I wrote a journal about this a while ago and somebody suggested that I make a news article, so here it is.

People have already been over the problem with deviantART's inconsistent policies on what is and isn't considered porn.

Let's talk about another big issue that's been hitting the anime/manga community (and it's not just us- that's just where it's the most noticable, in my opinion) in the face lately:

Tracing. Or "vectoring," in some cases. You take a screenshot from an anime, or some other kind of work that isn't yours, you trace over it somehow and then you post it and call it your own.

I'm just astonished that deviantART allows this now. About six months ago if you reported a traced anime screenshot, it got removed for copyright violation. Now they've stopped removing them and they've started calling them "valid fan art."

Let me show you some works that I have reported for copyright infringement that have all been categorized as "legitimate fan art." All of them are trace-overs of official art from video games or screenshots from anime. I made animated GIF lay-overs. Only one or two are labeled with "original" and "trace", but the point is to show you how little change happens. I sent some of these animated GIFs in my reports to deviantART.

Let me warn you that these are all pretty big and if you're on dial-up, they're going to try to eat your browser or something.

Screenshot of Mori from an episode of Ouran High School Host Club. Barely ANY change, except in the background.

Official art of Baby Peach from Mario and Luigi: Partners In Time. This one was turned into an animated pixel doll thing.

Official art from Super Princess Peach. Notice how little of this changes.

Official art of Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages. This is one of the most heavily modified examples that I've found, but you can see that the artist did little work on their own.

Official art of Mikaya from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (WARNING REALLY REALLY BIG!). This one looks like it's just had a Photoshop filter put over it, though I haven't bothered to figure out which one.

I will not post the names of the deviants that traced these pictures. I don't want to start a flame war with their fans, nor do I want the people reading this article to go to their pages and chew them out. I want to get the artists (for lack of a better term) as well as the deviantART administration, to stop and think.

If you see something from your gallery in that list, don't flame- please just bear with me and read on.

My question to the artists: Wouldn't it be faster to just post the original artwork that you traced over? Why can't you just draw something yourself, anyway? The best thing about fan art is seeing the characters from your favorite movies, television shows, books, video games or whatever in somebody else's unique interpretation. That's what fan art is all about. If I wanted to see screenshots from an anime, I'd go watch it. If I wanted to see the concept art for my favorite video game characters, I'd go find it. You don't need to reproduce it and post it here.

In the long run, doing your own work is far more rewarding than the empty praise you will receive for tracing over someone else's hard work. Don't tell me you "can't draw". Everyone starts out like crap. I started out like crap. (Some people would say I'm STILL crap.) Pick up a pencil, look at something in your room and draw it. Take a class or something, I don't know. If you want to be an artist, be one, don't steal someone else's thunder. Don't do things halfway. Would you take someone else's book, change the font, re-print it with a different cover and call it your own?

My question to deviantART: How is any of this "legitimate fan art"? And why do you break your own policy? Check out this text from the deviantART FAQ, most important areas highlighted in bold.

FAQ #304: Do you remove copies and trace-over art? says:

<sub>Referenced, copied or inspired works should be created completely through your own efforts and must not directly contain any portions of the referenced work revealing it to be a manipulation or edit of the original.

A referenced, copied or inspired work which shows evidence of being directly traced, re-colored, 'painted-over', vector traced or which reproduces the original in exacting detail will be at increased risk of being removed by staff.</sub>

FAQ #572: What does deviantART consider "Fan Art" to be? says:

<sub>The type of fan art which is deemed acceptable for submission are those work in which the submitting artist has done 100% of the work. This means that the artist had started with a blank slate and perhaps a reference (a pose, character, location, or other source) and proceeded to draw, paint, or otherwise create every line and place every color with their own hand.

When copying from an established source it is considered good etiquette to credit your source. Also please note that it may be considered unacceptable to precisely duplicate another existing work by directly tracing or reproducing every single detail so that it is difficult to tell your work from the original, so please be certain to add your own personal touches and style.

Unacceptable submissions may feature screenshots, official artwork from a video game, scans from an art book, a photograph of a famous person, or similar items but in every case the source material is considered the legal property of another artist. In many cases these 'seed images' are manipulated, colored over, blended with other images, and otherwise digitally worked over.

Due to the fact that these pieces contain the works used without legal license we must prohibit their submission here. These unacceptable pieces will be removed as they come to the attention of the administration.</sub>

DUDES. Please.

