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CL9:              Copy Cats -
CL9:     Sceners Without Imagination?
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CL4:             By Zerox/Gods

CL7:INTRODUCTION

CL1:In  the  past and present scene, we've
witnessed  lots  of  sceners  who have
used  other  artists  as  a  source of
inspiration   to   create   their  own
digital  art.  We've also noticed that
some sceners have gone beyond that and
totally   copied  the  work  of  other
artists.

CL0:In   this   article   I'll  deal  with
graphicians,   and  their  sources  of
inspiration.

CL7:THE SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

CL1:Very  few sceners, if any, only create
pictures out of their own imagination.
Those  that  rely  entirely  on  their
imagination are rarely able to produce
detailed   images,   and  images  with
interesting  motives.   The  few  that
actually  manage  that  well are quite
unique.   So  about  all  artists need
some   kind   of   inspiration,   some
reference.    It   shouldn't  surprise
anyone   that   the   great  classical
artists   used   reference   as  well.
Perhaps   Picasso   didn't   use   any
reference,   but  then  again...   how
detailed  and  well  painted  are  his
paintings?   Proportions  weren't that
important to him.

CL0:When  it  comes  to  sceners; from the
early  days  until  nowadays,  they've
taken     their    inspiration    from
everywhere.   We've  seen  the work of
sceners   that   have   gotten   their
inspiration  from nature, from photos,
from  the  work  of  other artists and
more.

CL1:I  would  dare  to say that the person
who most sceners have used as a source
of  inspiration in the past, has to be
Boris Vallejo.

CL0:Boris  Vallejo was born in Lima, Peru,
and  attended  the  National School of
Fine Arts in his native country before
immigrating  to  the  United States in
1964.  The sceners probably use him as
a  great source of inspiration because
of  the  great  volume  of work he has
done  for the fantasy field.  Few have
ever  pushed  the limits as Boris does
with   his   beautiful   maidens   and
fearsome monsters.

CL1:Almost  all  of the famous graphicians
in  the  scene have used pictures from
Boris  Vallejo  as  a reference, and I
would  say  that  some  have also made
more  or  less  true  copies.  I guess
some  sceners  have been tempted to do
it  the  easy  way.  They have scanned
Boris   Vallejos   pictures  and  just
retouched   them   using   tools  like
Photoshop or Photogenics for example.

CL0:Some old and some new graphicians that
surely  have  used pictures from Boris
Vallejo,  Hajime  Sorayama, Fred Field
or   others  as  an  inspiration  are;
Lazur, Fusko, Acryl, Bifrost, Cyclone,
Beast,   Grid,   Orome,  Cougar,  Boo,
Slaine,  Facet,  Destop, Louie, Danny,
Rodney,   Artcore,   FadeOne,  T'Vaan,
Titan,  Rwo,  Ra, Noogman, Java, Zack,
Uno,   Rank,  Spiv,  Mustafa,  Decker,
Archmage,    Rendall,    Suny,   Jugi,
Fairfax,  Fame,  Photo$,  Fiver, Mack,
Hof,  Rufferto,  D-Mage,  Bcr, Peachy,
Critikil, Gfx-twins, JCS and certainly
Made, among many others.

CL1:(Just  like  this  picture  by  D-Mage
trying to copy Boris Vallejo.)


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CL7:NO COPY?

CL1:In  the  past  you  could  see several
pictures with the line "No copy!" very
visable.   These  days  you hardly see
that  anymore.   With internet it's so
much  easier to find out if someone is
copying other artists or photos.

CL0:There  are  several  approaches to the
subject   of  using  other  photos  as
reference  or  actually  copying other
artists.

CL1:You  may  think that the scene artists
who  copy  others  suck.   They should
perhaps  be more creative and not copy
ideas from real artists!

CL0:Or  perhaps  you  admire  their  great
technique.   These sceners must really
appreciate  the  original artist!  How
did  they  manage  to  make it look so
alike  with  so  few colours you might
wonder?
  
CL1:Well,  the times when sceners tried
to  redraw  a picture using only a few
colours  seem  to be over.  These days
it  seems  to be ok to scan a picture,
blend it with Photoshop or Photogenics
and use some filter.  No wonder we see
a  lot  of  photo-realistic  faces and
alike  these  days.   I'm sure most of
you have seen pictures in competitions
that  resemble  a photo picture you've
seen somewhere else before.

CL0:Different    artists    use    various
techniques  to  copy the work of other
artists.  Some simply use a picture as
a  reference  (nice motive) and try to
redraw it on their own.  Some actually
scan a picture or some bits and pieces
of  photos,  paste  them  together and
retouch it here and there, sign it and
that's it.  Even if there were rumours
of famous sceners scanning pictures in
the  past,  and  some scandals evolved
now  and  then,  I  guess the way some
sceners   "copy"  other  artists  work
these days are far worse.  In the past
some   true   artists   were  actually
ashamed  just  using  other  photos as
reference,  so they tried to copy just
some small bits of the pictures.

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CL1:(Just  look  at  this picture by Boris
Vallejo,  which  both  Suny  and  Made
copied various bits of.)

CL0:In   nowadays   scene   magazines  the
graphics   debate   hasn't  been  very
visable  for  years.   You  can really
count all the graphic related articles
the  latest  years on one hand.  Still
some mags try to make a scandal out of
artists using a reference.

CL7:ALL ARTISTS COPY

CL1:I  mentioned  in  the  beginning  that
quite   many   sceners  in  the  past,
present  and  probably  in  the future
also,  have  used  Boris  Vallejo as a
source   of  inspiration.   They  have
copied  parts  of  his pictures or the
entire pictures.

CL0:Boris  Vallejo  does  the same himself
infact.   Boris  has  used  photos  of
bodybuilders   and  just  added  their
weapons   to   make   them  look  like
warriors,  and  natually  changed  the
backgrounds.

CL1:We  must not forget that it's not only
scene artists who copy.  For countless
generations artists have used forms of
reference to help in their creation of
art.    The   fact  is,  everybody  is
inspired  by  the  world around him or
her.   In  the world of computers just
about  everything is much more easy to
copy.

CL0:To  copy other artists, it's of course
also   a  way  to  learn  and  improve
technical skills.  Some artists manage
to  get inspired and create even nicer
pieces of art than the original.

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CL1:(Just  look at this photo from Artifex
which  got  inspired  by  a picture by
Burne Hogarth).

CL0:Scenewise  however it does irritate me
a  bit when I notice some rather below
average graphicians that changed style
over  night  and  then  came  up  with
photo-realistic   images.   To  use  a
picture  as  a reference is ok, but to
scan   and  just  to  do  some  simple
retouching is quite lame.  Some are so
bad  that  they aren't creative enough
to  add  new  elements in the pictures
nor changing the colours either.

CL7:NEW ART?

CL1:There are various forms of art, and to
scan and retouch a picture is a rather
new  form  of art.  However, it simply
got   nothing   to  do  in  the  scene
competitions  as  most  of  us sceners
still consider it to be cheating.  And
when  some "artists" sign a photo with
their   handle,   it  all  seems  very
un-admirable  to me.  Sure they'll get
their  easy  fame  for a while though,
but  not  much respect at all.  I have
infact  yet  to see a picture that was
scanned  and  retouched that has set a
standard  unreachable  by  others.  To
become  a  real  pixel  artist  is far
harder  though.  So to the few who are
yet left , all respect to you!  And to
those  that  manage  to create quality
pictures  out of your own imagination,
you're simply unique these days.
