[Raspberry]

I think it depends on the reasoning behind it. If someone's fairly new to a style of art and are finding the tutorials a little hard to wrap their head around, tracing could help them get a better handle on things so they can work on their own pieces. However, if you trace someone's work without referencing back to them (and wherever possible asking their permission to repost your traced picture online) and try to claim it as your own, that's art theft. I also think it's important to look at how much of the image is traced. If it's all traced (for example a person's pose, expression, hair and outfit) then you can't claim anything of that as your own. However if you only traced one part but changed the rest, you can claim -some- degree that it's your work. Obviously in the latter it's still polite to link to the artist who created the part you didn't, but as the other pieces are your own actual work it seems fair enough if you want to show improvement or get critiqued.

I know I can be guilty of tracing parts of some drawings when getting to grips with a new art style. I don't post mine online or claim it to be my own though. It was mostly when I was younger though. I do prefer to use tutorials now. Though I know that a lot of younger artists prefer to trace to learn, so to automatically be brandished a thief regardless of their intentions seems incredibly harsh to me, not to mention it would put people off drawing again.