Plagiarism is destroying our ability to become authentic artists.

This is a moment in time I will not forget....

You may have seen a book review in one of the old blog posts for "drawing Made Easy - Drawing Dogs and Puppies".

At the time, I highly recommended it. The book had a great layout, showed you step by step how to draw various features of a dog, layouts of portraits and different dog breeds. Excellent, a comprehensive 'how to' guide on drawing dogs. And then it happened.....

I read "The complete beginner's guide to drawing animals".

As I flicked through the pages, perusing through the animals I could learn to draw I thought "what a wonderful book? Lots of animals I can learn in heaps of different styles" YAY!

That was, until I got to the dogs and puppies sections. Basically..... It was the "Dogs and Puppies" inserted as a chapter in to this complete guide. What rubbish I thought! I was glad that I borrowed this book from the library!!!

If you are anything like me, a self taught contemporary artist, then you will understand the value in reading a wide range of drawing tutorial books, YouTube videos and websites that can teach you how to expand your sketching knowledge. It's the best way to not only expand your knowledge on how to draw, but also as you meander down the yellow brick road into the very depths of the creative world, you pick up little art styles, techniques and concepts that you soon start to convert into you very own art style. This process is essential to standing out as an authentic and original artist.

Blending multiple books across the board, inhibits this beautiful process. It actually starts to feel like plagiarism74r. Then I wonder, well... how many guides have been copied and blended into one another. I wanted to see if there was a connection between the two books. Dogs and Puppies was written by Nolan Stacey and The Complete Guide has no author mentioned. However the two books are both published by Walter Foster. I beg to ask, Is it worth buying another tutorial book from this publisher? Am I going to end up with the same pictures and instructions?

I really do question the value to purchasing books, when this is most likely going to occur with this publisher (and probably other publishers too).

I then reverse image searched the pages in the books, and a plethora of guides came up with the exact same images right across Pinterest and google. Good lord! I know plagiarism is only going to ever increase in popularity as long as the internet still exists.

If you are truly master your craft... I implore you to learn from this article: By all means, use the books and guides to master the craft, but Please, express yourself through original and authentic finished art pieces. The pride and sense of accomplishment will fast outweigh this fast track to success that we are all so, (apparently) becoming accustomed to.

If you would like to learn how to draw animals, plants and people, CLICK HERE to use original step by step guides.

SO, let me know what you think.... Do you agree with publishers re-using material across books?

Comment below.