Tracing backgrounds is one thing, tracing entire characters/scenes is another.
I personally don't see what is so bad about tracing characters/scenes. How is different then tracing backgrounds?
It’s actually NEVER ok to trace backgrounds from the internet either. I went to an art college, and the first thing they teach you in Business 101 Class during your freshmen year is to never commit copyright infringement. They continue to make this very clear throughout the rest of your time in art college. Tracing or having your art only slightly tweaked/adjusted (barely any difference) is considered copyright infringement, and you will be sued and duly punished for doing so. In worst cases, imprisoned or subjected to extremely high fines.
It IS bad, because artists who commit plagiarism is stealing poses, concepts, looks, etc. that other people have already come up with and published (meaning, copyrighted). By committing this act, they are infringing on copyright AND blatantly stealing someone else’s hard work/ideas.
You might not understand this because you’re probably not an artist (or if you yourself are a thief), but emotion-wise, it is extremely unfair and upsetting that someone is stealing from you. It’s not just about the laws, but the original artists’ feelings as well.
You CAN use internet images as reference, but you have to make them look extremely different. In other words, in your own style, drawn from pure sight, or manipulated or distorted enough to look like different things. But tracing and directly copying from a reference to look exactly the same, or being very similar are never ok.
last edited at Mar 24, 2019 2:22AM