Is it moral to copy someone's art for personal use?

amother

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 9:09 am

I got into arts and crats and painting through corona slowly slowly. I started with tutorials and then I found people in on instagram who I liked a piece or too and tried to recreate it myself obviously mine has differences and I'm a complete amateur.

Anything I'm making right now is just for my own home, but I wonder if it's moral to copy the art?

I definitely think there's an issue with passing it off as your own and selling it - I would never do that.

What if I like a piece (but not the hefty price rag) and have a friend who is professional and could recreate it for me? Is it immoral to pay someone I know to do this for a more complicated piece I could never make myself?

What are your thoughts?

pizzapie

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 9:20 am

I think there is a difference between you (as a hobbyist) trying to copy a painting to hang in your own home and asking someone else to do that for you (ie commissioning someone to recreat another artist's painting). And definitely not okay to sell any kind if reproduced art. If there is a specific painting you had in mind and wanted to try to copy you could always reach out to the artist and see if he/she would give you permission to attempt to recreate for your own personal use. I dont know that you have to do that though.

amother

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 12:50 pm

pizzapie wrote:

I hear that. I my friend just had all the materials and is more expirienced in that type of art so she would do it easily. While it would take me a while.

amother

Babypink

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 12:52 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Of course its unethical.

Teomima

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 1:05 pm

Pizzapie is right here. Not only would it be wrong for you to ask a friend to recreate it, it would be immoral and very probably illegal for your friend to accept payment for copying someone else's artwork. That's basically pliagerism.

The artwork is someone's livelihood. If you really want it that badly, you pay the price, hefty as it might be, to legally purchase a piece of their artwork. If you want to attempt to copy it for private practice, that's one thing. If you ask someone to make a replica, without permission, that's stealing.

Teomima

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 1:41 pm

amother [ Blush ] wrote:

my mom was a very honest person and would copy famous artist pics

It's one thing if you try to copy a Raphael, it's another if you pay someone to recreate a piece that's currently available for sale on instagram by a contemporary, and very much alive, artist.

amother

Violet

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 1:50 pm

As an artist I don't have a problem if an amateur takes inspiration of one of my paintings and recreates it for themselves. That's how I started out.
I would have a problem if anyone makes money off any part of my paintings.
I have been hurt trying to be nice to people and give them some permission to use my creative assets and they didn't keep their part of it.

amother

Babypink

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 1:51 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Even just me trying to make it on my own? For myself and my own home?

You like what someone else has created. Instead of purchasing her work, you're taking her ideas, her creation, and copying it.

So yes, its unethical.

amother

Vermilion

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 4:17 pm

I am a designer and if you were to ask me if you can copy my design for personal use I would tell you that you should take inspiration from it and add your own spin to it so that it doesnt look like a direct copy of my work. You definitly shouldnt hire someone to do it for you- that is unethical.

Rubber Ducky

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 4:28 pm

As long as you're a complete amateur you can try to copy it for yourself. But as soon as money changes hands — like paying someone to recreate the piece — this gets a lot more complicated. Then it becomes theft of intellectual property. You are stealing the original artist's parnassah.

Unethical? Yes.

Amarante

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 4:42 pm

Artists are inspired by other artists as well as all kinds of objects around them all the time.

Your friend is not going to create a forgery because that would be impossible to do. The paint, the brush strokes, the technique are going to create a completely different piece of art.

I recently remodeled and saw furniture that I liked and showed pictures to an upholsterer and a fine furniture maker and then they created pieces that were "inspired" by what I had shown them. They might look superficially identical but they aren't.

theta1870

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 5:08 pm

I belong to a women’s organization that supports a specific charity. In our group, we have a needlework interest group. About every 2 to 5 years, we make a quilt for which we then sell raffle tickets for the charity. If the pattern was in the public domain ie log cabin, nine-patches, we didn’t worry about it. If the pattern was from a specific author (we used several Georgia Bonesteel designs from her lap quilting books), we got permission. When we found a quilt pattern online that reflected one of our group’s images but we modified to look exactly like our image, we still contacted the pattern designer to ask permission to use her initial design as an inspiration for our final design.

The pattern designer and the author both gave permission as we weren’t personally profiting off the art, rather it was going to a charity that they both happened to like.

If I buy a quilt book or a pattern that gives directions on how to make the project, there usually is a caveat saying you can only make said pattern for personal use, ie you can keep it for yourself or give it as a present, but you cannot sell it. If you are teaching a class on how to make the project, you must require the purchase of the book/pattern for each student.

Last edited by theta1870 on Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 7:12 pm

Iymnok wrote:

Contact them and ask. Use their art as inspiration. It’s always hard to look at a blank canvas.

I'm not that good. I can't just take a blank canvas and make art. Once I start doing a tutorial or copying something along the way I can get a feel of the idea and add things I like, changes the coloring, add things from another painting I saw - if I messed up the design since I'm not all that good I can use the mistake to make it look different and add another element as well.

I hear about the paying for copying which honestly I never felt was ethical to begin with. I just wanted to hear other's thoughts but even if others had said it was fine I would likely not have done it as it doesn't sit well with me.