You're right, they didn't create the animal, but they composed the photo. They took the time to get into a good position, apply good photography techniques, use the correct lens, the right aperture and zoom. They have the right to that photo. We wouldn't be seeing that animal through their composition of their photo without their skill. <3 You have to appreciate that. It's also the law, in terms of copyright.

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All I'm going to say is that there is much more to good, quality photography that sells than just taking a quick picture. Wildlife photographers especially...they have to travel, pay hundreds of dollars for good equipment, understandably as you don't want to get too close to dangerous animals...And for many of them it becomes a primary source of income. If you have someone taking your hard work, something that you spent weeks trying to get, to have them just duplicate it and not give any credit to you who did all the hard work (as they wouldn't have been able to do that art without your image), it becomes frustrating as they take your income and try to take make money off of you.

I don't know how else to explain it other than it's not the animal, its the overall image itself.

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Still, just don't any make sense. Once again, Ok then.

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THat is unfortunately the international law, photography is art and thus, any photo is copyrighted by the author, no matter what content is. The light captured, composition, the saturation, the shutter, the moment, post process, it's all in human's hands - thus, it's not creating the animal, but the picture you're provided with.

If you take your own photos, and draw over them, it's still tracing, but not violation of copyright, since you're the author of both - although that form of copying is allowed on Lioden as practice, it is not allowed to be sold, due to issues with proving the ownership of the photo for us, people online.

Art skill is 5% talent, 5% workshop and 90% hard work/experience. Without practice, every day, you won't get better.

I was born to artistic parents and they made sure I drew every day, 6-12 hours a day, my whole life, since I was 3. I am 28 now, finished an art school, and have a job I was trained my whole life for, and I enjoy it. If you set a goal - being good at art - you also need to set the context of the goal. Do you want it to be a hobby or possibly get art related job?

Depending on that, you choose how much time and practice you spend.

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Wish my parents would have made me draw like that...might be better because of it o.o lol that's awesome though

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Feather is a walking proof that experience/work makes you better, lightning fast. I can see 5% talent is in there, shining the more you polish it

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@Xylax

I wouldn't say lightning fast...

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That much improvement in the matter of a year??? That is fast, and a lot of improvement.

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^^ Thanks for such kind words, Xy. <3 You are right. The improvement I have made this year has been down to dedicating hours and hours after work, at weekends, during holiday time away from work, to drawing.

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@Clockkey, that is lightning fast, from my experience. Comparing my own work, a similar progress took me 5 years.

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@Xylax

And even longer for some. Lightning fast doesn't Apply to everyone, even through hours of 'dedication', even though I know you were just addressing Feather.

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Yes I commented lightning fast on Feather's progress, I don't mean that everyone can be that way. You saw what Feather said, probably arted 3-8 hours a day if possible?

Workshop is a knowledge of a tool and access to it. If you're not doing well/progress with a tool, change it.

If it's pencil, change to ink. If it's acrylics, change to oils, if it's sculpture, clay is shit, change to sculpey. If it's photoshop, changing programs might be a bad idea, actually, just experiment with styles, brushes, way of painting, layering. Tutorials are helpful, watching speedpaints, trying to mimic somebody's style.

Going beyond what you know, and what you're used to, is experimenting, and sometimes you can find a comepletely new trick that makes you draw something in a very great way, without much hassle.

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@Xylax

Photoshop costs too much and is very confusing now. :T

And I thought mimicking others styles was....Copying?

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That kind of improvement is astounding in that small time frame, Feather!

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No, mimicking other styles is a form of practice. I practiced oil paintings by mimicking Rembrandt's style, I learned a lot on how he painted on very dark canvas and pulled out the light with colour and highlights, instead of shading lighter base. This is how I developed my own style based on that.

Pick artist you love/respect and see how they do what they do, study the picture, and try to learn something from it by copying tricks/style. The more artists you learn about, the more workshop and knowledge you develop and have a base to develop your own unique style.

You can't be expected to be unique when you're in the beginning of your journey.

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