The sincerest form of flattery perhaps? Copying vs Reference

As many of you probably know, there is a well known fantasy artist who recently was accused of pasting elements of several other peers works into her own and painting over them. This artist has since sold these images in her books. Now this news did interest me as I was a fan of her work, but it interests me even more as one of the artists she is now accused of stealing from. Whether her affirmation that she hand painted everything is true or not, it did get me thinking that perhaps this is a great time for healthy discussion about the use of "reference".

Now there is a large divide in the world of art. Those who happily use reference images they find online and those that shun the practice. In case you wondering, I put myself in the "happily uses online ref" category. Let me explain why.

I define reference as some sort of imagery, whether perceived naturally or through photos/videos, which is used to help draw/paint/sculpt a new piece of art. Referring could mean a quick glance to establish a similar mood, color combinations, or to brush up on creature anatomy, or it could be in depth copying with methods such as "gridding" where the image looked upon is copied almost exactly. (Tracing is a different method and involves copying and pasting, projecting, and painting over other imagery and is another discussion altogether).

Now the debate isn't so much about either method, but whether or not the person using said imagery happens to have permission to use copyrighted images for reference or tracing/painting over. The answer may surprise you. Under most copyright laws in the world, as long as the imagery created is a "derivative" work and not a copy, it can be used as reference but copying and pasting someone's work into your own without permission is a much more dangerous practice. However it is important to mention that what is allowed under law is not necessarily looked upon with acceptance in prominent art communities.

Now I had a professor in college who does commercial art for clients based in California including Disney and other big name movies. As someone in the field, he explained to us that art directors don't care if you don't know how to draw a turtle from memory or not, if you have a project due at the end of the week you had better have an anatomically correct rendering of a turtle. Say there are no turtles around- you had better humble yourself and find some online reference. So how do you use online reference and still feel good about yourself at the end of the day? I find the key element to all of this, is to what extent you refer to something.

Referring to me, means looking at something, learning from it, and making something new. It means creating something similar with different angles and perspective, lighting, or mood. It's okay to look at online reference, and even other artwork. For example, below I have two images, one a reference image I used to create the other.


Character by ~akizhao on deviantART


Elven Concept by `lithriel on deviantART

Now if you look the images are almost identical in mood and color combinations but they are entirely different in every other way. This type of referring is usually called inspiration but it is reference all the same.

The best way to use exact reference, as my professor explained, is to build up your own library of stock photos, or buy them online if you must refer to something directly. No amount of reasoning can save your hind end should you use something copyrighted and get your publisher sued.

Now there are some times when copying directly can be a good thing, like when doing master studies. However studies are used for learning and not for making money. Even fan art, which I have done my fare share of in the past, can be a fun release provided you give credit where credit is due and don't profit off of your work.

So where do you draw the line with reference?

I'm Back!! DAZ Studio and W.I.P. Podcast

Sorry for the long absence. I switched over to deviantart as my main art account for a while but I am back. I'll be posting art and links to great resources on here as I continue to build my art portfolio and find useful links.

Speaking of which, there's a great group of artists who get together and critique artwork the first Wednesday of every month- W.I.P. Podcast I posted my work last week and got some great critique on my latest piece. Here's the before and after pictures:























As you can see, I changed the hair and finished the legs. Much better. I tend to fall into the trap of making my subject matter "pretty" instead of realistic and the most helpful comment was to give the hair as much dynamic movement as the rest of the piece. It's ALWAYS good to have another pair of eyes catch the things you don't even notice.

Check out the forums as well. There's a great little community over there for people to post work. It's a great stepping stone for beginners just getting into things who want to get critique. Also building a network of artistic friends is a great way to get your foot into the industry. Plus, you can't go wrong by offering others some helpful comments. The podcasts are very informational as well.



Another great resource I stumbled upon was a link on The Art Educators Blog about DAZ Studio- a great 3D resource for posing. I've played around with it a little bit and it looks promising for getting reference for poses that are hard to catch (like action poses) and for getting reference of body types that are hard to find. I'll play around with it some more but I'm not sure how useful the program will be when my 30 day trial is over. Plus you really need to buy a couple of packages for it to really be useful and I'm not keene on putting a lot of money into something that is supposedly free (but all the content costs money). The picture to the right is a quick snap shot I took of an action pose. Cool stuff, no?