Sta.sh
Theme
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.......... The design MUST HAVE ONLY 2 COLORS; BLACK AND WHITE
this journal 
It explains inspiration vs imitation in a much clearer and eloquent way than I could ever hope to.
It's aimed more towards design/typography, but most of the points apply to all art.
One of my favourite lines from it is this: "Copy all you wish in private, and once you feel confident in your skills, create your own original public work.".
I understand that copying stuff is a great way to learn, and everyone does or did it at one point in time. Hell I have a box somewhere of terrible Rika + Renamon traceovers/copies that I did over a decade ago. But that was a decade ago and they'll never see the light of the internet (and if they do it'll be with much "LOL LOOK AT THESE AWFUL THINGS I MADE ONCE"). It's not original work, it was practice, it'll never be displayed.
If you're tracing/eyeballing my or anyone's stuff to learn how to draw whatever, okay, but don't post it, because it's not original work. You learned, now do your own thing. Keep that stuff in a box somewhere, and don't let it see the light of the internet. Because most likely, if the people you used as inspiration/practice ever see it, they won't be happy (as I'm sure you've heard a million times from me already, heh).
You might not realize it - looking at reference, figuring "Oh, it's different enough"... I've often, upon catching onto something, been like "Oh, I recognize that pose, the specific way those limbs are arranged, the exact angle/lines of that bird foot (seriously)", and then found exactly what they've referenced without actually having seen the original in a long time. I dunno, does everyone remember their own poses really well or do I just have a good memory? >__>; I draw my poses from my head 99% of the time, the other 1% I'll link to stock or mention I took a photo.
Anyway yeah. I'm not bitching at anyone in particular, I just mostly wanted to share that article (which I found linked on ~bara-chan's Tumblr). Thankfully I haven't had any issues with this stuff lately
Tired 
xuza has a tumblr, this is new to me :3
I have one, too. Been on there about a year now.
I'm theluckymagicrabbit
Added you to my Tumblr~ I'll have to browse your blog when I'm home again and not on limited internets :3
Yay, yay. I'll be sure to follow back. <3 I hope you like my tumblr. It's full of all kinds of artsy inspiration. I mostly reblog artsy stuff, bunnies, cats, disney, my little pony, transformers, etc. etc. c:
I'm also pissed at people, who copy everything you do and claim they didn't imitate you ._. they didn't exactly traced your art, but they make designs similar to yours, copy whatever you do (like when you make a pokemon character/story they have to make one too, and then do the same things as you did) >< it's really annoying to have people like that, they have no originality at all!
Definitely some great tidbits here.
I pretty much agree with you on this. Everyone who does their own art most likely did the same thing. I know I did. DEFINITELY (I still keep apologizing to the friend I did it to >_> )
I ACTUALLY won't be surprised if they did it to me! To be honest, I won't even be offended. I'll feel honored, actually, since they used someone like me for inspiration/imitation
But this was an interesting read
At least in Germany at art and design colleges students (should at least be) are taught, how to use reference.
Doesn't mean you should copy. But use references for poses and stuff: There is nothing wrong about it (in Japan there are whole books for the Mangaka to reference from. And that is for practically everything. There are books with all kind pose references, with seifuku references, with monster references, with background references, car references and so on.)
Fun thing is when mangaka acutally sue each other for referencing from one another *lol*
How are you supposed to know how to draw something without looking at it?
There's a big blurry line between copying whatever the hell you want and referencing...well, references.
They call them "Reference Books" for a reason lol.