Comment 84896

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I'm not sure how to answer that, because everyone's take on art is different. Mine is simple- art tells a story, even if that story is only an emotion. For me, my art should tell you a bit about a character, and possibly what they're thinking at the time, and if you know the character, you'll see even more in the picture. Some draw what makes them happy- and that's cool. Some draw to flesh out a universe. Some draw to make something aesthetic. Everyone has different reasons to draw. One thing you shouldn't do when you draw though is not enjoy it. That's the only real rule.

May I ask why accuracy is so important to you? There are MUCH easier ways of gaining accuracy in your art than rulers and are much faster, like griding out the art so you only have to get the picture correct one box at a time http://www.artgraphica.net/images/pen-and-ink-church/using-a-grid.jpg like this. I don't like this method cause it doesn't actually teach you WHY you are drawing the lines where you are. It's better to learn how to draw from scratch and use this method to shave time off the final product than to use it as the main focus. What ends up happening is if you don't understand why you're drawing a line, it comes out looking forced and potentially wrong (cause all it takes is 1mm out to make a picture look odd). Don't take this as discouragement from this technique however though, as some people just wish to draw for fun, and that's cool too.

Art isn't about how long it takes to draw however, but the thought behind it. I know this sounds stupid, but I can tell if someone enjoyed drawing the picture they drew simply cause the final product feels more lively. A forced piece of art has edges and feels stiff. As long as you're enjoying drawing it over 4 days then who gives a flying toss how long it took? You're not a professional artist. They're not paying you by the hour. They can go take a hike :/

As for copying photos, essentially all photography is covered by the same rules hand drawn art is covered by- the creative commons. All art has a certain degree of ownership on it. Simply redrawing a photograph isn't enough to say it's yours. You have to change it to the point where you can't tell it was from the original photograph, BUT there are royalty free photographs out there that you can use without permission. This photography can be used for creative purposes only, and not sold, but if you're only drawing for fun, then you're free to use it. If it's not specifically labelled as royalty free however, you must ask permission.

... this is the general way it's done, but I'm asking BogusRed now if it's ok to copy from a photograph accurately for a non profit use if a link to the original photograph / reference is used. Like [thumb30258] was a pic I drew from a photograph http://dreager1.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/william-shatner.jpg but I only eye balled it so theoretically, for non profit use it's very grey area >.> I'm not sure if her rule of no copying covers this also. If it does, I'll just take it down.

Please specify drawing differently?