STOP ART-EDITORS WEEK

[MadelineLime 45]

From here: deidiva.tumblr.com

I have noticed this pops up in Detective Conan fandom, so it can't be stressed enough. Also redrawing someone else's work, even official artwork, is just as bad. If you need to practice by recreating, that's fine, but that doesn't make it yours. Don't post it online, it is PRACTICE.

> > > STOP ART-EDITORS WEEK < < < 

[september 30th - october 6th]

The beginning week of October will be dedicated to raising awareness about art editing and the results it has on artists and the artist community. 

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WHY ART EDITING IS BAD: 

To give a brief definition, editing art is taking another person’s hard work and tweaking it to please the editor, to make it ‘more interesting’. Artists spend SO much time on their work, making it exactly fit their artistic vision, and when they’re ready to share their work with the world, people think it’s okay to take their hard work, spend two minutes ‘fixing’ it up in photoshop and get credit for it. Because that’s what art editing is— editing another person’s artwork and recieving credit and praise for it. Think about the real artist’s feelings before you even think about editing. 

Most editors get their work from pivix, a japanese art website. So with the obvious language difference, editors are unable to ask permission to edit work in the first place. So if you don’t have permission, nor are you able to ask for it, why would you think it’s okay to edit and post another persons art? 

Another point is that pixiv artists aren’t dumb. A lot of them know what tumblr is. Hell, even some of them have tumblr blogs. They don’t miss what you’re doing to their work, and that is why a lot of them take down their work and some of them never post their art again, which is a shame to lose great artists over something so stupid. 

Think of it like this— say I went downtown to New Orleans, down to the French Quarter where many artists line up on the street to display their art. Now an art editor comes around and takes a painting from one of the vendors and pulls it aside, whipping out their paintbrush and adding their own little details. The vendor watches in horror as the editor places it back, shrugging off the vendor. “It looks better doesn’t it?”

Don’t say it’s not the same thing because it is. 

Art you find on the internet does not belong to you. Unless you are the original poster, you have no right to take and edit another person’s work. It does NOT and will NEVER belong to you. Just because it is easier to access on the computer does not mean it is not as valuable as tangible art. What this all boils down to is respect. 

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SOME COMMON EXCUSES: 

‘I can’t draw, this is my way of expressing myself artistically!’ 

Learn how to draw! Drawing takes time, hard work and practice. And if you’re still not finding that drawing is your thing, and hey, maybe you enjoy editing images! If you really want to edit, try editing official work. This art is made to be mass produced, and the artists are aware of this. Another alternative is stock photos— deviantART, for example, has plenty of stock photos for you to use! That’s what they’re there for!

‘We’re celebrating the artist by making tributes to their work!’

No. You’re butchering their hard work and effort by cropping, adding saturation and uneccesary textures. Ask permission, and if they say yes ( which is very rare ), then you have the green light to do so! Permission is key here.

 ’But we provide sources!’ 

That’s not the point. The point is that editing art without permission is wrong and dumb, and it goes against most artist wishes. Crediting them does not suddenly make it a-ok for you to edit their work.

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SOURCING ART:

ZEROCHAN IS NEVER A SOURCE.

NEITHER IS WEHEARTIT.

NEITHER IS PHOTOBUCKET. Stop linking art there.

The internet is really handy for these kinds of things, and thats what reverse google image search and websites like SAUCENAO are for! When in doubt, keep it out. 

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Don’t let editors think that what they are doing is acceptable. Here’s what you can do to help stop this:

1) DON’T REBLOG EDITS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I  LITERALLY CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. If you like the picture, repost it as original with source to actual ARTIST. We need to stop supporting editors.

2) If you know someone who edits, kindly inform them or link them to this post. Speaking up about this is essential. If you don’t let them know what they are doing is terrible, they will NOT stop. 

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THANK YOU FOR READING and reblog to spread the word!

[Jas 20]

drawing a picture from a scene of an anime episode.. is that considered as art editing? i have to stop it then LOL

[MadelineLime 45]

I can say I have taken scenes, tiny images of pokemon, or other various art and recreated them with a different medium altogether, (frequently a process in art school to teach color theory), and made large paintings of them. The problem online is more of a taking someone's artwork, editing colors or cropping it differently, and posting that instead. Sometimes they don't even link to the original! As long as you aren't pretending the entire thing was your idea, so to speak? It's not something that would be hugely frowned on in this week thing.

Redrawing something is a great process to learn how someone else draws. I know I unconsciously trace lines in my head when reading comics and manga, and when I watch cartoons and anime. I even do it with live actors! I think it might depend on the circumstances, to be honest. If you say, take something and change it a bit, especially if you redraw it larger or whatever, that's one thing. If you do what some people do which is take a well known photograph and make it into a painting, and then sell prints, that's a copyright violation of the photographer's work and you can be sent a cease and desist (and then sued if you ignore it!) in the USA.

Does that help? I feel like I ran in circles a little bit with that.

[Miss Smiles 105]

I think I understand where you come from, because art practice call for creativity. What Madeline means is copyright, as it boils down to name labelling. Madeline, you have good idea but you might as well educate online artist combat plagiarism, I mean that, which artist should ignore if you have good point which had not reach them? You talking to art honor alumni, major in painting and landscape theme, I understand every bit you say as you feel you go around in circles and practically you taking leaf out of art curator's word, and all artist are to hold responsible protecting their own artwork.

If can't sign their artwork, can establish somewhere in site this is their copyright. And all educated artist won't resort to make photography into painting as it is stupid to do if to ruin his or her reputation. And if art editor react strongly (such as innocence, or he or she is just a country lad don't know anything about copyright) to accusation being thrown, artists and critics are to remind them with proper means to get point across.

[Wicky 11]

This is unstoppable... Nearly.