A question about references and copyright

[mika_land]

Outside of studying I'm timid to use references from the internet (especially Pintrest) due to copyright.  Like I'm not going for monetary gain with studies, but when I'm doing a personal piece or a commission I'm not sure where I stand.  A couple years ago I didn't use references (cause I was stupid and thought as long as I practiced I didn't need them ) but for the past 2 years I've been using them but I feel uncomfortable doing so.  I don't want to feel like I'm stealing or anything.  I mainly feel  like I'm stealing when I can't find the original artist or photographer and can't cite them.  I usually use multiple references on a personal piece anyway so it' s not too obvious, but I still get the feeling. 

What is your stance on using references and copyright?  Is it okay to use a reference you find even if you can't find the original artist to cite?   How should I think about this?

[darktiste]

You gotta learn the difference between iteration and copying.There a thiny line between copying and iteration.Copy is making a work that is as close as possible from the original.Iteration is when you take some piece of a work and you create something new with it.But you don't take enough of the original to make it obvious.Let say you have goku from dragon ball and you wanna make a cool fighter but you take goku head and put in on a totaly different body that still copying because there enough information to say this without a doubt someone else work.To avoid any possible copyright issue you gotta make sure your altering the work sufficiantly.For example you take the mona lisa but you set her in a totally new era you take the same pose and you change the background.Some people might be able to tell it an alternate version of the mona lisa but you have created something sufficiently different that borrow element from a sucessful piece of pop culture.But you won,t get in trouble since the copyright of this artwork is long become public domain.What is a safe thing to do is take reference that are already public domain this mean they are free to use piece of art photo and etc.

It perfectly fine to use a reference for studying the issue is more when you try to steal the credit of an other artist and step on there revenue or you try to impersonate those person.

I hope this was helpful.

[mika_land]

You gotta learn the difference between iteration and copying.There a thiny line between copying and iteration.Copy is making a work that is as close as possible from the original.Iteration is when you take some piece of a work and you create something new with it.But you don't take enough of the original to make it obvious.Let say you have goku from dragon ball and you wanna make a cool fighter but you take goku head and put in on a totaly different body that still copying because there enough information to say this without a doubt someone else work.To avoid any possible copyright issue you gotta make sure your altering the work sufficiantly.For example you take the mona lisa but you set her in a totally new era you take the same pose and you change the background.Some people might be able to tell it an alternate version of the mona lisa but you have created something sufficiently different that borrow element from a sucessful piece of pop culture.But you won,t get in trouble since the copyright of this artwork is long become public domain.What is a safe thing to do is take reference that are already public domain this mean they are free to use piece of art photo and etc.

It perfectly fine to use a reference for studying the issue is more when you try to steal the credit of an other artist and step on there revenue or you try to impersonate those person.

I hope this was helpful.

 This helps a bit.  Are you saying that pop culture references are public domain?  What if it's an independent photographer of no one, erm, well known?  But otherwise what I'm getting is that if you alter it enough to make it "your own"  then it should be okay.....


I figure a example of what's in my head might help here. I have an artist that I follow that uses pinterest for his (her?) pieces.  But the alterations feel light to me. [Rashed AlAkroka] Though Rashed said that there has never been a problem.  Do you think the pieces here have sufficient alterations?

And thanks for taking the time to answer my question!

[darktiste]

No it mean that certain piece of art have been donate to the public domain and can be free of use.If you take a photo and it contain copyrighted material i think it still make it impossible for you to show those brand.But don't quote on me i am not an expert on copyright infringement.

This It not a subject i found lot of information on right away so i totally understand your feeling toward using work that isn't your own.One other thing that is generally best practice to avoid i know your not at this stage is to not put fan art in a portfolio.Also as you start your art journey try to stay away from blatantly copying other work as it might sap your creativity growth try to think outside the box mixing element from totally opposite influence to create something totally new.For example combine 2 word and see what you can come up with using those two word to expand on.There is way to generate idea that should make copyright not such an issue for you.

I think a part of problem is beginner artist tend to rely on other people work at first because they leak technique to generate there own idea.So they heavly rely on other artist work to generate there idea and sense of confidence.

I am not suggesting not copying i am mainly saying don't try to impersonate an artist or steal artist content and if you copy exactly someone else work credit the original artist so your not getting in trouble.

[Pubic Enemy]

This depends somewhat on where you're living, since some countries have more lax criteria for fair use than others. In the US, for example, whether or not something is a copyright infringement or fair use is determined by multiple factors, if a dispute actually goes to court. Generally, using someone else's photo as a reference for your painting would probably be considered to be sufficiently "transformative" to not be an infringement, particularly if you only referenced part of the photo. This goes doubly if you are using reference in a traditional way and not pasting bits into your painting to paint over 1:1.

Heavy reference usage is ubiquitous in commercial art, and there are some very popular professional artists who have paintings that are practically photo-paintovers, and while this has occasionally sparked arguments on Internet forums, I have not actually heard of any of them receiving a cease and desist letter or anything of the sort. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough, but I have not heard of such a thing. So, even if it is an infringement, it appears that no one cares. If you are still very concerned, use free public domain images from sites like free-images.com only, or take your own photos.

[mika_land]

@darktiste  Okay.  I understand the "free of use" stuff clearly now. And now I understand what you are saying about the other images as well.  Thanks!   Forgive me for being so timid about this.  I just wanna do the right thing. DX Oh and yes, thanks for letting me know about fan art in my portfolio!  I'm still building mine.  I need to make more of my own art first I think.  Too much fan art.  

@Pubic Enemy I figured it might be different for different countries.  Funny thing is before coming on here asking a "larger audience", I asked three artists on DA that I like and I kept getting different answers.  Of course a couple are from a different country too.  Guess I didn't think through well enough. Though no one I've talked to really knows the law either they just go with the flow of what other artists are doing.  I don't have a problem with that, just feeling a bit uncomfortable.   I'm from the USA, just putting that out there.  Thanks for your reply it helps to know it doesn't have to be almost totally different from the reference.



Thanks guys I think I can move forward with a little more confidence now!

[Artloader]

@mika_land: One safe thing to do would be to use images that allow you to use them for free commercially or non-commercially, checkout this site:

https://unsplash.com/license

[mika_land]

@mika_land:  One safe thing to do would be to use images that allow you to use them for free commercially or non-commercially, checkout this site:

https://unsplash.com/license

This looks like a great site!  Thanks!