Inspiration vs. Imitation

7:21 pm - Mon, Dec 5, 2011: 1,089 notes

Inspiration vs. Imitation

My principles of illustration teacher sent me this blog entry written by one of his pals Jessica Hische. It is about inspiration vs. imitation and I think it’s pretty insightful and a helpful read for inspiring artists of all kinds.

Here’s a little snippet:

” TO BE A GOOD ARTIST / letterer / designer / guitar player it takes practice. A lot of it. More than you can even fathom when you’re starting out. If you wanted to become a great guitar player, you wouldn’t buy a fancy guitar and immediately start composing songs… you would pick up a song book, or look up some tablature music on the internet, and teach yourself how to play using other people’s music. You would emulate the greats and learn from them, as they learned from others in the past. You’d spend hours alone trying to be like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page or whomever you really admired. Then, once you were well practiced and felt confident in your abilities to play, you’d form a band, you’d write your own songs, and you’d find your own voice.

When you’re learning, it’s not wrong to copy people—to learn from them the way that they learned from others before them. What many young artists have a problem realizing though, is that the work you create while practicing and learning is completely separate of what you do professionally. Just because you can play OK Computer cover to cover doesn’t mean you should record an album of your renditions and release them under your name. You know that any such action would leave you up to your eyeballs in legal problems. Copy all you wish in private, and once you feel confident in your skills, create your own original public work… (click to read more)

1. Everything Jessica Hische writes is gold, and

2. this is a fantastic article. Definitely worth clicking through to read the entire thing.

I was, coincidentally, just recently approached by a young artist whose art was fantastic… But it was fantastic because it looked exactly like the work of an established illustrator, one I adore and can immediately pick out of a lineup. I was having a hell of a time trying to find a way to tell them that they should find their own artistic voice without condemning what they’re doing, but this article is a damn good start.

-C