screammm ive never signed up for art fights because i've never had characters i want other people to draw but apparently they have put in their tos that you are not allowed to submit art attacks that trace 3d models or photographs that you, the artist, have taken yourself.
to be clear, direct traces of 3d models and photographs you have taken personally or are using within the bounds of their licensing are extremely common and completely acceptable, even in professional pipelines to produce commercial works.
having this kind of extremely strict - and extremely unenforceable - rule in a hobbyist event that includes a lot of kids and people otherwise just starting out is completely ridiculous. there's no need for it. tracing is cool and awesome and you should do it if it helps you as long as you're being up front about how you're sourcing your images
places like wikimedia commons, the public domain image archive, unsplash, and pexels have between them millions of images that are free to use for both personal and commercial projects. there's absolutely no good reason to not take advantage of these resources, and even less for not using your own photographs if you're so inclined. work smarter !
