Flourishes & plagiarism

[unscripted]

I just wanted to say that I have been totally enjoying this discussion. It is a topic that I have wondered about in the past, so I am glad to see it addressed. I had been seeing things that I liked in other peoples' work and wondered if it was okay to try them out myself.  But then it was one of those things where once you start noticing something, you notice it in a lot of places.

Yes I think so too! But you have to be into calligraphy to actually notice similar designs. Show it to anyone else and it's just beautiful art (hopefully).

[angelinamkelly]

There is a wonderful book - Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon - which explains the kind of stealing/copying that is useful for learning. Peter Thornton, a renown scribe always says, "Steal and conceal." Gather ideas, but make them your own. IMHO that is a much better way to express the concept of *OK stealing.*

In one of his workshops, Peter walked by my desk and said, "Ooh, nice. I shall be stealing that," and winked. He has been teaching for at least 30 years and he has no qualms about people copying his style because he is secure in the knowledge that nobody will ever be able to replicate his work. He also teaches layout and design and -again- it is easy to spot layouts of people who have studied with him. I'm pretty sure students understand that he would not approve of someone copying one of his pieces -exactly- and selling it. I can't imagine anyone being so dense. In general, the people who are at the top of the heap are not threatened by plagiarism. It's the mid-range people who are doing stuff that is easy to copy - and the people who are copying are at the bottom of the heap. The easy answer is to get so good, nobody can do what you do....

I see envelopes on Pinterest where I can see that someone was trying to copy one of mine, but it's either slightly off or sometimes it is so far off, I feel bad for them and wish I could give them some tips. When I have students who get really good at copying some of my styles, I'm happy for them and know that they will move on to other things.

Kleon's book explains how artists are visual creatures and the better you are at sponging the good stuff, the better you will become as an artist. The point is not to pass exact copies off as your own - the point is to identify the good stuff and incorporate the essence while letting your own hand show through. Making copies of paintings (at 75% of the original size) has always been a valid form of study.

As far as copying a particular style of writing for clients...I have brides who buy invitations from Belle Figura or Maria Thomas and then ask me to match the style. I explain that I can't match it exactly, I can only do my own version which will be close enough. Depending on the style, I match some closer than others. The untrained eyes of the clients usually can't tell the difference. Was Maria Thomas upset that I got really good at mimicking her penmanship? I doubt it. I certainly wouldn't have advertised that I could do *Maria Thomas* envelopes. But, when a local bride buys something online and wants the envelopes done locally, I don't see any harm in matching the envelopes to the invitation. But, I would not add that style to any of my promotional materials. I would never do *knock-offs.*

If someone sends me a sample off the internet and asks me to copy the style, I explain that I can't replicate someone's penmanship, but I can send them a sample of my version that uses similar slant, shapes, weights, etc. So far, I have never had anyone who was disappointed. Again, they probably can't see any of the subtle differences. And I do not add these styles to my list of styles that I offer.

The original question in this topic: 
Was it wrong to copy a word and post it on Instagram?
Do you try hard to create your own design?

It is always polite to mention that you were copying something you admired.
It would be embarrassing if someone called you out.
You don't want people getting the impression that you are trying to pass things off as your own.

You will probably do better down the road if you do some serious copying of the masters in the beginning - IF you r goal is to learn the traditional styles.
I have had students who wanted to do only modern styles and some of them were super creative from the very beginning.
So, the decision about when you want to get uber-creative depends a lot on what your goals are.

thank you so much for this insight!  As a newbie I get inspiration from looking at many people's work and try to incorporate some things that I really love.  It is by no way copying exactly... frankly I am not that skilled...

[ericp]

Whatever you do, do NOT make a font out of anyone's handwriting                

Oh? Bad experience there?   

Not me.  This happened to Erica, and there is a rant thread on FF that provides some background into this.  Let's put it this way:  we are all for fair use, but stealing someone's handwriting and selling the result (as a font) is not just wrong, it's plain EVIL.

[ericp]

There is a wonderful book - Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon - which explains the kind of stealing/copying that is useful for learning. Peter Thornton, a renown scribe always says, "Steal and conceal." Gather ideas, but make them your own. IMHO that is a much better way to express the concept of *OK stealing.*

Steal and conceal, that's a good one, easy to remember and so to the point.  Thanks for sharing that one Jean!

[clangsdorf]

Great thread!
We look to the master's - old and current - to study what they do. We try to imitate. Then we try to make it our own.
I am trying hard to take all the information that I have learned over these many, many years and make it my own. It is an internal drive to not imitate any more but to dig deeper and find what is my original concept. Not easy to do. It is much easier to look at images on the internet and to replicate. It is so much harder to shut my eyes and draw on my inner artist and create.
Would love to hear what has helped others to find their personal style.
Thanks!
Catherine

[johnfederis]

Nice topic!

I think with calligraphy (or any other traditional handmade media), it's pretty difficult to exactly copy the original. Although it is normal to copy the artists we look up to. Style, stroke, even the smallest detail. But it's just a phase that every artist go through. In the long run, each and every one of us will make a path where all of the inspiration we had in our lifetime are merged and we call proudly call "ours". I think this is what Picasso referred to as "stealing".

[James P]

Creative Commons

There is now an enormous amount of excellent reference material available on the Internet -- I think it is a shame that so much of it is not freely available due to copyright concerns.

I am an advocate for as much free use of online material as possible. I believe that Creative Commons licensing is an excellent means to that end. Of course there are numerous Copyright owners (including institutions, corporations and businesses) who wish to fully protect their material because it is a source of income for them -- Creative Commons licensing is usually not for them.

The whole idea behind Creative Commons, a respected International institution, is to allow free use and sharing of online material without the encumbrance of having to seek author permission -- which is often a long, time consuming, procedure -- and at the same time insuring that author intellectual property ownership is recognized and protected.

I have used this Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License on several of my web pages. It permits visitors to freely copy and use content with attribution to me. Please read about the licenses - and see them in action - by following the links on this Creative Commons Page

Example of Creative Commons License use in real  life

This review (and translation into Swedish) of one of my web pages by P. Strand via the above link illustrates the use of Creative
Commons License attribution. If you follow the License link you will see that it permits free sharing, copying and distribution of page content with appropriate attribution.

Creative Commons General Information via FAQ: https://creativecommons.org/faq/

James

[Os]

Hello, everyone! Just enjoying the discussion here! I don't think I can add anything more because so many have spoken (and yes, preach it, brethren!) so I just wanted to share my own experience in flourishing (or lackethereof lol) and how copying is helping me discover my style. I explore: from old masters, to contemporary writers such as the wonderful people we have here in the forum. (Special mention to Schin. I love your carefree style of flourishing! I just binge watched your videos of writing place cards the other day HAHAHA) I pick up some elements I like (I often find myself saying "That's an interesting way of doing this letter." or "How come I never thought of that??"), study where they place their flourishes, how they place them, try to combine them, try to add a bit of myself in them. I admit, I'm still far off, and only god knows when I can finally be proud of my own work and my own style, but so far, I'm enjoying the journey and am constantly inspired by what I'm seeing. ^v^