Good Art Vs Bad Art Draw It Again

Have you lot always copied another artist's artwork? Practise you feel bad because you observe it hard to describe without copying some other artist'south piece of work? Many new artists think about copying in one of two ways:

• Copying is a shameful act—something to be hidden.
• Copying is an unethical human action—something to be avoided.

But you guys, at that place's nothing incorrect with copying, as long equally yous follow some best practices. And in fact there are many reasons you should copy. Almost every artist's journey begins with imitating other artists. Over time, the experience leads them to explore and detect their own style and voice.

There are four basic intentions that lead people to re-create other artists. Let'southward take a look!

Re-create to Imitate + Learn

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—information technology's the sincerest form of learning." –George Bernard Shaw, playwright

It is extremely common for people new to cartoon to copy other pieces of fine art. Information technology'south one of those things anybody does, but no 1 talks about, so everyone thinks they're the merely one. I did it myself for years and I'grand willing to bet you did likewise!

I spent a huge portion of my childhood copying page afterward page of Pokemon and Sailor Moon. I was trying to copy every shape, line, and colour equally closely to the original equally I could—I was literally copying them. Not tracing, which teaches yous nothing, but copying, which can teach you a peachy deal.

I copied because I wanted to learn how the animators drew all these characters I loved. I wanted to larn how to draw from a mechanical point of view: how do I motion my pencil on the page to get my lines to look similar those? It was only by copying again and once more, over and over, that I was able to train my hand to motion in a style I could command.

My Copy to Acquire stage primarily happened in the 90's, before social media or blogging exploded, and so these drawings were stuffed inside a 3-ring binder and mostly kept to myself. Now, in the era of the internet and social media, things are a scrap more than sticky with what to practise with these drawings. See the end of this essay for best practices in sharing copied art.

Copy to Steal + Combine

"If y'all think a man draws the type of hands that you desire to draw, steal 'em. Take those hands." –Jack Kirby, comic volume artist

But drawing isn't just mechanical movements across a folio. There are other deeper things going on when we depict. Attempting to draw accurate copies of other artworks is great for didactics us the rules and principles of fine art. But at some point, to make your ain original art, y'all have to choose which rules you want to follow and which y'all want to chuck out the window.

After a while, I became bored of copying Pokemon and idea it would be absurd to make upwards my own Pokemon creatures. And that's when my intention of copying shifted to the next stage. Equally I started drawing my own Pokemon creatures, I was still copying in many ways, just my intention was no longer to imitate and learn. My new intention was to steal and combine.

I lifted pieces of dissimilar Pokemon—eyes from Jigglypuff, legs from Bulbasaur, tail from my pet cat, Elvis—and mashed them up together to create a brand new Pokemon—my own Pokemon. Piffling did I know, I was on my style to making my first pieces of art.

"Information technology'southward not where y'all take things from—information technology'due south where yous take them to." –Jean-Luc Godard, flick director

If you re-create something line for line, aiming for an exact replica, you haven't fabricated fine art. Yous've only made a re-create of someone else'due south fine art. But if yous have little bits and pieces from many different sources and change and combine them in new means, yous've now created something new and original—you've created art.

Copying with the intention to steal begins with a spark of inspiration. I loved and was inspired by the artistic elements of Pokemon, and my intention was to create something new from that inspiration. That's what art is: taking an idea, combining it with other ideas in your caput, and making a new idea.

It's impossible to not exist influenced past the things around the states—information technology's the very essence of creativity. Everything nosotros create is a mashup of everything nosotros've seen, heard, felt, and experienced. All these things together, from Pokemon to Sailor Moon to my pet cat, make up my artistic influences. And new influences are constantly absorbed into us becoming part of our ever-evolving artistic vocalization.

If I had never seen Pokemon, I would describe today in a completely different manner. If I had never read Michael Pollan's Omnivore'due south Dilemna, I never would have been inspired to create We Are Fungi. These influences, inspirations, and the act of copying to steal and combine are essential parts of the creative process. Ideas create ideas. Art creates art.

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour sometime films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, compages, bridges, street signs, copse, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select just things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you exercise this, your work (and theft) volition be accurate." –Jim Jarmusch, pic director + screenwriter

Copy to Award + Play

"Those who practice not want to imitate annihilation, produce nothing." –Salvador Dali, painter

Nosotros artists often feel pressure to sit down and describe something completely original every time they describe. Merely making original art takes a certain mindset, inspiration, and energy level, and let's be honest: sometimes information technology's just non there. So if we're aiming to draw consistently (which you are, aren't you?), we demand a manner to draw when nosotros don't have any idea of what the heck to draw.

One of my favorite methods of cartoon when I'm low on inventiveness is to copy some of my influences. My intention here is to award something I dearest and elevator the pressure level of drawing something new—basically, to play on the page.

It'due south a bit unlike than copying to learn, where I'm aiming for simulated and a direct copy. And it's a bit different than copying to steal and combine, where I'm aiming to take $.25 and pieces from multiple different sources, combining them into something new. Copying to play is more than light-hearted. In that location'south only one source of influence, but my artistic style is injected in the drawing likewise.

