Tracing art is one of the things that most artists avoid doing. There is an unwritten rule among the art community: You must never trace someone else’s artwork without their permission.
Some artists think tracing artwork for learning is okay if you don’t sell it or post it online.
What about AI-generated art? I’ve been delving deep into the terms and conditions of various AI services to explore whether it’s okay to trace AI-generated art or not.
This article will explain everything you need to know about tracing an AI drawing.
Table of Contents
Can You Trace AI-Generated Art?
You can trace AI-generated drawings and paintings if you generate them yourself. However, if someone else made the AI art, it’s wrong for you to trace their artwork.
Remember that AI-generated art doesn’t have a copyright, so no one, including you, can own it. Art created by tracing AI art shares the same copyright status.
The only exception is AI art generated using Stable Diffusion. I will explain the difference between Midjourney, Dalle, and Stable Diffusion in terms of services regarding their AI-generated art.
MidJourney Term of Service

According to MidJourney’s terms of service, you own all assets you created using MidJourney. This means you can do anything you want on art generated by yourself using Midjourney, like saving, sharing, and selling them.
Since the art belongs to you, you can trace art generated by Midjourney. Remember, you can’t do the same on art generated by other users without their permission.
Using the Midjourney service to upscale images owned by others also prohibits you from using it since the original creator owns the upscaled image.
OPEN AI DALL-E Terms of Use

According to OpenAI Terms of Use, the right to the content created by OpenAI will be assigned to you. You can use it for any purpose, including selling the art.
But, the OpenAI Content Policy prohibits you from lying about the source of generated art. Since it’s generated by AI, you must tell them AI, not you, creates it.
Tracing AI-generated artwork using DALL-E 2 means you must state that you are tracing Art generated by DALLE-2. You shouldn’t claim your drawing as original if it’s traced art based on DALLE-2.
Stable Diffusion Terms of Service
Most people use Stable Diffusion using 3rd party services. Stability AI is one of the most popular 3rd party services you can use.
According to Stability Terms of Use, the AI assets created by Stability AI are owned by Stability. So you don’t own art generated by Stability. You are granted the limited right to use it.
You don’t have the right to use the art for commercial purposes. You also don’t have the right to modify or make derivative uses. This means you can’t trace artwork from Stability AI.
After I searched for another free and paid 3rd party service for Stable Diffusion, most of them have similar licenses.

If you run Stable Diffusion locally, the license is vastly different. According to Stable Diffusion License on Github, you have the right to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the art created by Stable Diffusion.
So yes, you can trace art generated using Stable Diffusion on your computer.
Remember that to run Stable Diffusion locally on your computer efficiently, you need expensive gaming graphics cards, preferably from Nvidia. The GPU alone can cost you at least $600.
Pros of Tracing AI-Generated Art
Amazing for learning purposes
AI art usually has excellent colors and composition. You can learn great things from AI art to increase your fundamental art knowledge and skills.
Drawing is a learnable skill, and you can practice drawing lines, shapes, and forms by tracing AI-generated art. This helps develop your muscle memory and fine motor skills, which can improve your overall drawing abilities.
You can also practice using AI art by drawing them upside down.
Inspire Creativity Before Drawing an Art
Tracing AI-generated art is a quick way to inspire you on another art form. After seeing countless AI art, I was amazed by their creativity.
Sure, not all arts created by AI are great. Most AI-generated art has bad anatomy and is not good at drawing hands and feet.
But they’re improving at an astonishing rate. AI arts will become increasingly autonomous and have fewer mistakes while requiring less human input in the future.
Good As a Reference Image
If you want to draw something that most artists rarely draw, it will be hard to get a good reference image to make your art look good.
Some objects may be hard for a beginner to draw, so by tracing them, you can quickly improve your understanding of the object.
You can tell MidJourney or DALL-E what kind of art you want to draw, and it will give you countless images you can use as reference images.
No Guilt When Tracing AI-Generated Art
Tracing a drawing always feels wrong, even if I do it for learning purposes. I don’t feel good since I only copy someone else’s art.
But I won’t have the same dilemma since AI, not a human, creates it. You also won’t face any trouble infringing on an artist’s rights, allowing you to focus on learning and improving your skills without any added stress.
Cons of Tracing AI-Generated Art
AI-Generated Art Has Too Many Mistakes
Many AI pictures have big mistakes in anatomy and perspective. Small details can also be confusing for beginner artists.
Tracing AI-generated art might teach you to copy the AI’s errors. Instead of learning from AI art, try tracing work by human artists (just for practice) or use license-free photographs.
Making Art Without Copyright
When you trace AI-generated art, you make another art piece without copyright. Copying it by hand doesn’t give you a copyright. It’s still a copy.
Copyright rules can differ in each country and sometimes need clarification. To avoid problems, keep your practice work private and be careful when choosing images to trace, ensuring they are not copyrighted.
Accidental Plagiarism
You might accidentally copy a real artist’s work when you trace AI-generated art. AI makes art by taking many pictures, cutting them up, and putting the pieces back together.
Because the source of those pictures came from a real artist, the new art can sometimes look too much like an original picture. You might end up copying it without realizing it if you trace it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, tracing AI-generated art can benefit learning and inspiration. It helps you improve your fundamental art skills and encourages creativity without the guilt of copying another artist’s work.
However, you should know the rules about using AI-generated art. With Midjourney and OpenAI DALL-E, you own the artwork, but with Stable Diffusion, you don’t. Be careful when tracing AI art since it might have mistakes.
This post has been a great resource for me. It’s well-written and covers the topic comprehensively. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise!