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.