Stick to your policy or make a new one, okay? (This goes for the whole porn debate too- really. It's getting ridiculous.) If I traced someone's trace-over, would it be legitimate fan art of legitimate fan art?

On top of that, check out something I reported that got deleted. In this case it was a deviant's artwork that got ripped off. While this time it was a direct lineart edit with color added, that is hardly different from tracing. It is frustrating to me to think that deviants are given more respect than professionals who just happen to not visit this site daily because they're too busy animating the next episode of a wildly popular anime, or creating gorgeous concept art for a video game. This stuff doesn't pop out of nowhere, people. The sometimes "nameless" artists behind these things we take for granted are still artists. Why is it okay to trace from them, and not from a member of deviantART? If Masashi Kishmoto or Rumiko Takahashi were to join deviantART, would the administration start deleting traces of their work?

I wouldn't be nearly as frustrated by this if deviantART would just come out and say, "Okay guys, we're not going to remove traced artwork anymore because [insert reason here]. So stop reporting it, kay?"

As I showed you above, the FAQ still says that it is not acceptable to submit such works.

Before real actual vector artists get on my case: I know that part of vector art often involves tracing of some sort from a photograph. That's fine with me, as long as you're using valid stock, have permission, and give credit where credit is due. I am complaining here about people that aren't using stock and most certainly do not have permission.

And now, the grand finale:

But I can't draw! Tracing is all I can do! Waaaaaaaaaaah!

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

I have already said this to many people, and I'll say it again- we all start out like crap. Good artists start out as crappy artists who don't give up. Those seemingly flawless artists on your watchlist? Ten bucks says they all started out sucking at some point. Sure, there's a prodigy here and there, but that's rare. The vast majority of us need hard work and practice to improve.

Heck, I remember (and I'm sure some of you remember) someone that was tracing screenshots from Disney movies and digitally Frankenstein-ing them together to create her own "art". She got a lot of praise, but then a few people figured out what she was doing. In short, she got a lot of flames and the dA admins removed some of her work. Eventually, she admitted to her tracing and apologized to her watchers. She has since moved on to do her own honest work.

Here's a quote from her last journal here on dA:


<sub>Why do so many Disney fanartists trace? Quite simply, BECAUSE so many OTHER Disney fanartists trace. Yes, it's understood, implied, that the work isn't REALLY our own. But after spending hours on the drawing it just FEELS like it's yours, because on this, it's very easy to behave childishly. Like a kid saying "mine!" when he's referring to a toy in the property of his kindergarden. Why? partially because he doesn't understand what property is. That is a problem in general, yes. ...

And why is it BAD to trace? Well, because the longer you do it, and the more warmth and attention you get as a consequence of it, the HARDER it is to STOP. It's not like in real life, where if you trace, you at most show it to your parents or your friend next door, or your friend from school. they may like it, but really, their effect on you is INCOMPARABLE to the months, years, of constant support and exposure you can get for it on the internet. And you will find, when, IF, you want to start drawing original things, that they are not HALF as appreciated, because they aren’t quite as pretty as the Disney “clipart” ultimately, you’ve worked on before. And that is discouraging. ALL these things create a climate that PROMOTES unoriginality, lies, deceit. And this climate grows and grows, because ultimately, nothing all that bad happens to you. You do get in trouble for it, you do make people mad, but if you shut up about it, chances are you'll be able to go on just fine, if you shut out deviantart or the whole art community for a little while. It’s plainly what I did. And the spammers from 4chan absolutely cannot compare to the sort of hate mail those advocating for anti-art theft have received.</sub>

Here are some wonderful works by *snapesgirl34 on the subjects of tracing, copying, and referencing:


You want to be an artist? Don't settle for the empty praise of "kawaii desu ^^" and "OMG I <3 SASUKE-KUN!!11" you'll get from taking credit for somebody else's work.

I think deviantART and its members need to settle on some kind of resolution for this. I'm writing this article because I love this site, and without it I don't know if I would have continued drawing. I want to see deviantART to encourage people to be artists and try new things, not to reproduce exact copies of what's already been done.

Few things are ever entirely original, but jeez, you people don't have to abuse that fact.

Some nifty resources:

Drawsketch.About.Com
Posemaniacs.com
PolyKarbon
BakaNeko's "drawing essentials" tutorial

Here is `Cedarseed's very informative guide to drawing the body. Don't forget to check the rest of her gallery.


Remember that deviantART has a searchbar and a tutorials section, a HUGE collection of stock photos that make great reference, and a thumbshare forum where you can ask for crits.

Let's learn together.