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Published on March 24, 2023

Creative Clarity, Episode 2: Phase 1 of the Artist’s Journey and a Deep Dive into the Realm of Copying

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Hello, fellow crafter! Today I have the second episode of Creative Clarity ready for you. As a lifelong creative, I know there are a wide variety of barriers, blocks, and struggles in the life of an artist, and whether you are a hobbyist or a career artist, they can stop you from being your best creative self. Every month, the Creative Clarity series will share knowledge, tips, and know-how to help you overcome these obstacles and deepen your practice.

Creative Clarity is not written specifically for crochet artists; rather, it will benefit any type of creator who is looking to cultivate a thriving creative practice. But, we all know that I’m a crochet blanket designer, so for my crochet peeps, each post in this series has a relevant free crochet pattern released in the same month, so you can channel the energy of the Creative Clarity series into a fresh project. I am super excited to share this with you, and my goal is for you to have at least one ah-ha moment in every post.

Creative Clarity, Episode 2: Phase 1 of the Artist’s Journey and a Deep Dive into the Realm of Copying

This post is for you if you:

  • Aren’t sure how to start your creative journey
  • Want to make a fresh artistic start and review the foundations
  • Feel curious or apprehensive about the nuance of imitation and copyright

If this is you, let’s dive in!

The 3 Phases of the Artist’s Journey

Over this and the next two episodes, I will discuss the three phases of the artistic journey and how to make the most of each phase, as well as the challenges you could face at each stage and some action items to overcome them.

First, a brief overview of the three phases:

Phase 1: Inspiration and Imitation

The artist chooses inspiration, and creates a direct replica of existing art within their craft. This is purely a means to get familiar with the process and technique. – Copying –

Phase 2: Ambition and Innovation

The artist creates their own pieces, drawing inspiration from artists and still maneuvering within their own craft, while seeking out and developing a definitive and unique style. – Combining –

Phase 3: Fusion and Ascension

The artist works in completely independent plane, and creativity rises above the realm of the home craft and is fused with other art media and ideas to create something new. – Transforming –

Now let’s take a deep dive into Phase 1.

Phase 1: Inspiration and Imitation

The first leg of your creative journey is all about learning the basics. Your goal is to become inspired, and then learn how to execute the craft through imitation and practice.

Episode 1 of Creative Clarity was all about falling in love with your art again, and I discussed going back to the beginning of the artistic journey, and some things that we advise beginners to do. I suggest reviewing that post for some more beginner artist tips.

When you embark on a creative journey, your first mission is to gather inspiration.

Here are some tips:

  • Make sure to have at least five to ten different sources of inspiration when you start. If you stick with only one or two artists for your inspiration, your work will be too similar to their work.
  • Browse several different techniques within your chosen art form so that you get a wide range of possibilities for inspiration. You can always niche down later on.
  • When choosing inspiration artists, if you’re feeling unsure of your ability, ask yourself what you would do if fear was eliminated from the equation.

Inspiration Resources

If you can’t get out in nature, over to your local museum, or into a library’s art section, you can start with these great online resources:

Once you have your inspiration, it is time to gather materials and start creating art. This is the fun part! Buying art supplies and playing with new techniques is a blast, but as you get going, there will be some obstacles. Let’s talk through a few of them and see what you can do to overcome them.

The Challenges of Phase 1

Gathering inspiration and buckling down to learn the basics may sound easy, but this first phase definitely presents its challenges. Among other things, budding artists can suffer from information overload, comparing themselves to others, and networking difficulties.

Information Overload

With so much information and so many artists sharing their process and works on social media, Pinterest, blogs, and YouTube, it can be difficult to know what to focus on. Art is all around us, in nature, books, museums, and even in the little moments of joy and pain that we experience in life, but technology is at our fingertips tempting us to look into the infinite sea of online content.

This can be a good thing, and a bad thing.

Information overload can leave you exhausted and with a sense of defeat, paralyzed and not knowing in which direction to take your first step. It can feel impossible to stay on track. If overwhelm sets in, and you don’t know where to start, here are some tips.

  • Start with a plan. Identify three to five absolute priorities when it comes to your inspiration choices. This way, you can easily eliminate artworks that don’t fit the criteria.
  • Set a timer. Literally limit your inspiration hunts to twenty or thirty minute chunks of time so that you can let your brain digest everything you saw. Later on, when you search again with fresh eyes, you can have a clearer idea of what you are looking for.
  • Choose sources wisely. Pick three or four sites or places to find inspiration, and then dive into those sources only.

