PlagiarismI remember when I had JUST gotten a DA account, there was this one chick that had a drawing that was kind of heavily "inspired" by an old drawing I had put up once (Waaaaaaay old, old enough to be from my Elfwood days). It was the similar down to the pose, wonky anatomy, and even the clothes. The only difference that I can remember is that she'd put wings on her drawing. I never called her on it, mainly because it was so stupid. Not her drawing, because she was at least trying to improve by using another artist as a reference (at least that was my thinking on the subject), but I just thought it was stupid to throw a big fuss over it.
I suppose tracing to learn isn't all that bad. Tracing helps you to learn the lines or something, I guess. It's not something I ever did, because the way I see it, why learn how to draw from the copy (that is, a 2D representation of a 3D object) when you can just draw from the real thing :/ Though learning painting techniques, or line control, etc by copying existing art has its merits.
I just get curious though. Are there any Krakken-clones out there? Erlinstadt? Or even Ureil? (As you can see, I worry most for the DuGraves clan as they are my most favorite) I mean, how weird would it be to come across someone's pale counterfeit of a character that I have devoted so much time and effort into?
Or WOULD said hypothetical person's "copy" be a counterfeit of mine, or would it be something that is wholey theirs as soon as they slap their own backstory to it?
But on that matter, why would you want to plagiarize someone elses ideas? Being inspired is one thing, but to completely xerox them word for word (with a few "strategic" changes)? Wouldn't you feel weird just taking something that someone else has poured so much of themselves into? For a lot of people, their art and stories are their babies. FRANKLY COPYING JUST BAFFLES ME, IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY HERE.
And not to sound hypocritical, but I think fandoms and fancharacters are different from copying. In my opinion, fancharacters are made because the creator wants to be a part of that particular brainiverse, because the story is something that they find particularly enjoyable. Of course people want to interract with what they enjoy, to somehow make it their own. (And of COURSE, some people just go a little bit insane with that though, and that is kind of scary by a lot D: )
FANDOMSEKRIT: some aspects of Krakken are there because (SHOULD I EVAR BECOME FAMOUS AND POPULAR, HARDY HAR HAR*) I wanted to set it up to be kind of logical and kosher in the event that some fanfic writer ever contrived a reason for Krakken to encounter The Doctor. Basically, I just like the idea that somewhere, off in some crazy nonexistent crackfic that hopefully never WILL exist, there exists the possibility of a Krakken-Doctor crossover. (TELLING Y'ALL RIGHT NOW. KRAKKEN WOULD MAKE A HORRENDOUS COMPANION.) But then again, I'm not sure if I've said anything much in depth about Krakken to anyone other than
:BBut seriously. Back to the plagiarism. Why would you want to steal ideas off of someone? That story/character will never be yours until you add something new to change it anyway. So why not just start from scratch? Clearly it's different for other people, but I don't much like making fancharacters or basing stories/characters off of another person's brainbaby because I get hella possessive and get uncomfortable with the thought that my art or my stories don't belong entirely to me. Which, now that I think about it, is probably also why I have such a difficult time drawing fanart of any of the fandoms I enjoy. I mean, its fine and dandy to draw TARDIS comics, but time spent on doing that would be sooooooooo much better spent giggling to myself over how adorable Elemore and Krakken would be traipsing across France on a moped while holding hands.
*Which is not something that I actually want happening, because a lot of my interwub friends seem to get so much squicky crap from their fans D: D: D: Yay relative anonymity!
Devious Comments
Your fandom secret is fantastic. The internet has put me on the rim of some fandoms so that I know a fair bit about them despite having never actually seen/read/whatever'd it. Dr. Who would be one of them. It's a little odd to usually recognize when people talk about it without having actually SEEN it, but there you go.
The only two possible non-obnoxious reasons I could ever see for blatant copying are if some misguided person thinks they really want to draw their own character but thinks they lack the skills, so take another person's work and change it *just enough* to resemble their own character; or they love another person's style and want to Draw Like Them, and they think posting their "progress" would be a smashing idea. Their are much better solutions to those issues than copying, but some people are too lazy to think of them.
The other reason I can think of that's reasonable but truly obnoxious is if that person can't REALLY draw/write, but they want people to THINK they can so they can look good and get praised. THOSE PEOPLE ARE LAZY JERKS.
The other option is that they're just loco. Which is entirely possible in the interwebs. You see it a lot.
I often fear that someone might steal an idea of mine but meh... a part of me would love to meet a doppleganger of one of my characters in a chatroom or something and send in the original to freak at them ahahaha.
