Yesterday I received a tag on my Instagram from a follower with a picture that they drew of something I did. There tag had an apology attached to it. This person said “Crzy_Nevaeh_Art, I’m sorry for copying one of your drawings, but I really want to draw like you so I tried to do one of your pieces. I hope you like it and don’t mind.” I quickly took this conversation into a direct message because, first She shouldn’t have felt the need to apologize and I wanted her to know that. Second, I wanted to thank her for picking me as an artist to be like. Knowing that I inspired her, really inspired me to continue to do what I love to do.
I asked her why she apologized, and her response was that a previous artist had spit out the copy right statement to her, even though this young girl had added her own touch to it. I was really appalled because that is exactly how I became better and better at drawing, by copying someone else’s work. It allowed me to work on my point of references, such as hands, and the way the face looks when looking up,down, to the side, etc, as well as hair and the placement of it. Of course as I got better I started to look at real people, and different poses. Would that not be considered copying a photograph? I always gave credit to the artist that inspired me, and in turn provided this same suggestion to this girl.
This honestly just made me so dumb founded. It wasn’t like another artist, took someone else’s idea and attempted to sell it. It was a young girl who is an aspiring artist, and just wants to be good like everyone else. I did offer her with many other sites that I have found over the years, that can teach her how to draw. Ways that she can learn to pull an image from her head and place it on paper. I reminded her that she is always able to use pictures as a point of references and to not let this one person discourage her from being great!
My nieces are always asking me to teach them how to draw, which in fact, I am horrible at! But I always give my nieces things I have done to look at to try and copy. I don’t see any harm in that. At the same time though, I am trying to play devils advocate and be understanding of the artist who feels that someone tried to copy there work. But I just can’t seem to understand.
I hope you all are having a great week so far! It’s almost the weekend!
Crzy Creations 