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Okay this I find weird honestly because the part of my post that could come off as rude was mainly where I talk about plagiarism. My critique below I tried to be super objective with… like, in all honesty.
And I added that she has the right to reject it. As with everything in the post, really. Like i was told earlier in private by someone else, it probably was the wrong time for me to offer a critique but I felt like she could use one y’know, and I agree, part of me got carried away typing, but it wasn’t bad intentioned. Seriously, if I didn’t think she can do better I wouldn’t have bothered.
That’s part of being an artist, hobbyist or not, especially when you post online.
I’m very aware that most of the fandom doesn’t like what I do…? And that’s fine with me…?… I mean, I’d have to be blind not to see it, and very full of myself, really. Though I do know the characters I play around with pretty well, my worst sin here is not following canon.
Question for you. Why are you even following my OC’s blog if you clearly don’t like her?
Well that last quote is missing the context really. I used to write a lot of crack back in the day, much like her strips. I too failed at drawing a line between that and remembering who the characters really are.
But here’s the thing.
She never asked for a critique. She draws because she wants to draw, which means she’ll do it regardless of what you think or say. Why feel it necessary to give her your opinions ( and you’re right, at the most horrid time for her ), because YOU think she can ‘better herself’? You don’t think Taylor already knows that? Maybe her way to practice is through her “five minute doodles”. Regardless of what you meant it to sound like, it came off sounding like an attack.
When half the fandom is already on her, and again, for just cause, because she “stole” ideas or what have you, the last thing she needs to hear is how her lines are sloppy and how her characterization represents a fourteen year old’s girl fanfiction. Missing context or not, I don’t think you’re understanding why it’s rude. The fact you even say she’s “failing to see who the characters are” is wrong. You have no place telling her that.
To me, this is the same as if I was to jump into another Winry roleplayer’s inbox and just, randomly without invitation or argument, telling them how OOC they are and how their characterization is so terrible. Do I think it sometimes? Of course I do. And there isn’t anything wrong with it. But thinking, and acting out on your thoughts, are two very different things. One has to learn when to draw back and let go of the keyboard.
As for your question, to be completely honest I didn’t even remember I was following your OC account. But I’ll certainly rectify that now.
// there’s nothing to really thank me for, but I appreciate it. I mean, I get it. When someone’s good at something, then they tend to judge those who they feel aren’t as good. But the reality of it is, just because they’re good at it, doesn’t give them the right to act as if they can set the rules on what people should and shouldn’t do. If Taylor came to her, asking for HER opinion and advice, then fine. She asked for it. But otherwise, there’s an unfollow button for a reason. The same works in the art of role playing.
Sometimes I have a serious case of artistic deja vu. And ever since Taylertots became a prolific artist, I’ve been having more and more of it. It’s not that Taylor is necessarily a bad artist (she’s improved quite a bit), or even that she has nothing that has an original concept or look — but rather that when Taylor finds an influence, she runs with it.
I’m concerned about the people who reblogged this, stating it’s only referencing other art and that I somehow condone near-replication without giving credit where credit is due.
I specifically said: “I’d advise at least sourcing from where the inspiration came from.” That doesn’t mean, “Oh I’m okay with this!” I’m not okay with this. The only reason I don’t make a stink about these is because “I don’t want 8000 people suddenly going after taylortots with any ill-intent”. (And for anyone reading this, I still don’t want anyone to go after taylortots because this is entirely my fault for not confronting her about it when I’d discovered my discomfort with it. Unfortunately, other people caught it first.)
On that note, if taylortots is reading this, I’m sorry everyone is freaking out, however do take the time to consider that evenintofandomhell’s critiques are not baseless and that if you are drawing inspiration from others’ works that can be easily identified and misinterpreted, you probably should be linking back.
For everyone going stir-crazy over this and disregarding the critique: Stop. If you can not see the blatant similarities between these drawings and think this is just an honest coinkidink mistake, I’m 100% sure you don’t want to engage seriously in this conversation.
That said, I feel like this deserved some bit of commentary by me in hopes that the people who reblogged it can see that this isn’t just referenced artwork, it’s replication without mindful credit where credit is due.I agree. It’s actually really disrespectful when you reference your art work in another artist’s artwork without credit the original work, more if the original artist is also developing exactly the same concept (in this case Royai), it goes beyond a pose or referencing a pallet.
Like, we’re supposed to respect each other inside the fandom, and not crediting anyone’s else and taking all the credit and the praise for somebody’s else idea is just not ok. Crediting is not the end of your artist/fan career, that’s for sure. Nobody will judge you, and more, you’ll show your respect to the person that you’re supposed to admire. People like and love more the respectful individuals.
Okay, here’s my 2 cents.
I don’t personally know Taylor and I never really fancied her work due to several reasons.
I was rather confused at first as to why people were making such a big fuss and why these 5 minute doodles were getting so much attention. I let it be for some time, but then it started to irk me as I started to notice these little things. It irked me because, I am an avid Royai fan, and because I am close friends with Royai fanartists like Novanoah and Egyptian-sands and I know just how much effort they put into every single piece while not getting even half of the notes this girl gets with, like I said before, 5 minute doodles, without backgrounds, barely passable anatomy, sloppy lines and coloring. Not to mention the OOC factor. Drunken Riza acting like a horny teenager every other post.
Though I’d say at least in DA my friends do get the praise they deserve.
I understand Taylor is a hobbyist, but that isn’t a good reason to be lazy with your art. For this I blame her fans. What easy comes easy goes. This goes for them:
The worst thing you can do for an artist, professional or not, is exaggerating the praise you give them and never being actually critical of their work. You make them become lazy, you make them believe they’ve reached the top and they stop trying to improve.