Comparing Your Work to Others’

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” This quote, often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, pops up frequently in inspirational settings because it is truly counter-productive to compare your work to someone else’s. For every work that someone posts online, I assure you there are twenty that did not make the cut.

The reality is that probably half of the things we create are terrible, forty percent are okay, and ten percent are amazing. You live your artistic life seeing all 100% of your works – the good, the bad, and the ugly. When you browse the works that another artist has posted, you are only seeing their “top ten percent.” It makes no sense to compare.

If you start to doubt yourself, and find your eyes wandering to the incredible works of some established career artist, think about these tips first.

  • Practice letting go of perfectionism. Perfection is a myth, which is why it always seems so futile to endlessly reach for it – you’ll never reach it because it doesn’t exist.
  • Show up every day and create. Whatever it takes to keep working and creating is what you need to do to help trust your gut and discover what works.
  • Look at inspiration to learn something new. Instead of looking at other artworks to feed your envy monster, look with the intention to find a new angle or perspective.

Networking and Getting Your Name Known

I think we can agree that the majority of artists are introverts. We work against ourselves in that way because if we want to make a career out of being creative, we have to engage in some aspect of networking. Working for yourself, and doing what you love to do – create art – is the best feeling in the world, but it will only be sustainable through meeting the right people or building a following.

Networking in the Real World

As a budding artist networking out in the real world can seem overwhelming and will likely be more applicable in Phase 3 of the artist’s journey, but you should at least know what you are working toward. One day you may find yourself at galleries in studio spaces, and you will want to do some networking with artists there.

Here are some things to think about when you imagine what that will look like.

  • Present yourself as a professional artist. Put effort into your persona and presentation, and research how to curate a professional portfolio.
  • Look to connect, not just to sell your art. Take a step back from your “elevator pitch” and just look to connect with like-minded artists. You can help each other and support each other.
  • Go to as many artsy events as you can. Art showings, creative workshops, small live music venues – these areas will all have creative people that you can meet and chat with.

Networking in Online Spaces

Social media is a great place to build a following and get discovered by a large number of people. You can definitely create a name for yourself with an exclusively online presence. Instagram, YouTube, Discord, Dribbble, DeviantArt, or even your own website, are all fantastic places to start showcasing your art today.

If you are dabbling in the art of social media, here are some tips:

  • Stay consistent. Post almost every day when you first join a social platform, and then when you start to gain traction, you can drop your posting frequency down to at least three to five times a week. Try to make it the same days every week if you can.
  • Stick to the same time every day to post. People are creatures of habit. They go online at roughly the same times every day. And there are so many people online at any given time, if you post at the same time daily, the same people see your work over and over again and become interested. You may think that posting at random times will help more people find your work, but what ends up happening is that fewer people will remember who you are because they simply aren’t seeing your work frequently enough.
  • Put the hours in. You need to create prolifically so that you have a variety of works to post, and so that you can have some behind the scenes content to share if you want to. Whatever you focus on will grow, so if you put time and effort into building your platform, you will get noticed.

Now that we have gone over beginner basics, and some of the challenges you may face on the first leg of your artistic journey, I want to talk about a concept that virtually every artist will come in contact with at some point. Call it imitation, copying, or borrowing ideas, it can be a very touchy and sensitive subject, but it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s talk about copying!

The Ins and Outs of Copying

This section covers the who, what, when, where, and why of copying. I wanted to add this into today’s Phase 1 discussion because there is a lot of nuance when it comes to imitation, and it can be such a point of contention. I want to help you get down to the bottom of it by examining the “who what when and why” of copying.

  • What is copying?
  • Who should copy and when?
  • Why and how should you copy?

What is Copying?

First, let’s take a look at the definition of copying. This is definitely the most detailed and technical of the 5Ws, but there seems to be so much grey area in imitating others, especially in the art world… So what do the experts say?

The Authorities Speak on Copying

As you gather inspiration and start learning the basics by imitating others, it is important to familiarize yourself with copyright and intellectual property, especially if you want to start making money from your works and turn your hobby into a career. I have compiled a few resources to help you get started.

