HEY KIDS.

Every couple days I read SOMETHING about "art theft" and "copying" and how EVERYONE ELSE is soooo unoriginal. (This isn't focused at one person, it's been a loooot of people) And err... seriously. That sort of attitude gets you NOWHERE.

If you want to be a better artist...

1.Be influenced by others- especially those who are better than you.
If someone produces work you visually enjoy- you should analyze their work, learn from their successes, and try to make that is similarly visually interesting.

2. Don't be fuckin' paranoid!
Everyone is not out to steal "your style" or whatever. The reason everyone else seems to draw like you is probably because you have the same INFLUENCES yourself. The reason you even know who they are on dA is because they do similar work to you. If you're friends with people who are all into sparkledogs (like me), yeah everyones going to have kinda similar stuff- but that's why you added them!

3. Don't try so hard to be "different"
Guess what, it's okay... no, it's GOOD to draw from real life, it's GOOD to look at art you really really like and imitate what you like about it. You know all those "good" artists on dA? They LEARN and TAKE FROM artists who are much better than them... they surround themselves with good art, and produce good art as a result. And somehow their stuff ends up original because, when you're comfortable, when you understand the principles + elements of design, when you look at a wide variety of art, what you produce isn't going to be identical.

4. You don't need to have a fucking "style"
The illustration department head at my old art school told me that the biggest problem he had were kids using the "ITS MY STYLE" excuse. According to him, most people don't find their style until they hit their late thirties- and even then plenty don't until much later. He told me that the best way to improve was to experiment and try EVERYTHING and not worry about being special or having a unique "style" because it's easy to use "style" as a crutch to mask your flaws- and it actually makes it harder to learn how to draw differently in the future (IE YOU CANT IMPROVE)




The energy you spend trying not to be an art thief or trying to find everyone who's copying you could be spent, you know, DRAWING.

...If I pissed people off... I'm sorry :/