So all of you out there defending her little slip up and basically lying about her work, stop. You are not doing her any good. Instead of telling her everything is fine TELL HER HOW TO MAKE THINGS OKAY. Tell her how she can fix her mistakes and tell her how to improve. Stop pretending.
I’ve been there, and it’s no good. Seriously.
I’ve seen people tell her things like her anatomy is perfect. I am very sorry but it actually needs a lot of work. Don’t just say these things if you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’ve clearly never studied anatomy if you believe this. Talk about the things you know, and praise the things she does right, so she can keep on doing these things right and tell her how to improve where she’s lacking.
And the same goes to people sending hate, sending her hate will not fix things, you’re just bullying some girl on the other side of the screen. Instead of being assholes tell her how to fix things and be polite.
AND one more thing. People here are very confused about plagiarism and what it is. People seem to think plagiarism = tracing. This is true to some extent, but plagiarism is a wide term, it cover many things. Taking someone’s concepts and using them to make incredibly similar pieces is one type of plagiarism. For this you have to credit the original artist and possible even ask for permission. Now, Taylor didn’t just do that, her pictures are also heavily referenced, you are also supposed to credit for this.
So SHE fucked up. I have no idea if she didn’t realize this or if she just thought she could get away with it. I won’t judge. Everyone fucks up, what makes the difference is facing the consequences and making things right. So much respect for people who’ve done that. It takes huge balls to be able to face people and say out loud “I fucked up, and I’m sorry.”
I don’t like to write entirely negative critiques, so here’s something from me to her. I don’t even know if she will read this but here goes nothing. This is well intentioned advice.
I don’t know you and you probably don’t know me either since I’m mostly just well known around the OC part of the fandom. Or maybe you do know me, I’m a little infamous among canon shippers.
It’s okay to fuck up.
We all fuck up. I know I do on a regular basis.
It also hurts a lot when these things happen, been there. So the faster this gets dealt with, the better for you.
Don’t make up excuses, apologize, and don’t do it again. That’s actually very simple. People will respect you for this.
That’s that about the plagiarism issue.
Now here’s my critique as a fellow artist.
Your anatomy needs a lot of work, but it really isn’t that hard to improve on something like this because you see people around you every day. Look at them carefully, pay attention to their bodies, the size of limbs in comparison to others, look at their poses. Possible, also get some books, or tutorials if you don’t want to waste money since you’re just a hobbyist.
Your colors often clash, try to look up some tuts on color theory or at least use official artwork as a reference for colors. I see a lot of saturated colors with unsaturated colors and that’s just not very pleasing to the eye. Go to the official japanese FMA website and look at the character profiles to get the original pallets and work with these.
The linework could probably just be your style, but I’d definitely try to make them less sloppy.
Now, backgrounds aren’t a requirement, but if you do draw them try to be more detailed, do look at references for these, or even take your own pictures of places for this, that way you don’t have to credit.
I also often find your depictions of characters quite OOC, they remind me of the fanfiction I used to write when I was 14. Crack is fun and all, I mean I fucking love crack, but don’t confuse it with what the characters really are. Draw a line between your serious work, and crack strips.
And well, that’s basically it. Learn to be critical of your own work, and take everything people tell you with a grain of salt. You have the right to reject critique, but do think about it.
That’s all Cherry has to say.
Sorry for the wall of text, sorry I was probably awfully blunt and honest, I know I was but I’m sure I wasn’t rude. I tried not to be at least, that was never my intention. So I apologize in advance if it comes off that way.
Good luck.
-Bitter Cherry
Okay, I really, really wanted to stay out of this. But I found this on my dash and I just can’t…not comment. While I agree with everything you said about plagiarism, and I do think she owes credit where credit is due, when you turned the tables and began to make this about how ‘bad’ her art is, I’m starting to have issues turning the other cheek. If you want to get on her ass about how she took a few ideas, then fine. That’s just. But who are you to comment on her “bad anatomy” and “sloppy lines”? As you stated, she’s a hobbyist and even if she wasn’t, do you think it matters what you say?
Because you can draw well, that suddenly makes you holier than thou?
If she asks her followers for a critique, that’s one thing. But from what I can see, Taylor draws for fun. Again, as a hobby. What if she doesn’t want to live up to these standards you pulled from your ass and she chooses not to make a background? What if she doesn’t want to ‘clean up her lines’?
And I’m sorry, but you aren’t one to talk about proper characterization. Take your own advice before you shove it onto someone else. How can you go on about not making Riza drunk and flirtatious because it’s ‘out of character’, and yet, make up all the things you do concerning Edward, Winry, and the others? Believe it or not, some people don’t think your OC is the ~best~ match for an IC Edward Elric. But I’m not going to go on your deviantART, “critique”, and I use that word lightly, every comic or drawing you’ve done, and then explain to you why that’s OOC.
And I’m certainly not going to go through your tags and make a sassy post about how I’m just trying to help you become a better artist by pointing out your characterization flaws.
You took this two steps too far when you turned this on her art and not her mistake. Because this is about her MISTAKE with plagiarism, not her “lack of trees behind a dramatic, poor anatomy and sloppy lined, OOC Royai scene”.
If you honestly think you weren’t being rude, then re-read this line,
“I also often find your depictions of characters quite OOC, they remind me of the fanfiction I used to write when I was 14.”
and think again.
- An “infamous” Canon Rper.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
![zu-art:
★ Sketch commission ★
[Commission info]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/87320af465173bee9ddcb98232656465/tumblr_mivogiuruT1qgj5dso1_r1_400.png)
