LittleOne:Many thanks for all
your wonderful compliments. I feel compelled to say here, however (and
it should have occured to me before, but I actually didn't think about
it until I received a thoughtful PM from someone): this isn't quite my
work. I copied nearly exactly another artist's work, namely Andrew
Macnaughtan's picture from the jacket of the Sea of No Cares CD. My
only reason for drawing it and displaying said drawing it because it's
one of the best pics of Alan I've come across. I certainly have no
intentions of making any money with it, and don't claim the image for
my own in any way. Thank you. :)
Ahem.
Er okaaaay Little One, just my opinion, but a pencil drawing based on a photo isn't any more a rip-off of the photogrpaher's work than the photo is a rip-off of its subject, which in this case would be Alan Doyle - unless you are of native heritage. I guess traditionally they believed the photograph did 'steal' a part of its subject's soul essence. I'm not sure where they stand on that nowadays, but...like...most people don't follow that belief system.
Photography is photography. Drawing is drawing. If this awesome drawing is done by your hand, it's your work. If it is based on an existing photo its courteous to mention that, but your image is a different take on the McNaughton image. And besides that, all portrait artists and photographers work from a model of some sort. If you created it by your own hand, you are the artist. It is your work.
ETA - Here's a further example of what I mean: I created a clay bust of Mozart. He is long dead and prior to that was living in Vienna, so obviously I didn't have him as a live model. Like you, I used artists' renderings as a reference point or 'model', so to speak. No one ever suggested that the clay bust I created wasn't my work because I referenced his image from the work of other artists.
I'm looking forward to seeing your next pencil drawing.
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