Tribute or Theft?
Hey Hey wonderful people!
Another exciting day and more exciting drawings being drawn everyday. I haven't gotten anyone's questions yet, so I will touch on a topic today that seems to hit hard. Just like any talent or hobby, there's always gonna be people accusing you of some misfortune. For sports it might be cheating, singing could be lipsyncing but for art however, people may accuse you of stealing. Google's Definition of stealing is to “take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.” In the art world however this could be described as having a picture of someone's art and saying that it's your own and you drew it by yourself or recoloring a person's character and renaming them.
This is a major issue and could potentially hurt the artist who made it because they could have spent so much time making that. A lot of cartoonists or artists on tumblr/Deviantart are either victims of theft or they are accused of stealing something. One of my favorite artists by the name of OrlandoFox actually quit drawing a certain subtopic because so many people were taking their art and claiming it as their own. As a personal experience, I've had people lash out on me saying I stole someone's art or that I'm copying someone's art, when in reality everything I’ve drawn has been from my own creation. My characters are my original creation and they're all from my imagination. My friends and peers have seen me personally draw my characters in classes or after school, proving I haven't copied any artist or stole any characters. The thing about art is that people learn off of one another and they learn from each other, we are always inspired by others. Just because a nose on a character looks the same as someone else's DOESN'T mean they stole that art.
Sometimes it happens that people have similar styles to one another, it’s perfectly ok because a lot of people are influenced by the same thing. If you are redrawing someone's characters as fan art you should credit the artist so people know it's not directly your character. Now OCs (original characters) from your favorite television show or other is perfectly ok as long as it's not directly a character from the show that you just recolored and renamed. Remember if posting your show OC you should credit that show as well.
Now remember: Inspiration is definitely ok, stealing is not, and accusing someone can hurt. If you think of someone is copying art, don't just yell at them and get all worked up about it so that they can never show their art again, ask them what their inspiration was and see if it checks out because you might just be mistaken. And hey, if they are stealing, just talk to them like a human being, they may not know the difference because in the end of the day we are all human!
~♡Suki♡~
P.S: ♡ REMEMBER: email me your questions atartadvicesuki@gmail.com or http://sacslitmag.wixsite.com/fitb/comments-idea-submissions
Character shown: Millie