>>19484440There's nuance to the whole tracing thing. Mangaka trace backgrounds all the time, but it's usually of 3D models they made themselves or pictures they took themselves. If they tried tracing another character from a different manga they would get heat for it. There was that controversy years ago where Gene Simmons' son became a laughing stock for trying to publish a Bleach knockoff with daddy's money and getting immediately caught for tracing panels from Bleach. Tracing in general as a study to learn proportions and anatomy can be super useful but using it in actual works gets tricky and whether or not you're tracing from photos, someone else's art, etc becomes an important distinction to make.
