Take it!

I believe that it is an obligation of every artist to share technical information on how to create art, business information on how to manage your art and marketing information on how to sell your art with other artists.  Its how techniques are passed from one person to another and whether its in a structured environment such as art school or workshop or simply from one artist to another, that sharing process is good.  With the age of apprentices mostly past, learning from others outside a formal educational environment becomes essential.  And yes, its your responsibility as well as mine to pull those cards away from our chests and share them with the world of creatives.

“One of the surest tests of the superiority or inferiority of a poet is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.”

― T.S. Eliot

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.

T. S. ELIOT, The Sacred Woo

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/e/eliot_t_s.html#A3a6AV18Hvd16KKS.99

“One of the surest tests of the superiority or inferiority of a poet is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal, bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn.  The bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.”

― T.S. Eliot

The quote above can easily translate to artists instead of poets.  Creativity is creativity no matter what vein it takes.

I see other artists mimicking what I do or say or where I exhibit art, how I teach, even down to the same subject matter.  They take the words that I use in artist statements or in workshop brochures.  They use phrases that I use in ads, sometimes verbatim. Now taking information to learn from and taking information to make a profit from are two different things and that subject is complex and likely for another time.  Also taking ideas without permission is pretty rude too.  Often these behaviours are exhibited in people who truly don't know that its inappropriate.  Or it stems from inexperience and individuals wanting to speed up the learning process by using something that is already proven as successful.

As an art educator I see copying as a good thing.  Its what I hope people will do so as they learn, but obviously not if they profit from my personal ideas and hard work.  But didn't we all copy some one at some time?  Whether it was copying lines of the alphabet as we learned to write or sketching a master's painting in a museum, we all learned from someone else. The copying that I see as vital is technique. The copying that helps to explain and enhance skill levels and allows the copyist to understand the tools they need to spread their own creative wings can only be good. 

With a infinite number of ways of interpreting a subject, the world is still a small place and artists bump into each other creatively from time to time. What we see as the perfect subject or idea that we spend hours, days, months creating can dissolve us to tears when we see, on research, that the idea has been done.  Probably several times already.   But that shouldn't stop us.  We simply need to create the better mousetrap by building on that idea and the ideas that have gone before.  Isn't that the purpose of invention and creativity?

Yes, there can be boundaries that shouldn't be stepped on hard, but for the most part sharing should be genuine and open, given to empower others and encourage their growth.

So go ahead, take my ideas, take my words.  Use my templates, download my tutorials, copy my website design.  But on one condition.  You have to share your knowledge with others.  You cannot keep it to yourself and hope, selfishly, that by doing so, you are better than another person or have more opportunity or advantage than someone else.  You are only the better person if you help another person along on their artistic journey.  Karma rewards those who share.

And after all that, here's some of my newest sharing.  I have been creating some short videos on colour theory that I use in my workshops - the abbreviated version of the theory sessions.  This is the overview of a split primary palette that I use, using both cool and warm versions of each primary colour, plus a couple of other colours thrown in.   You can see this and others on my YouTube channel.  If you like it, let me know.  If you don't like it, still let me know. :)  If you subscribe to the channel, you'll get an email telling you when I post a new video.