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I’m probably going to get a lot of shit for this. Maybe not. I’m not nearly popular enough on DA to make waves. But I need to get it off my chest because it’s been gnawing at me for what seems like forever.

There’s an incredibly popular artist on DA. I won’t say their name/username but you might figure out who he/she is (if you do and ask me if you’re right I won’t confirm either way. This person has a scary large fan base. A few years ago I called a completely different, popular artist out directly on the issue I’m going to address below and was threatened with a reporting and banning by said artist. Lovely.)

Their work is on the front page a lot - very clean and eye catching. Their style is distinctive enough that you can tell who it is right away. Everything and anything they post gets a ridiculous amount of favs. Not going to lie, this person has a lot of talent (though not my cup of tea – too… “sterile” if that makes any sense). Very involved in one particular fandom, but has touched on others, and does a fair amount of original work too.

I throw out the word “original” lightly though as very little of their work is “original”.

They are a “ pose-jacker”, “eyeballer”, “copier” maybe another phrase I haven’t heard of. They take the work of another artist, copy the pose (and often other distinctive elements of the design), throw in different hair, eyes, outfit and call it their own.

It’s not their own, not to me anyway. To me, it’s theft. You’re not just copying a pose nearly line for line, you steal the concept, the idea. Art is more than just a pretty pose put together well skillfully. It’s the idea, the concept, the feeling that’s behind it as well. Just because you change a hair style there, an outfit here, put in a new background doesn’t make it your own.

What kills me though is they freely admit this. They don’t try to hide the fact the pose was copied. I need to go back and check their gallery but this person didn’t used to admit it – until some people started calling them out on it. But even then, no big deal to this artist, they liked the pose so… they stole it.

And that really… I want to say disgusts me but that’s strong. It’s bothersome.

It’s even more bothersome that this person’s fans… don’t care. By all the favs and positive comments it’s accepted.

That really disgusts me. It just goes to show that a pretty shiny picture gets more attention than one that maybe the coloring isn’t so hot… or the anatomy is off… but has an original pose, an original idea, has real meaning behind it. People are paying this person to steal concepts and replace their own character with it. All flock to the shiny and the meaningless nearly always…

When I first started drawing I did what this artist did A LOT. If you dig around on the internet under my old usernames before DA even existed (now I’m really showing my age) you might be able to find some of it. It’s almost all I ever did. I did try to do my own poses, my own expressions, and so on but I felt it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t as good as what Professional Artist A, B & C did so I’d just copy their ideas, their poses, their art and lap up all the praise. But I tried to hide it – I never admitted what it really was, stealing someone else’s art. I knew deep down it was wrong. And over time I broke out of that nasty habit. Was it harder to draw without eyeballing, without stealing someone else’s work? Yes. But I learned and grew from that more than I ever could by doing what I used to do.

I’ll never be as popular as the artist above. I’ll never get as many favs, comments, praise and admiration. I’ll never have people inspired by a concept I create and have them to their own. I’ll never have people batting at my door for commission work or get the comment “I want to draw just like you” or “I wish I was as talented as you” and so on.

But in the grand scheme of things I feel I am the better artist. I will grow. I will improve. Because I don’t limit myself to what I see in front of me. You keep looking and copying the same things over and over there is nowhere to grow.

All you can do is wait and see what you can steal from someone else.