»PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL9: Copy Cats - »CL9: Sceners Without Imagination? »PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL4: By Zerox/Gods »CL7:INTRODUCTION »CL1:In the past and present scene, we've witnessed lots of sceners who have used other artists as a source of inspiration to create their own digital art. We've also noticed that some sceners have gone beyond that and totally copied the work of other artists. »CL0:In this article I'll deal with graphicians, and their sources of inspiration. »CL7:THE SOURCES OF INSPIRATION »CL1:Very few sceners, if any, only create pictures out of their own imagination. Those that rely entirely on their imagination are rarely able to produce detailed images, and images with interesting motives. The few that actually manage that well are quite unique. So about all artists need some kind of inspiration, some reference. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the great classical artists used reference as well. Perhaps Picasso didn't use any reference, but then again... how detailed and well painted are his paintings? Proportions weren't that important to him. »CL0:When it comes to sceners; from the early days until nowadays, they've taken their inspiration from everywhere. We've seen the work of sceners that have gotten their inspiration from nature, from photos, from the work of other artists and more. »CL1:I would dare to say that the person who most sceners have used as a source of inspiration in the past, has to be Boris Vallejo. »CL0:Boris Vallejo was born in Lima, Peru, and attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964. The sceners probably use him as a great source of inspiration because of the great volume of work he has done for the fantasy field. Few have ever pushed the limits as Boris does with his beautiful maidens and fearsome monsters. »CL1:Almost all of the famous graphicians in the scene have used pictures from Boris Vallejo as a reference, and I would say that some have also made more or less true copies. I guess some sceners have been tempted to do it the easy way. They have scanned Boris Vallejos pictures and just retouched them using tools like Photoshop or Photogenics for example. »CL0:Some old and some new graphicians that surely have used pictures from Boris Vallejo, Hajime Sorayama, Fred Field or others as an inspiration are; Lazur, Fusko, Acryl, Bifrost, Cyclone, Beast, Grid, Orome, Cougar, Boo, Slaine, Facet, Destop, Louie, Danny, Rodney, Artcore, FadeOne, T'Vaan, Titan, Rwo, Ra, Noogman, Java, Zack, Uno, Rank, Spiv, Mustafa, Decker, Archmage, Rendall, Suny, Jugi, Fairfax, Fame, Photo$, Fiver, Mack, Hof, Rufferto, D-Mage, Bcr, Peachy, Critikil, Gfx-twins, JCS and certainly Made, among many others. »CL1:(Just like this picture by D-Mage trying to copy Boris Vallejo.) »PIC:eh1» »CL7:NO COPY? »CL1:In the past you could see several pictures with the line "No copy!" very visable. These days you hardly see that anymore. With internet it's so much easier to find out if someone is copying other artists or photos. »CL0:There are several approaches to the subject of using other photos as reference or actually copying other artists. »CL1:You may think that the scene artists who copy others suck. They should perhaps be more creative and not copy ideas from real artists! »CL0:Or perhaps you admire their great technique. These sceners must really appreciate the original artist! How did they manage to make it look so alike with so few colours you might wonder? »CL1:Well, the times when sceners tried to redraw a picture using only a few colours seem to be over. These days it seems to be ok to scan a picture, blend it with Photoshop or Photogenics and use some filter. No wonder we see a lot of photo-realistic faces and alike these days. I'm sure most of you have seen pictures in competitions that resemble a photo picture you've seen somewhere else before. »CL0:Different artists use various techniques to copy the work of other artists. Some simply use a picture as a reference (nice motive) and try to redraw it on their own. Some actually scan a picture or some bits and pieces of photos, paste them together and retouch it here and there, sign it and that's it. Even if there were rumours of famous sceners scanning pictures in the past, and some scandals evolved now and then, I guess the way some sceners "copy" other artists work these days are far worse. In the past some true artists were actually ashamed just using other photos as reference, so they tried to copy just some small bits of the pictures. »PIC:eh3» »CL1:(Just look at this picture by Boris Vallejo, which both Suny and Made copied various bits of.) »CL0:In nowadays scene magazines the graphics debate hasn't been very visable for years. You can really count all the graphic related articles the latest years on one hand. Still some mags try to make a scandal out of artists using a reference. »CL7:ALL ARTISTS COPY »CL1:I mentioned in the beginning that quite many sceners in the past, present and probably in the future also, have used Boris Vallejo as a source of inspiration. They have copied parts of his pictures or the entire pictures. »CL0:Boris Vallejo does the same himself infact. Boris has used photos of bodybuilders and just added their weapons to make them look like warriors, and natually changed the backgrounds. »CL1:We must not forget that it's not only scene artists who copy. For countless generations artists have used forms of reference to help in their creation of art. The fact is, everybody is inspired by the world around him or her. In the world of computers just about everything is much more easy to copy. »CL0:To copy other artists, it's of course also a way to learn and improve technical skills. Some artists manage to get inspired and create even nicer pieces of art than the original. »PIC:eh4» »CL1:(Just look at this photo from Artifex which got inspired by a picture by Burne Hogarth). »CL0:Scenewise however it does irritate me a bit when I notice some rather below average graphicians that changed style over night and then came up with photo-realistic images. To use a picture as a reference is ok, but to scan and just to do some simple retouching is quite lame. Some are so bad that they aren't creative enough to add new elements in the pictures nor changing the colours either. »CL7:NEW ART? »CL1:There are various forms of art, and to scan and retouch a picture is a rather new form of art. However, it simply got nothing to do in the scene competitions as most of us sceners still consider it to be cheating. And when some "artists" sign a photo with their handle, it all seems very un-admirable to me. Sure they'll get their easy fame for a while though, but not much respect at all. I have infact yet to see a picture that was scanned and retouched that has set a standard unreachable by others. To become a real pixel artist is far harder though. So to the few who are yet left , all respect to you! And to those that manage to create quality pictures out of your own imagination, you're simply unique these days.