04-02-2014, 07:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2014, 07:37 PM by StarSock64.)
Okay, this is…going to get uncomfortable for everybody but I can’t just let this go.
![[Image: iSNG4Cf.png]](http://i.imgur.com/iSNG4Cf.png)
I’m not going to start accusing you of trying to do something malicious on purpose, but you’re committing several big art no-nos right now. You’re lifting things from Hunter’s work to the point that it’s unreasonable and well beyond any claims of “inspiration.” The fact that you’re implying in your posts that the style similarities are something you want to avoid association with makes this whole thing rather…suspect. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions. If possible I’d like to give you a chance to learn about the many, many reasons you shouldn’t do these things and what you can do instead.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself, “here we go again, people are focusing on the style instead of C+C.” But it’s worth your time to listen to these concerns. It really IS valid C+C. I’m not sure if people just haven’t been willing to take the time out to explain why it’s valid. So I’m going to! In a huge essay! Because I’m just that kind of person or something.
I’ll start with the fact that nobody’s going to take your work seriously if you continue this, unless they’re just ignorant of who Hunter is. Then I’ll explain why you shouldn’t want to do this, even if you don’t care about integrity, because you’re only hurting yourself as an artist. And you do seem to care about skill, given that you’ve showed an honest interest in receiving C+C with technical problems.
1. It’s dishonest to your audience.
People notice stylizations that are this unique. People are impressed by it! It’s part of the value. When you take so much of another person’s stylizations for your own use, you’re taking their value as your own.
I’m not saying that Hunter’s style doesn’t have similarities to other styles or that it’s wrong to do things similarly to other artists, but your work doesn’t just have similarities to his style. It’s a strangely active attempt to BE his style. There is almost none of your own personality in here. The parts that are different from Hunter’s seem like they come about due to not matching his skill level rather than attempting to make your own artwork.
It’s not just any one thing individually. It’s that you took A LOT of the things that are rarer in existing art outside of Hunter’s. For example, those bigger sprites are not even a common size to sprite at, and yet you emulated even that. Honestly there are a lot of examples, but I don’t want to have to point them out one-by-one unless I have to. Though, I’m not sure you’re even aware of just how many things you’re lifting. The point is, anyone who knows Hunter can only see his work in yours. Do you really want to live in his shadow?
Furthermore, when an audience sees these types of strong, unique stylizations, they assume that they came about from the work of the artist. That’s the implication, because the audience trusts you to be honest. They might suspect that there are other artists who do some of the same types of things, but not THIS many of the same things. If you’re taking this much from another person’s work, the audience expects you to mention it. When you don’t, it looks like you were creative and skilled enough to come up with these stylizations on your own, when you really weren’t. Stylizations don’t come up out of thin air. They’re not some free, easy commodity. They take work. Work you didn’t do.
It’s not the same thing as emulating, say, extremely common anime stylizations, because everybody is going to know where they’re coming from and that you didn’t do something really special. I’m going to steal a friend’s wording and say that, if you take certain features that you can’t find reference for on anybody but that person’s work, it’s like taking someone’s “signature.”
It’s sort of disrespectful to Hunter himself, too. It’s obvious by the quality of his artwork that he’s put in a lot of effort to learn about art. To be honest, the quality difference between parts that are clearly “you” (e.g. the clothing folds on the bigger sprites, the arms on the boxer, to an extent the proportions on the brown pants one) and the parts that are heavily based on Hunter’s work kind of show your lack of skill, and most of the appeal from your artwork isn’t coming from you or your own ability. Basically, to any trained eye, you’re coming off as a serious one-trick pony who’s leeching off someone else’s success. I don’t know a nicer way to put it while maintaining my honesty.
2. It hurts you as an artist more than it helps you.
Even if you’re unconvinced by ethics or integrity, this is still definitely valid C+C. By learning someone’s style and not learning art, you’re hurting your growth, big time. Big, big time.
First of all, if you can’t tell the difference between stylizations and reality, then you really don’t know what you’re doing. And when you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to make mistakes. Knowing some style tricks isn’t going to help you with the basics. You can make the same pose 1,000,000 times and impress people with it every time, but when you go outside your style tricks and try a different pose, you’re screwed. Don’t stunt your growth by only learning style tricks. Impressing people feels nice, and all, but being able to impress them with real skill feels better than impressing them with a few glittery tricks.
I highly suggest you read these because they say what I would say anyway. Plus they have pretty pictures and are probably more interesting than me if I reiterated the same things. Seriously, not optional, read them for goodness’ sake:
http://heysawbones.deviantart.com/art/UN...-169660607
http://heysawbones.deviantart.com/art/UN...-169660702
I sort of get the impression that you’re not even doing it on purpose. I just get the impression that you’re just taking Hunter’s work as a reference way, way too seriously. I strongly believe that a key to being a good artist is to learn from reality. When you learn from reality, you can adapt your understanding of reality in various different ways. If all you know is a certain symbol, it’s like you’re caged. You’re stuck to that symbol and you can’t manipulate it in very many ways.
