Tracing a photo

I am trying to trace the outline of a bird in a photo, using arcs and lines (I did this once before successfully, in an older version of Sketchup, but cannot remember exactly how I did it). I applied the photo to a face on a cube and made the cube/photo a component, then began drawing the outline using the arc tool. But I cannot see anything being drawn, because the line color is black, as is the line color in the photo. How can I draw with another color? I know I can change fill color; I want to change line color.

You can edit that in Edge Setting in the Style dialog.

Sometimes what I’ll do is place a semi-transparent white or gray face directly on top of an image I want to trace. The face has the effect of under-intensifying the image–making the linework gray instead of dead black. That makes it very easy to see what you’re doing while tracing because your black lines will stand out against the gray.

If you make the gray face a group, nothing will stick to it.

-Gully

As Box pointed out, you can change the color of the line in the Edge settings under the Edit tab. I also often find that increasing the Profiles size can be helpful. You can see an example here. For the tracing you’re doing, you might also find it helpful to use the tools in Fredo8’s Bezier Spline extension.

Thank you all, I am using each of your suggestions. I really must learn about styles, it seems. I changed the line color to red, and graying the photo helped a lot. I am using the bezier tools too. Thank you.