.

All professional artists trace when they want to get things right and in the right place – yes, even Michael Angelo and leonardo daVinci traced. That was the original meaning of a cartoon – it was a tracing for a major painting, built up from all the preliminary sketches. Tracing is how you put a complex piece of artwork together.

Tracing s not cheating – get over it!