Fancharacters: I can never really be arsed. I have a gargoyles character who's based off the disney series in species alone, his entire culture is completely different as is his backstory etc etc. I also have a few D&D ones but their lives aren't involved with any real canon, just their location. It's no different than having a character who lives in New York because hey, it's a preexisting locating right? It's those characters that have involvements with the canon characters and suchforth that piss me off heh.
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"leg or no leg, I trust you about as far as I could throw Manhattan!"
Commissions
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Fuckin' A!!! we are cocked, locked and ready-to-rock this bitch
Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine Down in the basement messing with the moment Alchemy and elements smashing up your instruments.
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“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
I think it's kind of inexcusable to copy someone else's style (or even that of a genre like anime). Mainly because it smothers your own growth as an artist. You pour so much energy into perfectly copying someone elses' art. I guess the only way it'd be excusable is if once that person had perfected copying another person's "style", they then went on to try and improve more beyond that
Too bad there isn't an IQ prerequisite to get on the internet, AMIRITE?
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“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
And the fancharacters, the ones that also double as Blatant Self Inserts? YEAH, I FIND THEM ANNOYING TOO XD I mean, I can understand why someone might make one, but doesn't make it any less annoying XD
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“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
I've wondered if somewhere someone is posting my shiz, too, and I've almost decided that if they are, I'd rather not know. I mean, if somebody stumbled across a gallery full of art stolen from me I'd like to be told, but then the thought of actually going and looking at it and DEALING with it almost makes me feel physically ill. This may be a case of Taking Things Too Seriously but my stories and characters and stuff are just that personal to me. The analogy I always use is that it's like stealing someone else's baby and saying "look, it has my eyes!" (A BABY analogy? THIS IS NOT THE JRAENY WE KNOW.)
Even though I will always have a famethirsty egomonster in my belly, the thought of people bastardizing my characters with slash and mary-sue hookups and stuff has made relative anonymity feel okay. I tell you, J.K. Rowling must really know how to laugh it off or she'd be institutionalized by now. o_o
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"Life is too important to be taken seriously." -Oscar Wilde
When I was just starting out on the internet I used to trace other people's art ruthlessly. The very first "request" I ever did was a J. Axer (a very popular artist in the Sonic fandom I was involved in at the time) trace only I made it into a fox rather than whatever critter it was before. I did this all the time. With a lot of people. But then I realized that "Hey it's better to do your own stuff" and stuck to my own work. Tracing good artists had helped my own art, and to this day I'm super thankful nobody got super crazy over me for tracing.
So when I see it happen to me (albeit it's not very often) I try to keep that in mind. Is it just a kid who likes my work and wants to try to draw like me? I'm gonna let it slide, they'll figure it out sooner or later. Is it someone who will obviously never make a cent off their artwork 'cause they're either not that good or have no ambition? Not a big deal, who cares. If you put both of our artwork together you can easily tell who's was the original and who's was the copy, I'm not gonna worry about that one.
The only problem I ever have with idea-lifting and art-tracing is if the person is either getting a huge amount of response or is planning on using the ideas commercially to make money. I don't like that. I spent a lot of time on my work and I don't want Susie-Q Art Thief to just come walkin' up and go "Hey I like this medallions idea I'm using it for my graphic novel that I'm gonna publish and make money on." Then I might say something.
In my experience it's a really "Furry" thing to get super pissed and make a big public scene about art theft, which is probably why I try to either keep it private or just observe from a distance until it gets problematic. There are so many people doing the "HEY YOU CAN'T HAVE A PURPLE HUSKEY WITH 12 TAILS THAT'S MINE RAWR RAWR WAR FOR LIFE BITCH BITCH BITCH" dance, and I always lose respect for them when they drag out their drama into the public, even if they're the victims of art theft.
Just keep an eye on it, chances are what you thought was a problem won't turn be one. You don't want to make a big deal out of something that really isn't in the first place, y'know? And if it does start becoming a problem, say something to them privately. And if that doesn't do anything, and it's becoming a huge problem, well then that might be the time for a public notice, but never a "THIS BITCH IS COPYING ME. FLY MY MINIONS, FLY. ATTACK."
AND THAT'S MY PHILOSOPHY ON THE SUBJECT.
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Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
I think I'd want to know if someone had stolen from me. I mean, ignorance may be bliss, but I've always kind of thrived on confrontation :/ I don't think you're taking things to seriously at all with that attitude.
If I ever came across my brainiverse being so thoroughly violated in the same manner as the Potterverse, I'd probably get violently physically ill D:
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“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
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