This is similar to the popular hashtag, #DrawThisInYourStyle on Instagram. Artists offer upward a slice of their art for other creative person's to copy in their ain manner, changing the linework, colors, and overall style, while crediting the original artist and artwork. In this method, the artists are not copying the piece closely plenty to exist learning, and they're non deviating plenty from it or stealing enough from other sources for it to be combining. It's right in between: information technology's playing. It'southward a fun way to depict, when yous but want to draw.

I'1000 really feeling low on creative energy right now (helloooo month 8 of pregnancy!), and then I made this week'due south #MightCouldDrawToday theme Wallace and Gromit, the British claymation series, with this intention in mind. Throughout the week, we'll be looking at these claymation characters and drawing our own versions of them in our ain styles. My intention is to share this influence I honey, and give myself (and y'all guys!) a creative outlet that'south like shooting fish in a barrel to approach in a low free energy mood.

And so far all these methods of copying have been expert—they're benign and assistance usa grow every bit artists in many dissimilar ways. But what happens if we move beyond the intentions of learning, stealing and playing? Can copying be bad?

Copy to Plagiarize

"Copying opens your eyes to new possibilities, and new techniques… simply trying to fox information technology off every bit your own is quite another thing." –Louise Bunn, sculptor + painter

Let me be crystal clear: Plagiarism is wrong. Co-ordinate to the Merriam Webster Lexicon to plagiarize is "to steal and laissez passer off (the ideas or words of another) as one'southward ain; to employ (another'south production) without crediting the source."

You may be thinking: so y'all're saying copying, stealing, and playing are good, but plagiarizing is bad? What's the difference? How do nosotros know where the line is?

It always comes back to intention. We've talked about copying with the intention to learn, to create something new, and to award and play. But sometimes, a person copies with the intention of taking advantage of another artist. Or the intention of skipping the hard piece of work of creating their ain original art and passing someone else'due south art as their ain. Or the intention to profit off someone else'south art.

There are so many horror stories out there of artists getting their work plagiarized. Sometimes information technology'south a random person on the internet passing off someone else's piece of work as their own. Sometimes it's a huge corporation selling blatant copies of an artist's work without crediting or paying them, like Tuesday Bassen and Zara in the paradigm higher up.

Either mode plagiarism is unethical, and no good comes from it. It'due south hurtful to the plagiarized creative person, directly affecting their careers and income, and it'southward unhelpful to the plagiarizing person considering they're just short-changing themselves of true creativity and not creating art authentic to themselves.

Influences are meant to create inspiration, non dishonest imitations. I believe copying is an essential office of learning to draw, but you HAVE to be honest with yourself and others almost what you're doing. If you lot copy a slice of art and share it online, you demand to credit the original influence.

If you lot're confused or unsure about your intention, here's an easy gut check when you're considering sharing your work: Practice you feel the need to hide who or what influenced your cartoon? If y'all're not willing to share your sources, then you're probably non drawing with an intention of learning, creating something new, or playing, and this may be a piece of artwork you lot should keep to yourself. Private artworks tin can be a source of learning too, and we don't have to share everything nosotros make. Copying just becomes plagiarizing if y'all attempt to pass it off someone else's work equally your ain.

All-time Practices of Copying

I remember this may be why people are scared to acknowledge to or talk nearly copying. Just every bit long every bit you're honest with yourself and others, copying tin be a successful role of any artist'due south development. Hither are a few all-time practices to keep in mind when you lot're copying, and especially when yous're thinking of sharing artwork spurred from copying:

Learning/Imitating + Honoring/Playing

If you copy a piece of art with the intention of learning or playing and want to share it online: credit the original source. Permit people know you are copying, what y'all're copying, and if not a well-known franchise like Pokemon, who you are copying. Be honest.

Stealing/Combining

If you re-create a piece of fine art with the intention of stealing and want to share it online, consider: did you steal from enough sources and change the original ideas plenty to create something new? If yeah, awesome, you lot made some original art! Share abroad!

If yous only had ane influence, or wouldn't want to evidence people your source influences considering your version is also close to the original, or if you're not sure: you should credit the original source/influence/creative person.

Plagiarizing

If you copy a slice of fine art with the intention of claiming someone else's fine art every bit your own or profiting off some other artist's work: DON'T.

All You lot Need to Know

Copying is a role of virtually every artist's evolution. Copying some other artist's piece of work can be a wonderful way to acquire, get inspired, get ideas, honor an influence you lot dear, and create something new. All art is a mash up of ideas, and nosotros tin can all influence and inspire each other, and then long equally we are creating and sharing from a identify of honesty and transparency.

So learn away, play away, steal away, re-create, copy, copy, and don't forget to credit your influences!

I started noticing something [all my favorite artists] had in common—they all copied each other… I realized that this is what artists are supposed to practice—communicate back and forth with each other over the generations, take quondam ideas and make them new (since it's impossible to really "imitate" somebody without calculation anything of your own), create a rich, shared cultural language that was available to everybody. Once I saw it in folk art, I saw it everywhere – in hip-hop, in street art, in dada. I became convinced that the soul of culture lay in this kind of weird, irreverent-but-reverent backs-and-forth." –Volition Sheff, vocaliser

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Thanks for reading!

<3,
Christine

vansinsily.blogspot.com

Source: https://might-could.com/essays/inspiration-vs-imitation-how-to-copy-as-an-artist/

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