Basically, here are my suggestions for you, all of which I think are outright urgent for your improvement:
1. Learn from reality
2. If your work is too similar to a reference, use more than one reference
3. Learn from more styles than just Hunter’s
4. Use photos or even other artists’ work as reference
5. Read/study some resources like:
http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm
http://nsio.deviantart.com/art/Nsio-expl...-408201339
http://www.scribd.com/doc/255814/Andrew-...re-Drawing
I’m not going to start accusing you of trying to do something malicious on purpose, but you’re committing several big art no-nos right now. You’re lifting things from Hunter’s work to the point that it’s unreasonable and well beyond any claims of “inspiration.” The fact that you’re implying in your posts that the style similarities are something you want to avoid association with makes this whole thing rather…suspect. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions. If possible I’d like to give you a chance to learn about the many, many reasons you shouldn’t do these things and what you can do instead.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself, “here we go again, people are focusing on the style instead of C+C.” But it’s worth your time to listen to these concerns. It really IS valid C+C. I’m not sure if people just haven’t been willing to take the time out to explain why it’s valid. So I’m going to! In a huge essay! Because I’m just that kind of person or something.
I’ll start with the fact that nobody’s going to take your work seriously if you continue this, unless they’re just ignorant of who Hunter is. Then I’ll explain why you shouldn’t want to do this, even if you don’t care about integrity, because you’re only hurting yourself as an artist. And you do seem to care about skill, given that you’ve showed an honest interest in receiving C+C with technical problems.
1. It’s dishonest to your audience.
People notice stylizations that are this unique. People are impressed by it! It’s part of the value. When you take so much of another person’s stylizations for your own use, you’re taking their value as your own.
I’m not saying that Hunter’s style doesn’t have similarities to other styles or that it’s wrong to do things similarly to other artists, but your work doesn’t just have similarities to his style. It’s a strangely active attempt to BE his style. There is almost none of your own personality in here. The parts that are different from Hunter’s seem like they come about due to not matching his skill level rather than attempting to make your own artwork.
It’s not just any one thing individually. It’s that you took A LOT of the things that are rarer in existing art outside of Hunter’s. For example, those bigger sprites are not even a common size to sprite at, and yet you emulated even that. Honestly there are a lot of examples, but I don’t want to have to point them out one-by-one unless I have to. Though, I’m not sure you’re even aware of just how many things you’re lifting. The point is, anyone who knows Hunter can only see his work in yours. Do you really want to live in his shadow?
Furthermore, when an audience sees these types of strong, unique stylizations, they assume that they came about from the work of the artist. That’s the implication, because the audience trusts you to be honest. They might suspect that there are other artists who do some of the same types of things, but not THIS many of the same things. If you’re taking this much from another person’s work, the audience expects you to mention it. When you don’t, it looks like you were creative and skilled enough to come up with these stylizations on your own, when you really weren’t. Stylizations don’t come up out of thin air. They’re not some free, easy commodity. They take work. Work you didn’t do.
It’s not the same thing as emulating, say, extremely common anime stylizations, because everybody is going to know where they’re coming from and that you didn’t do something really special. I’m going to steal a friend’s wording and say that, if you take certain features that you can’t find reference for on anybody but that person’s work, it’s like taking someone’s “signature.”
It’s sort of disrespectful to Hunter himself, too. It’s obvious by the quality of his artwork that he’s put in a lot of effort to learn about art. To be honest, the quality difference between parts that are clearly “you” (e.g. the clothing folds on the bigger sprites, the arms on the boxer, to an extent the proportions on the brown pants one) and the parts that are heavily based on Hunter’s work kind of show your lack of skill, and most of the appeal from your artwork isn’t coming from you or your own ability. Basically, to any trained eye, you’re coming off as a serious one-trick pony who’s leeching off someone else’s success. I don’t know a nicer way to put it while maintaining my honesty.
2. It hurts you as an artist more than it helps you.
Even if you’re unconvinced by ethics or integrity, this is still definitely valid C+C. By learning someone’s style and not learning art, you’re hurting your growth, big time. Big, big time.
First of all, if you can’t tell the difference between stylizations and reality, then you really don’t know what you’re doing. And when you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to make mistakes. Knowing some style tricks isn’t going to help you with the basics. You can make the same pose 1,000,000 times and impress people with it every time, but when you go outside your style tricks and try a different pose, you’re screwed. Don’t stunt your growth by only learning style tricks. Impressing people feels nice, and all, but being able to impress them with real skill feels better than impressing them with a few glittery tricks.
I highly suggest you read these because they say what I would say anyway. Plus they have pretty pictures and are probably more interesting than me if I reiterated the same things. Seriously, not optional, read them for goodness’ sake:
http://heysawbones.deviantart.com/art/UN...-169660607
http://heysawbones.deviantart.com/art/UN...-169660702
I sort of get the impression that you’re not even doing it on purpose. I just get the impression that you’re just taking Hunter’s work as a reference way, way too seriously. I strongly believe that a key to being a good artist is to learn from reality. When you learn from reality, you can adapt your understanding of reality in various different ways. If all you know is a certain symbol, it’s like you’re caged. You’re stuck to that symbol and you can’t manipulate it in very many ways.
Basically, here are my suggestions for you, all of which I think are outright urgent for your improvement:
1. Learn from reality
2. If your work is too similar to a reference, use more than one reference
3. Learn from more styles than just Hunter’s
4. Use photos or even other artists’ work as reference
5. Read/study some resources like:
http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm
http://nsio.deviantart.com/art/Nsio-expl...-408201339
http://www.scribd.com/doc/255814/Andrew-...re-Drawing
![[Image: sxv5uJR.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/cqpCy.gif)