I wouldn't say copying art is the worst sin. In film we're continuously taught that you emulate the styles that you like and your own style will grow out of what you find to be useful, pleasing, etc. I say make some pieces like theirs; try similar techniques of artists you like and you may find some times work for you and others may be altered. That sort of thing has worked for me when it comes to machinima and editing, even photomanipulations. Your style is something that takes a while to be born and adapt. Yours at the moment is fantastic; there's no shame in looking towards others' styles when it comes to your own evolution :3

(Flat out recreation of their pictures though without any mention isn't good, but making something in a similar style isn't~)

Thanks Shadow. I'm glad to hear people like my art style now at least. I kind of want to shift around on it though, and try different things to express certain emotions better, or just strong definitions in my art. Really hit home some 'style'. I guess I do need to try and set up to play around, adapt, and see what I can learn from another persons style. I think I've actually done that in less specific terms lately with some of my art. I recall my earliest style was based on Black Dragon(Aka Black Rat) as it was easy to pick up, and define position of things. Later I fell in love with Jakkals art, and emulated that when I was still in high school.

Recently I tried playing with some inspiration from Squeegee.

I'd say pinpoint exactly what it is you like about the style and focus on improving those aspects. For instance if you like how someone captures expressions, then you'd probably want to focus what they're doing that you like most. So for me I love expressive artists and wanted to draw more like that. So I found that the eyes really are what sold what the artist is aiming for… Does that make sense? XD

Its not copying, but it is breaking down what they're doing and adding the similar elements to your own style. Which in turn will aim you down the path you're looking to go. At least for me it has…

LOL ANYWAYS I'll stop now xD

Thank you buddy. I just really like to hear another persons opinion or even experiences on what they found helpful. Art has always been a confusing thing for me I just kind of 'did' without much proper regimentation. I haven't really played with Emotions, but I want to some more. I try to use reference at least of people faces while trying to draw expressions, heh. Eyes have always been a hard part, but I like to focus a lot of time on those myself. I do understand what you mean though, thanks :)

Copying art is only a "sin" if you try to pass it off as your own, its actually an extremely good way of practicing and learning different styles, Copy away guilt free!


Life drawing is the best practice, if you cant get to real life drawing classes theres options online, also practice drawing freehand circles, real fast and loose trying to get them as round as possible, jsut do hundreds of them on a page. )

Life Drawing was always the least fun for me in classes, though I think I should try to play with that more again. I think I enjoyed drawing the draped cloth on the stool they were on more than drawing their body though, heh.

Also for the drawing freehand circles, would drawing like straight lines as well be good practice to go along with it? I think I could maybe set up some sort of drawing schedule or homework to play around with getting better as well.

Thank you so much HammyToy. I really appreciate your feedback on this a ton. I know you have a LOT of practice drawing, and your feedback means a ton to hear from you. <3

Hehe I HATE life drawing, I find it boring and frustrating.. but I have to be honest and admit it is probably the most beneficial practice :), The circle exercise is a good way to develop more confident lines, When you get comfortable freehanding circles quickly, the line quality of everything you do improves, not sure if practicing straight lines would help or not, guess it couldnt hurt . Basically it helps break the habit of having nervous scratchy lines, which happens when people are very unsure of themselves :)

Thanks. Glad to know I'm not the only one who hates Life Drawing, heh. It is a necessary evil I guess and I'll look more into it. I'm genuinely interested in just improving in my art still, but towards a specific style if I can help it :)

Not all copying is bad! Personally I LOVE being able to pick out my influence in other people's stuff, what little I influence I got. It's mostly straight up tracing & reposting that would bother a reasonable artist.

In practice though, tracing is actually a decent way to learn stuff, completely reverse engineer it. Just don't post the exercise afterward, natch.

Occasionally I'll get smitten with the way some artist draws, & I trace it in file I never save. This helps me learn facial tricks, especially. You'll find that suddenly the shapes of their bits & pieces are stored in your mental Mr. Potato Head parts library forever. For example, I traced alot of Donald Duck as a kid, and I can still draw Disney duck bills on the fly like I used to in my highschool notebook doodles. Nowadays I'm always applying the shape of a Disney duck's lower jaw to my drawings, even when it's a mammal muzzle. Because the sides of my mouth are my own personal style of wobbly line, the Disney influence on my mouths is still novel, hard to even pick out until I mention it.

DEFINITELY ALSO KEEP DRAWING FROM PHOTOS though, copying those for practice is pretty much a mandatory phase of art school. Although with photos, you learn more freehand than tracing. Once you can manage to perfectly duplicate a photo without tracing it, you're fucking talented, and you can post the results proudly with a link the photo. Before you achieve perfection there though, you can't even help smothering photos it in your own style, it just comes naturally. And when it comes to reality, don't even stress out about plagiarizing it at all, really. That also takes & builds talent.

SINCE YOU'RE FURRY you should especially try & reverse engineer some photos of animal faces while you're reverse engineering other people's drawings of 'em. Photos help to separate which shapes you actually see when you look at something from what you might wanna see, or what you imagine seeing. Other people's drawings can only tell you what you like or dislike seeing. Since you're into TF, I'd reccomend photoreffing the head of an animal, and then leaving its eyes abstractly humanoid for that "Help mee, I was human just a minute ago" look. Give animals eyes & mouths in the style of an artist you admire, it's alot of fun & you learn tricks that stick with you.

Thanks Ness!

I might just have to do more practice then with art, and artists I really like. Drawing more might also be a bit of an answer in the whole thing. Reverse Engineering was what I was hoping Id be able to do from another artists art, and I know that the more you play with different art styles, the more your own style starts to become a unique thing from the influence of all of them, and your own quirks that makes it your own. The how had just always confused me mostly.

I think Im going to set up some sort of homework for me to work on Photos, and art, and just generally practicing more drawing. I kind of want to get good at it, heh. Good advice on the TF stuff too. Sounds like a lot of fun. I really appreciate the feedback, it means a lot to hear from you on it.

copying art is how you learn, I've had great art teachers (in high school and college) that have told me to copy what you like and then make it your own. you should check out the book Steal like an Artist, I literally couldn't stop reading it.

Thanks HDF! Really appreciate hearing feedback from you, and hope things are going well for ya. :)