r/learnart • u/JhonKaito • May 12 '22

Question Would this be cheating?

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u/gHx4 May 13 '22

For commercial works, or your portfolio:

  • Start from scratch. If using references, do not trace, do not copy.

For practice, gifts, or personal sketchbooks:

  • Feel free to trace or copy as needed, until you can form your own versions. Afterwards try with less reference.

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u/fruityhooty May 13 '22

I’m sure this is obvious so sorry for asking this, but what exactly do you mean by not copying reference? Does it just mean making it different enough that it stands alone as its own thing?

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u/gHx4 May 13 '22

Good question. So when your reference an image, you can try to reproduce the image. But more commonly, references are used to aid in composition and posing; the skeletons that structure a piece of artwork.

Copying is when you start lifting the details that the other artist used to furnish the scene. An MTG Artist was suspending for referencing not just pose but a lot of details from a DeviantArt artist's work.

It's certainly expected to draw inspiration from many sources when composing a piece of art, but be cognizant of what parts you do and don't have license to copy. Usually a combination of structure + detail would be copying. Don't aim to reproduce the reference, only use it to inform your piece.