Posting this here...

[telophase]

...to keep it in case the OP deletes the post or the comments. (ETA: And she didn't! She showed quite a lot of class, it seems. Yay!)



Context can be found here, at renji_rukia, where the OP posted a picture she copied from a doujinshi.

This is a nice picture, and I can see you've got talent. However, I'd really like to see more of your original work, instead of something you copied. (I can tell you did not trace. I am not accusing you of that.)

"Inspiration" does not mean "I copied it as closely as I could." It means "This is my version of the same moment."

I want to see what YOUR version of the moment is. You have a unique point of view that nobody else has, and you are cheating the world of that view by giving us someone else's view. It may not be much different than the original artist, but there will be enough differences to make it worth looking at.

This picture may give you an idea of the differences between copying something and being inspired by something. And I know the Naruto pic was definitely inspired by, and not copied, because I drew it without remembering that I'd seen dragonboy-mt's version before. :D



See the differences? The pose is very similar - you cannot copyright a pose, and there are only a certain number of poses in the world. However, I showed Sasuke with a different emotion - I chose to portray the moment a half-second before dragonboy-mt's version: the point of realization of what's going on, while he's showing the reaction of disgust immediately after the realization. I used a different style than he did - his is more sketchy/cartoony, and mine is closer to shounen manga style. We used different color palettes - his is a lighter, cooler one featuring green, and mine's darker and warmer. I'm showing my version straight-on, while he's showing his tilted.

Between yours and the original artist ... there's really not enough of a difference. Why don't you try it from a slightly different angle? Or look at a picture of two different people about to kiss and draw them as Renji and Rukia?

Poses are not copyrightable - you can feel free to draw the exact pose as much as you want. But try doing something else with it. How about that pose, with different emotions on their faces? You'd be telling a different story that way. The original is portraying a moment of shy, sweet love. Why not try to infuse it with more passion? Or how about showing their confusion and hesitancy about the difference in their statuses now that Rukia's a Kuchiki and Renji's still from the streets? Just changing Renji from his school days to his Gotei 13 days doesn't add enough to the picture and the story that the picture is telling.

But I bet you've got a lot of stories within you that are worth seeing. And I want to see them, not someone else's story.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next! Good luck!

Comments

[chisotahn]

Wow, I have to deal with this issue a lot as a moderator on Gaia (where tracing/close copying like that isn't allowed for things that are sold on-site by users for Gaia gold). The way you put it is really well said. Maybe I'll start taking that sort of tack where appropriate to soothe people who are all "OMG I DIDN'T COPY I DREW IT MYSELF" and get really cranky about it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I've put a possible Tracing vs. Copying vs. Inspiration vs. Reference tutorial on my enormous To Do list for the future. I think it's desperately needed, all over everywhere. XD But it needs me to either produce or find examples and get permission to use them. XD (Hopefully dragonboy_mt's still active on DA; I think his and mine is a really good example of what makes the same pose different, and I'd like to use it.) I will probably also put a "trace the major lines" definition, in the way I use it, in there also.

I wasn't sure if the "I want to see what YOU have to say" tack was going to work, but it seems to have been successful, so it's going in my repertoire. XD

[madame-manga.livejournal.com]

Heh -- somewhere around here I've still got that one-to-one comparison between BotI panels and the entire last page of Samurai Zombie, if you want it. ^_^

amberguesa did a lovely drawing of Manji and Rin using an antique woodcut for pose inspiration -- it's an intimate situation but there's no nudity, so it's suitable for general audiences. It's the first pic in this post: http://madame-manga.livejournal.com/87693.html#cutid1
I know she sent me a scan of the original print -- shall I ask her about using the comparison in this context?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The Manji and RIn one might work, yes. :) Thanks!

Not that I know when I'll get to this tutorial. XD

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yay, she took it really well! And you phrased it really well. Hooray for people on the Internet not being retarded!