(Source: iraffiruse, via onlylonelypicture)

nerdwire:

Artists Who Steal

It’s been a while since I’ve been on a soap-box, but I thought I would get on one and put this out there today.

There are two rules I have learned over the years when it comes to creating art.  Rule one, everything is a remix.  And two, steal like an artist.  Rule one has a lot deeper meaning than we’ll get in to right now so this is mainly going to focus on rule two.

A year and a half ago there was an artist by the name of Jerod Gibson who had started releasing these art prints based on movies and television.  It was this weird hybrid of minimalism meets typography and I immediately fell in love with it.  He has since taken the pieces down from his gallery but you can view some examples of his work here, here and here.  And it’s where a lot of my style get’s it inspiration from.

Here’s where steal like an artist comes in.  You have to find your niche when it comes to art.  And I know that it can sometimes be hard.  But the way I have done that is by finding artists that I like and adapting their style to suit my own.  Strong examples of those artists are people like Jerod Gibson and cronobreaker and David Schwen.  And I think that in my art their inspiration shines through.

The most obvious influences of mine comes from Gibson in my typography pieces but there are more.  My Portal Potty piece is very Schwenesque where it’s this piece created from witty literal representations of two words together and it teeters on the edge of being a sight gag, but to me it’s humorous.  My Yetee Art Gallery exclusive is like this cross between Cronobreaker and Dan Hipp.  Thick outlines accent the art and yellow to pink filters give it this finish that it wouldn’t otherwise have.

But those are the ways you steal like an artist.  You take these little bits of artists you like and you throw them into a piece that is all new and is still you.

There’s this piece — reference the bottom piece in this post — by Felix Fiallos that gained some notoriety over the weekend.  It’s basically a straight rip of my piece from early 2011.

Here’s where my thoughts and feelings get cut by a two-edged blade.  On one hand, I am flattered that an artist would be so inspired by me that they do “fan-art” for my art.  That they would rip me off and sell my hard work passing it off as their own get’s my undies in a wad.  It wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if he had just cited me as a source for his work.  But he didn’t.  He never learned to steal like an artist.

My advice for upcoming artists and Felix especially is be creative.  You don’t have to make something original, just make something new.  Find artists you like and take little bits and put them into your’s.  Don’t completely steal an idea.  Steal like an artist.

And followers, don’t promote art from a thief.  Be thorough in finding citation and originality in your art.  You guys are good at that anyway.  Don’t promote stuff from any thief actually.  I’m looking at you 9Gag.