Designs and Ethics

[Donny]

Please disregard.
Donny

 

[didyoung]

if the original artist is alive you could try to contact him or her to ask if it would be ok to (TRY) and copy that specific pattern.
as for nimschke............i bet he is looking down upon you with a smile.

 

[Donny]

didyoung I truly did not mean to imply that I feel that I am capable of such work. Was just curious about this subject.

Donny

 

[Tom Curran]

Your own 'flavor' will show. unless you are extremely skilled, and have an original or good photo to use for your copy, the end result will not be the same. If your intent is to produce a fake, shame on you. If your intent is to learn a style by copying, God bless you, go for it.

How does one learn to paint like the master? By copying.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Donny...If you are a well trained artist you could take any photo,old drawing,painting or etching and do some creative changes then it would be yours. J.J.

 

[Sam]

There have been many long threads on this subject in the past and it's always a good topic for discussion. While there's nothing wrong with copying as part of study and practice, selling the signature style of of another engraver without having anything of yourself in it is considered a breach of etiquette. We've all had customers that want copies of things and eventually many of the top engravers shy away from those commissions, choosing to do their own artwork. But you have to start somewhere and copying what you see and like is how it has been done for centuries in art. Doing commissions that copy the work of another engraver is another story, though. As Rod Cameron said awhile back, use another engraver's style as a springboard and not as a landing strip.

 

[mrthe]

Just yesterday i have read a interview with the italian singer vinicio capossela that at one question like this answer
“ the readings, the works of the other artists are like the keys of the machine: they allow to put in motion but then you must have the car and the benzine to being able to make kilometers. ”

 

[Mario Sarto]

Below you can see a little piece, that is based on a design of a pendant Sam did. I needed it as an example one year ago. I showed it some to interested colleagues how nice things could be done with the airgraver.
Of course i asked Sam before, if i am allowed to do it. Thankfully he was that generous

By doing it, i learned a lot about how things have to be done to get a good result.
So all i can say is, try to do a copy, it helps a lot on the way - but of course, this is obligatory, don't sell it under your name.

ps.: a few asked me, if it was done by laser

 

[rayf24]

Sam
I agree with you totally in that to make a pure copy for money is truely wrong and only show the total lack of skill and bad workmanship I myself have taken images of others work and used them on practise plates only but then I have only been at this for a few months now teaching myself as I go and picking the info from the forums have found that following the lines of a skilled engravers designs has improved my knowlage of how to make some of the cut used when engraving by cutting it then checking it against the original image. But wonder how many styles of leaf etc can be applied to a single scroll.
maybe it would be fun to see, say yourself setting a one single scroll back bone inside say a 1-1/2 box and have the members finish the design and maybe hold submitted images till you have 20 then post them, would there really be that many variations or just a few slight changes ?? might make for interesting reading and viewing.
regards
Ray