New Artist

I just began drawing maybe 2 weeks ago. I'm not very good at all and I see some of the drawings on this site and I am taken back by how well some of the people draw. Right now I'm just drawing basic anime characters. But I have a question. Is it alright to copy other drawings?Not trace them but look at them and redraw them. I don't really want to do that because I have friends that can draw completely from their head and I'm afraid that if I begin drawing other people's artwork that then I won't ever learn how to do it from my head. I did my first drawing from my head the other day and when I figure out how to put it online I will. It isn't good though and I'm just caught between, should I copy other people and get better, or do it from my head and get better that way. PLEASE HELP!

I learned MANY of the techniques I use today by copying other artists.  As my style changed I grew more confident and began to create my own style/characters/poses, etc. 

A LOT of my work as a young artist was redrawing my favorite images.  I'd often color them differently or add things I thought would look cool.  I never claimed that they were my original work, but I felt it was a learning experience.  I often thought if I could recreate such a cool drawing I would one day be able to do it myself with my original ideas.  I think it helped. 

 

 

What Silverbane said.  I'm still trying to develop a style, and a lot of this comes from looking at what other people are doing and then not copying them, but using them as a source of ideas and inspiration.

Copying artists that inspire you is ok- only for inspiration. I suggest drawing from referance pics- surf the net and draw the pose how you like to see it. If you don't know what you like, try something that you like of someone else's style. There is no way you can copy someone's style- you can come close. To learn how the body is is to be able to draw then without referance. THere's alot fo good how to draw book out there. I learnt from Jack Hamm's "Drawing the head and figure' A bit old school, but is awesme grounding. It is the most easy to use technique for drawing that I've found

Hi Araht. Welcome to PaperDemon.com!
I think it's perfectly alright to start out by copying other artists work. just look at the early work in my gallery:
http://www.paperdemon.com/artistsgallery.php/1/0/11.html
I've got lots of DBZ copies in there.

Now I draw from my head and sometimes with reference:
http://www.paperdemon.com/artistsgallery.php/1/0/1.html

Howdy!
I'm going to end up saying the same thing as everyone else.
It's fine if you copy someone as long as your trying to learn from it.
I'm a huge Dragonball Z fan, well was. I've been drawing Piccolo for the past like 7 years. It's only been the past 3 that I'm working toward designing and create mah own style. But I've been inspired by quite a few a long the way, and I don't think it's a problem to "copy".

Right now BogusRed is inspiring me to work on something flowy and angelic. So it's kinda the same thing