Is this inspiration or copying? ART QUESTION!!!?

Question

So, I'm working on a manga/comic and the hardest thing is character consistency when it comes to clothing/facial expressions/poses etc etc. 

So basically what I do is use 1 character as reference for all facial expressions, another character as reference for hair poses(like how the hair looks from different angles) and another character as reference for clothing design/ poses(like how does the cloth look like when sitting,standing,jumping) etc etc

Honestly, I didn't want to depend on other artists work but where else am I supposed to find consistent reference for a clothing design since if I google I can only see from a certain angle and I can't draw well from imagination.

Deimos-remus · Accepted Answer

Shoot your own reference. Illustrators have done this and still do this all the time. Learn to draw the forms instead of relying solely on reference however. 

Norman Rockwell was an amazing draftsman and had great drawing ability, but still used photo reference for his work, this means because of what he knew, he could exaggerate expressions and poses and not just copy a photograph. Using the reference more as a jumping off point.

Anonymous · Answer

Well if you are using several characters as a reference for one, it isn't really copying because they character would not look entirely the same as the rest. So if I have to pick on of the above, I pick inspiration, though its more just referencing than anything

? · Answer

I used to use a method similiar to that when I was a kid drawing comics, but i'm not sure if you could publish or sell it. maybe if you altered it quite a bit, like if the clothes are identical, that would look copied.

Trending News

Is this inspiration or copying? ART QUESTION!!!?

3 Answers