varuvi: I didn’t want to do this initially but I feel like this has to be done. Superboin has
varuvi: I didn’t want to do this initially but I feel like this has to be done. Superboin has been tracing other peoples’ art for a long time now including old commissions I did even months after being spoken to about it. I ignored it for a while hoping they would stop it or come forward about the whole situation. Despite them saying they won’t trace anymore I find it hard to believe as it’s been months since then and they’re STILL doing it with excuses. The fact that they’re taking commissions/donations makes this even worse, and that’s why I’m taking this publicly. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the sources of all of his traced work, so if you recognise the original artists please let me know or add onto this post, thank you. I’ve had my issues with tracers before and I’ve been met with the same devil advocates and excuses time and time again. I know for a fact that Viorie had taken the time to privately message them and discuss what they were doing, and Superboin had even agreed to change their ways. However, even months later, nothing has changed.Imagine if you will, you’re looking for an a bike while everyone else is walking, trying to find a quick way ahead. Instead of sitting down and figuring out how to make one yourself, you watch someone else figure it out for you and you copy their ideas without actually understanding the internal mechanics. You think you /should/ be making progress now that you made something that /should/ be moving you forward. But that’s a lie. Sure, your bike /looks/pretty, but it can’t move. You’ve built something that doesn’t actually have the mechanics built in, because you skipped actually learning how to build it, and just created the frame. Just like there are multiple ways to approach building a bike, there are also multiple ways to practice art, and there is truly no right or wrong way to approach it. At it’s core, the process is the same regardless of the tactic used. Tracing is in some ways also a valid technique for practicing. HOWEVER. By posting and giving yourself credit for the art, that IS stealing. When it comes to commissions, you are not only conning the original artist by making money off of THEIR work and THEIR skill, but you’re also conning your commissioner who is paying you real money to produce something original specifically for them, something that they can’t go elsewhere to buy. You are not only doing a disservice to everyone who follows you, you are also doing a disservice to yourself. Tracing, like I said, may be a valid technique for practice, but it is /practice/. Especially if you are working towards art as a career, tracing and copying the original work of others is a HUGE mistake. You’re piggybacking on their years of frustration, self-loathing, hard work, and dedication. You’re taking the results of their labor and claiming credit for it all. What took them months to perfect, you took 15 minutes to see and steal.And before you say it, tracing is NOT the highest form of flattery. It’s showing the artist that their work is liked, but not respected. That all that matters to anyone who sees their work is if they could use it for themselves. That all the thought and time they put in to something could invalidated so easily because someone had the audacity to claim their finished work as theirs.This is no different from a person bullying their colleague so they could claim credit for their ideas. This is no different from someone pushing all the work on another student and then writing their own name on the project. Tracing is the result of someone who wishes they could be miles beyond their current skill level, and now having the resources and the anonymity to take those resources for granted. By putting your work online, you’re making yourself more susceptible, yes, but that in no way means does that make it acceptable. Simply because it was inevitable does not make it the fault of the artist. It remains the fault of the tracer who so desperately wanted an easy way out and had the conscience to rip someone else off.You are not a bad person for tracing purely for practice. But by posting it and claiming it as your own, you are basically saying that you don’t care about the original artist. You don’t respect them enough as a person to give them credit where credit is due. What is says about you is that you don’t have the guts to make mistakes and tumble while you push to improve, so you hope that by copying the works of others, it’ll make the journey less painful and also make you feel better about yourself. I know for a fact that I used to trace as a kid. I think at one point, everyone probably did. It’s fine. It is and will always be a way that people use to learn and improve. But if you’re really using it to practice, then what’s the point of making it pretty to post? That’s not the purpose of practicing. It’s not creating pretty works of art for you to show everyone, it’s creating a mountain of mistakes and reaching an epiphany at the end of the tunnel. You then use that epiphany to create something original that /you/ can be proud of.So please, respect the people you admire. Respect the time and effort they put in to improving, because they most certainly have also suffered greatly to be where they are. No one has it easy from the start. Everyone has felt what it’s like to want to be so much better than themselves. You aren’t alone in feeling like you’re lacking or not improving. So don’t alienate yourself by claiming to be someone that you’re not. -- source link
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