Copying someone else's art (again) . . .

In a previous post, I talked about copying someone else's art, not the whole work, just the structure, and how you can make something completely different, but the "bones" of the piece were inspired by the original.

Let me show you another example, which is, indeed, a blatant copy of someone else's work.

Rich and CJ had (maybe they still have) a painting hanging in their house which I've always liked. The top photo here shows you what it looks like.

I took a cellphone shot of the painting and then, purposely, tried to replicate that painting in the computer. It's slightly different, but who am I fooling? It's a copy. I would never offer it for sale. It was a fun exercise for me and I like the result. But it's still a copy.

What making that copy led to, however, is something quite different. I used the forms and the colors to make a photomontage called "Science." The photomontage was even more fun to do and I consider it my own work.

What copying the painting did give me was a lovely palette of colors to work with. On my own, I doubt I would have put those colors together, especially the green and the slightly purplish-blue.

So yes, the colors and the forms in "Science" are the result of my copying Rich and CJ's original painting, but what I created in this case bears no resemblance to the original. I had no attack of conscience when I uploaded it to Fine Art America, and no attack of conscience when it sold.

An aside: I admire a Vermont artist by the name of Jane Davies. She posts video tutorials all the time of her work and how she creates it. I followed one of her videos, made eighteen images using her colors, her technique, and liked them. I then uploaded them to Fine Art America for sale. It bothered me a little when I did it. And it bothered me the entire time they were up. I took them all down last week and feel much better. I'm just happy they didn't sell!

Bottom line? Copying someone else's work is an exercise that encourages you to expand in your own art, whether you're a photographer, painter, quilter, collage artist, etc.

By playing with someone else's compositions, color palettes, techniques, you will gradually move away from their style and (hopefully) create your own look, your own style, your own way of expressing yourself through whatever medium you choose.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Copying someone else's art . . .

Sometimes I'll see a photo, a drawing, a painting, and, instead of seeing what it IS, I notice the composition, the movement, the elemental blocks of the picture. And I'll save the image for future reference, an image that might inspire me to perhaps create a photomontage using that same picture's structure. Not the technique. Not the same elements. Not the subject matter. Just the way the picture was put together.

And that's the case here. Have I copied someone else's art? Have I used their same subject matter, their technique, the actual picture? You tell me.

Up top you see a photomontage I created a few weeks ago. What inspired me was a photo I'd saved. A photo of rusted metal and rivets. I wish now that I'd saved the photographer's name along with the photo.

Because I'm drawn to rusty stuff, this photo caught my eye. But what really drew me in was the simple composition. A triangular form at the bottom with two rectangular-ish forms in the background. So that's where I began.

I blocked out my canvas, rummaged through my photographs of walls and various textures, put a big triangle at the bottom with two different-colored vertical elements behind it.

It was boring. But that's where the fun begins. I added other elements, removed some of them, altered others, looked through more of my photo files to see what I could add, how some ink slashes might look against the background colors, etc.

All that experimentation, based on a simple photograph of rusted metal, resulted in the colorful work up top, an image I call "Colograph." It also looks particularly well as a tote bag, which appears on my Fine Art America website. (This isn't an ad for the tote bag; I just thought you'd like to see how cool an image can look on one!) And I also think my "Colorgraph" image would look great printed on metal. But I digress...

Have I copied the photograph of rusted metal? I would say no. Did I copy the texture, the colors? No. But I did copy the basic bones of the photographer's composition. How he or she created something cool by using some simple geometric shapes and how I came up with something interesting and, importantly, decidedly different.

Just thought you'd like to see some background behind this particular photomontage.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!