Plagiarism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa original piece by Hokusai

http://kingvhearts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/great-wave.html -

piece inspired by Hokusai

In our first lecture and introduction to professional studies, we were introduced to plagiarism. Plagiarism is wrongfully taking another creators ideas and presenting them as your own, and inevitably being rewarded for work that is not yours. Often the original artists of a piece of plagiarized work lose incredible amounts of money that their work could have earned them, had it not have been stolen. People have famously been caught plagiarising pieces of work and I have learned now that legal action can be taken against a person for this, especially in cases where great amounts of money have been earned. It is common for people to post their work inspired by other artists in this way online, gaining fame, respect and appreciation for work that is not theirs.  Plagiarism is a subject that I must take close notice to, as I need to become much more aware of the affects of it, and how to avoid ever having to suffer these affects within my own personal practice. Plagiarism is to be greatly avoided. I wish to develop my own individual style over time and although hope to find inspiration from artists who I admire, will not consider stealing their styles or ideas and making them my own. I also hope to never have this happen to myself, and after this lecture I have learned the many consequences of being involved with it. If you were to take a popular piece of art for example 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' and develop this yourself, it is not considered plagiarism due to it being so wildly known, it is obvious where you have found your influence from and you are therefore not considered to be attempting to gain credit for the original study. In the images I have shown above, the first is the original piece and the second a study created with obvious influence from this artist which has been developed slightly. It is important to state whether or not your work has been inspired by another artists, so that the credit for this will be given purely to them. In my practice if I have found inspiration from another source I will be certain to document this. I have discovered that legal action can be taken against a person for plagiarism. I plan to also reference any photographs from the internet or books etc I have worked from in my studies, and also begin to take my own photographs to work from as this will not only ensure that my work is fully my own but I will also have a greater control of my studies.