I’m glad you asked!

There is a mushy line on this answer, and that is because to a certain point you can, but after that line in the sand… you cannot.

I have been a working artist for over 20 years. I created my own style through years of practice, many terrible paintings, lots of trial and error, a tremendous number of hours at the easel. Homemade videos of my work, blog posts, email blasts, ugly prints, promotional postcards that I’m truly embarrassed of now. Terrible product shots. Lots of failure. Lots of trust and faith and hard, hard work.

 

I wouldn’t trade it now, because those layers have led to where I am now: confident (relatively), capable (in my own style) and always curious and striving.

 

When you discover the work of an artist that moves and motivates you, that’s wonderful. You should absolutely take up your pens and pencils and sketchpads and start sketching what you are moved to sketch. You should also buy some art from that artist!

You should absolutely get out your paints and feel inspired to start creating. You can look at the art and get ideas for what you’d like to paint, techniques you’d like to try, lines and shapes. Have a blast, free your soul, light up your life!

 

The first time I was notified that someone found an artist actually copying me and selling the pieces in her shop as her inspirations, my blood ran cold. (link to previous article). Go read about that!

 

 

Here is what I send to people who write and ask if they can copy my work:

First off, thank you for having the integrity to reach out to me with your question. I'm sure you understand that my artwork is copyrighted, and thus, to copy an artwork and say that it is your own idea is infringement.

If you were going to do this multiple times, that would be a problem, since your painting is a direct replica of an idea that I came up with and created. However, if you want to create a piece or a few pieces for your own enjoyment or to give as a gift, that is okay. I ask that you make it clear in writing on the back of the painting(s) that your piece was 'created in the style of KmBerggren'. And I ask that you do not continue copying my works for financial means/selling.

Most artists are okay with practicing and finding your style while imitating their artwork, but when you are ready to start selling art, you will need to have worked long enough to have developed and nurtured YOUR own style. Your style will be a part of you, and will come from deep within you, and will become YOURS by your hours of work and care and experimentation.

This usually goes over well. And I am always thrilled that people have the integrity to ask.

 

 

Copying another artist’s work can be the START of your journey. Use another artist’s art to inspire your practice in the beginning, but then you need to keep going on your own path.

 

Choose your OWN compositions. Your own layout.

 

Here is a message I sent to an artist who had been copying my work for five years:

As you move forward from today with creating new paintings, you need to take what you've learned from copying my work over the last 5 years and create your OWN compositions. Your own layouts, your own designs of how the figures fit and take up space on the canvas. After all of the pieces you have done, you should not be looking at my work and tracing my compositions, anymore, either with your eyes or with your pencil.

These are pieces that I designed over the years. It is now time for YOU to design YOUR pieces!

►►You also may NOT advertise that you will 'create copies of KmBerggren art'. That is not acceptable.

Copying my style was a starting place for you. I see how you have developed your own style into these pieces since 2017, and that is great. Now is the time for you to also step away from copying my compositions/layouts.

If you create your own designs, and apply the style that you have been finessing for 5 years, then you will truly have YOUR own art. And that will feel great.

AND SHE DID move on and develop her work, and she's doing quite well now.

This is all based on my knowledge of copyright AND my opinion, but I think I'm in good company. It feels tricky, uncomfortable and hardly written in stone. But as creators who have put half our lives into making and strengthening our brand, many will fight for it.

The Pokemon/Nintendo brand even states on their site that if you post fan art, you are "automatically allowing a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license from the Fan Art's creator to Pokémon to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display Fan Art (and its derivatives) for any purpose."

They can use your art for whatever they want. Because they created the idea that you are copying.

 

 

 

Artists have been dealing with this for years, and I remember in Kelly Rae Roberts’ book Flying High, YEARS ago, she stated that following the book and creating artwork inspired by her pieces was fine – it allows you a jumping-off point to copy another artist’s work – but that the work was NOT okay to sell. The students in her classes were creating artwork inspired by her work, but they were doing so for their own personal pleasure and home décor.

I can’t say how she feels about it these days, but that message really resonated with me.