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Excerpted from my DA Journal:

As many of you who follow my website and livejournal are aware, I am very open with how I create my artwork, and enjoy creating tutorials to help others learn. In fact, that's how I make my living, as my main source of income comes from my how-to-draw books. With this in mind, I'd like to bring up the referencing of my artwork. To make this short, I'm fine with it. I know that referencing artwork and photographs of things that one is unfamiliar with is a great way to get a handle on drawing them.

To spell it out in more detail, I hope that people who reference my work are courteous about it. I'm going to define referencing: You sit and look at my artwork, and draw something by eyeballing it. You may eyeball an entire piece, let's say, a dragon, or eyeball something small, like a foot I drew or the curve of a wing.

In the case of the former, I ask that you please credit me as your reference in the text below the image. It is not too much to ask, as eyeballing is much easier, as much of the work has been laid out for you, and you need only mimic. I would HOPE that by mimicking you are storing away anatomy, color, and line value information that you can apply toward your own original artwork in the future, without referencing me. If you draw a dragon that's heavily referenced from my images and paint it a different color, it's STILL heavily referenced, and credit is appreciated. I ask that you do not sell artwork that you heavily referenced from me. If more then 75% of the drawing was referenced using my artwork, please do not sell it. I am not quite comfortable with people making commercial gain off of my art. If its more then 75% referenced I also ask that you do not use it in any portfolios that will be judged, for contests or for getting into school. Its really best that you show what YOU can do, not what you can mimic.

If you reference only a small piece of my art, let's say, a foot, and the rest of the drawing is your own original character/pose/whatnot, I do not require any sort of credit.

If people heavily reference my artwork and don't credit me, it's not the end of the world. Please don't call the internet police down on them, they might not know any better. If someone has heavily referenced me and is trying to sell the art I'd like to be notified, but otherwise I'm pretty laid back about not being credited even if its obviously an eyeballed copy of my art. I appreciate credit on eyeballed copies, but I don't freak out if its not given: There are bigger things in life to freak out over!

Another thing that I am fine with is influence and inspiration derived from my art. You see that I have drawn a dragon with faded feet, and wish to make one of your own with faded feet as well. That's great! When you are influenced, you take a SMALL part of what I did and apply it toward your own work. You are not eyeballing my faded feet dragon in any way. You are drawing your own creation and simply taking away from me the idea that the dragon's feet will be a different color then that of the body, and fade into the main color of the body. Mind you, this isn't the most original idea in the world, but if seeing it on my work inspires you to do it, by all means: Go go go!

You could also be inspired by something as simple as content. You see that I have drawn a meso-American dragon, and wish to draw one of your own! Once again, you are not eyeballing my artwork, you're simply inspired by what I did, and want to take it in your own direction.

Inspiration is different then character theft. If you saw that I drew a purple cyborg dragon with a green belly, orange frills, metallic wings, a red eye, an orange eye, and a tail that ended in a spade, and draw "your own character" in a different pose with all of these things in common, that's just in poor taste. You will get much more joy out of your artwork and characters if they are your own creations. Please do not be "inspired" by my work to more then 75% similarity.

I do not require any sort of credit if I in some way inspire you. Influence happens ALL THE TIME and is in no way "art theft". I mention influence, because I've seen quite a few witch hunts happen against people who were "stealing from me" by overzealous visitors that really just weren't warranted: Nothing was stolen! Its one of the greatest joys to know that you helped inspire someone to draw more!

If someone has very clearly ripped off a character, yes, I'd like to be notified. If it's in any way "gray" I'm going to assume its coincidence and leave the person be. (which does happen.)

I do not allow the tracing of my artwork.

I do not allow the manipulation of my artwork.

I do not allow my artwork to saved and re-uploaded, claimed as your own, or "a neat picture I found."

I don't send the internet police after people, but if I catch you doing any of the 3 above, I will report you to the respective site on which the art is hosted and try to get the image removed with low drama.

Apologies for the ramble. I get a lot of reports of "stolen artwork" and many of them are just artists referencing ignorantly, not maliciously.