I didn't really trace much, I can recall only a few times I traced something from a book in my childhood and it was when I couldn't draw something as a way to learn, going over and over the copy with pencil. I never showed anything traced as my art.
I learned to draw mostly drawing animals an landscapes from the photos. I've never done much drawing from life, but lots from my head. I have deep knowledge of animal anatomy as a former vet and that helps a lot, as well always being wildlife fanatic, I'm really good at animals and wild landscapes, but I have hundreds times less practice and patience with cities and any man made things, as well with drawing people I only recently sat down and made myself learn it properly.
My most important inspiration is music. From literature despite I don't really do sci-fi, Philip K. Dick in his more surreal aspect and K.K. Baczynski.

Practice. Simple. I just wanted to be a good artist that's all lol.

drawing lots and lots of naked people
seriously though, mostly practice. i'm inspired by a lot of illustrators and concept artists out there, but nobody in particular.

i started drawing because i really liked horses and digimon (yeah), so i drew ponies all day and sometimes i would eyeball birds and horses from my nature books, but afaik i didn't trace. then i started making up stories with super shitty mary sues, and naturally i had to draw them, too. they were mostly space travelling demon neko girls who were also digimon. or something.

then we got internet when i was 13 years old, i played mmos for a year, then joined neopets, drew furries until a friend of mine decided that furries sucked, so we stopped drawing them and drew people instead.
i was really bad at people and they looked like terrible westernized animes, but it didn't occur to me that i should probably practice until i was about 16 and asked a Games Academy graduate how to get better at art.
he wasn't very responsive, probably a bit pissed that some 16 y o was bugging him during a busy time of his life so i took that as a sign that i should do SOMETHING

i did some studies, but was still very lazy about it, honestly, i preferred drawing from my imagination and i was pretty decent at pretending that i knew anatomy.
3-4 months ago i asked an artist that i admire a lot what they dislike the most about my art and they mentioned that my anatomy was pretty weak

so that's when i started doing studies on an almost daily basis, as much as my pretty busy schedule allowed!

basically i have no idea how i got to my current level because i've been a horribly lazy person for the past ... 5 years i've been on this website.

Practice, practice and more practice. I still need more practice though.
True that I did trace a lot in my childhood, but I had no knowledge about copyright then. Now, I always mention the source whenever I make a fan art. I try to tell the ignorant "anime artists" here in DA that when they trace pics from the anime they like, that they should give credit to the original creators.

I started drawing when bored at break time (recess in yank english), my friend did a comic with a dragon in so I started doing them. Then I decided to try griffins and then after my second drawing of one was quite good at making them, making a OC based off one from a obscure game and inproving on it. Even putting said OC in a not very PC story.

When I was 16 I installed GIMP on one of the school pcs without anyone knowing and made another OC from a peice of mine I was tracing over. After I got a tablet I got better still and then got Photoshop, and thats where I am currently though I've expanded into doing other animals.

My mother's an artist so I grew up in her shadow. I started drawing horses and unicorns mostly lol, I never did manage to draw them properly, and I only drew because I thought that's what my mother wanted from me. At around the age of 7 I stopped drawing for a time, I don't remember why, but I started drawing again at around the age of 13, but still mostly to impress my friends. I did a lot of photomanipulations when I joined DA at the age of 14, which was also the time when I decided I'd finally start drawing for myself and not for my mother. That was 8 years ago and since then I've done a lot of experimenting with finding a style I like. Now I'm back to not being pleased with it and thus I do what I've always done; Practice, practice and more practice. I wasn't one of those quick learners, I'm an extremely slow learner and it takes me an age to get ANYWHERE with my work, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, although, true, it's not a great thing either lol. My new art goal is to finish my current study (or fail, whatever the case may be) and then try out for art school, maybe in Canada or some other place because I think the educational system in my country is of very low quality.

well my story is like everyone elses, I'm no special case. I started off tracing dbz characters on my see through folders in elementary school, then moved on to drawing them freehand, then moved onto doodling in class in my notebooks, then an idea arrived to me from the ether: why don't you open a magazine and draw something REAL for once in stead of cartoons? The rest is history. I didn't draw as much as I do now but back in highschool I started taking art classes and began learning drawing techniques. It wasn't until I got to college that I actually started STUDYING art. Learning about artists, time periods, methods, materials, processes, etc etc. I still didn't draw much but I drew enough to keep my skills intact and to make drawing a comfortable experience. It wasn't until 2009 that I really got serious about art and told myself I'd either be an artist or die on the streets. No lie. In 2010 I traveled to Australia and saw an amazing artist being represented by a gallery down there..his work was in the hotel I was staying at and I'd go down there every night in the art gallery and stare for the longest. I'd walk the streets of sydney with a scrap piece of paper that I'd written my dream down on and read it to myself aloud..people probably thought I was crazy but desire is an interesting thing.

I lost that scrap piece of paper in Sydney but the desire was already etched into my brain. Its become internalized and now drawing/painting is an obsession. I've literally created my own obsession from square 1. Affirmations, and constant thinking about art have hardwired my brain to soak up ANYTHING related to art. In 2010 I started painting, studying on my own. From 2010 to 2011 I searched high and low for as much information related to painting as I possibly could, and eventually I found a goldmine in the form of a self study course. I bought it and devoured it like a madman. Its been a year since then and I think my work has progressed a lot.

Other than that I just read a lot of info, look at a lot of work, and paint/draw a lot of studies. I try not to ignore anything related to the principles of art. Ive found that its not only about practice because you can spend your whole life practicing the wrong things and doing the wrong things perfectly. Its also about putting yourself in the way of specialized knowledge and wisdom as it relates to your craft..its about holding onto every word every teacher, practitioner, and forum surfer says at it relates to your craft. Its about observing these things for yourself in your own work and in the real visual world around you. Once you become aware of certain information and wisdom its like you have to convince yourself of it.

I know I don't make much sense but eh