Apparently this image [NSFW] was "traced" from this post [NSFW].

Does this qualify as tracing? The pose is identical, but it doesn't look traced (to me).

The muscular detail is almost entirely different. The line work isn't similar at all. Sure, the pose was copied, but I don't see how that qualifies as tracing.

I'm asking because it led to this post being deleted.

A "copied" pose is definitely not tracing
I also have a less than qualified eye for this stuff, but it doesn't look like tracing to me either (again I'm not qualified to say, my drawing experience is novice level)
But I feel like there's some validity to the claim because the FA source of the accused was taken down and so was the twimg link
Makes me think that they were caught with their hand in the cookie jar and they poofed

Those sources taken down don't necessarily indicate wrongdoing. It caused some drama (https://x.com/Sarquiat/status/1910176617680285934) so they might've been trying to distance themselves.

But those details aren't that relevant. If the deletion reason isn't accurate it should prob be reinstated.

You should be having this conversation with the janitor that deleted the post, not publicly on the forums
The title is ripe for drama bait

The reason why queries related to particular reasons posts are deleted should be taken directly to the person who deleted it, and not in a public setting like this (or under post comments) is because of the potential witch hunts that can come about from them.

No matter if it's the best intentions or not, no one ever truly sees things exactly the same as others; while you could be asking about only this post in question, someone with less than good intentions could take this as a reason to go and hunt down any and all sort of things that the artist has done. I'm not saying this about this particular artist, but artists in general.

It could lead to a lot of unnecessary (and more importantly, completely avoidable) drama, and that's something no one wants to deal with.

Oh yeah it was deleted by abadbird
They're not too hard to contact

The outline of the pecs (but not the nipples) overlap basically 1:1. With some tilting, the right inner leg lines up 1:1, and with some tilting the other way the left leg lines up 1:1.

https://ibb.co/Z6wVnk04
https://ibb.co/Xr79bWDQ
https://ibb.co/tT1DfLNL

Where you can't quite make out the overlap is where it's nearly perfect. The parts you can see overlapping are the areas that don't perfectly align.

When something is this detailed and specific, these line-ups stop being coincidence. When they are this perfect, casual dismissals like "just a reference," "inspired by," and "copied pose" lose their force. The pose is copied, sure, the angle is copied, the framing is copied, the exact viewpoint is copied, and three groups of muscles have nearly overlapping outlines confirmed with little effort. The last part is the trace, which should be quite challenging to arrive at independently given the former points.

This is a pretty stupid outcome given that the tracer does have the skills to "beat the allegations." This situation is a somewhat common middle ground, between obvious traces and closely copied poses, where significant portions of the art are different but some barebones leftovers show how the piece began. Sometimes, such art that began as traces modify everything enough to beat the allegations. Somehow, putting the effort in to achieve plausible deniability is the honorable way out.

You only need an art program to confirm this. I have like 1% skill. Anyone could figure this out. I check all my trace deletions like this if I can't just take the lazy way out lining up two images between tabs and flipping between them. Very cool that the tweet's account "no longer exists" shortly after the post got deleted 👍👍

abadbird said:
👍👍

Thank you for such a well written and detailed reply to this <3

I saw the original Twitter post with the two images overlayed. I agree the pose, framing, and viewpoints are identical. It's also obvious they lined up the character's body (limbs, pecs) exactly as they were in the source art.

But Sarquiat's original art just has far more more realistic muscular definition to the point it's hard for me to say it's "traced". It looks like the alleged tracer copied an outline of the character, but never looked at the source art again. If you were to say both images were referenced from one of those "draw your sona in X pose" memes, I'd believe it. It's basically what I consider this situation to be.

I didn't DM you because the "type of likeness" and "degree of likeness" between images is ultimately up to opinion, and the topic is way too gray for there to be any convincing.

Yeah, the account no longer exists. Sarquiat declared they'd never make furry related art again and nuked their account after this situation.