Note that some of these sources are US based, so you should look into the Copyright laws of your country if you are outside the States. You can also use these resources if you are looking to copyright some of your own works.

I tried to put these resources in order from most to least technical.

The U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright.gov

If you want to look into the technical details, then on the U.S. Copyright Office website, Copyright.gov, you can read the actual Copyright Law of the United States document, updated in October 2022.

Take a look at the first section of the table of contents to get a general idea of what is included and what sections may interest you. The law is fascinating!

Amendments have been made to the law in order to accommodate advances in technology, so look into the rest of the contents to see more.

Title 17 of the United States Code
chapter 1 Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright
chapter 2 Copyright Ownership and Transfer
chapter 3 Duration of Copyright
chapter 4 Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration
chapter 5 Copyright Infringement and Remedies
chapter 6 Importation and Exportation
chapter 7 Copyright Office
chapter 8 Proceedings by Copyright Royalty Judges
chapter 9 Protection of Semiconductor Chip Products
chapter 10 Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media
chapter 11 Sound Recordings and Music Videos
chapter 12 Copyright Protection and Management Systems
chapter 13 Protection of Original Designs
chapter 14 Unauthorized Use of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
chapter 15 Copyright Small Claims

I highly recommend at least skimming the sections that interest you if you want to start understanding copyright, which can play a role in your career as an artist.

Now let’s take a look at Intellectual Property Law.

The World Intellectual Property Organization

World Intellectual Property Organization

The WIPO, or World Intellectual Property Organization shows Intellectual Property (IP) as referring to “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” You can see how this would apply to artists. WIPO divides the types of IP into six categories:

  • Copyright – Copyright is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works.
  • Patents – A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention.
  • Trademarks – A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.
  • Industrial designs – An industrial design constitutes the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article.
  • Geographical indications – Geographical indications and appellations of origin are signs used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities, a reputation or characteristics that are essentially attributable to that place of origin.
  • Trade secrets – Trade secrets are IP rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed. 

If you decide to turn your hobby into a business, you may want to know how IP pertains to business. Learn more here.

From the WIPO website:

The IP system has an important role to play in helping you protect innovative products and services, and avoid the risk of unknowingly using third party proprietary content.

I think we can agree that these topics are important to us as artists! When you first begin your journey, and you are constantly being influenced by artists around you, you should know how to navigate the world of “being inspired” by others without stealing their IP.

This can all seem very technical, but don’t worry, there are some organizations that break down the basics for you.

Law Firm, Fenwick & West LLP

Fenwick & West LLP

Fenwick is a law firm located in California that provides services in the tech and life sciences industries. They put together a short, five-page document titled “The Basics of Copyright Law” which is written for lawyers, but is “just enough copyright for people who are not attorneys or intellectual property experts.”

Some of the sections included are:

  • Just what is a copyright?
  • Benefits of registration with the U.S. Copyright Office (copyright.gov)
  • Ownership and transfer of copyrights
  • Copyright infringement
  • Defenses to copyright infringement: fair use

Of course, that article is for basic educational purposes and is not intended to be legal advice, but it will definitely help you understand the law a little better without wading through so much jargon.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Another great source that is written for the average Joe just trying to operate within the law and not step on toes is Creative Commons. According to their “What We Do” page, CreativeCommons.org “is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s most pressing challenges.”

So what is the difference between Creative Commons license and Copyright? Creative Commons operats within the Copyright Law. They “provide creators with licensing to encourage the sharing and distribution of their work. Although the author’s work remains copyrighted, a Creative Commons license allows others to copy, share and reuse the work with limited or no restrictions.”

The Creative Commons blog is a great place to read more on the topic, and on their website, you can even learn how to share your work so you can give permission for others to use your creative works on conditions of your choosing. Over 2 billion works have been licensed under Creative Commons!

You have familiarized yourself with the definition of and the legal aspect of copying, and it’s time to look at who should copy?

Who Should Copy and When?

Everyone learns by imitating other people. In the creative world, it is nearly imperative to copy someone’s work when you are learning the basics of your craft. You don’t yet have an individual style, and are only learning the actual techniques, and you are being inspired all the time by artists that you admire. It is only natural to want to try and see if you can do what they do.

The important thing is to only imitate your favorite artists during these beginning learning phases. If you will be sharing your imitations in the public sphere, then I recommend reaching out to the artist and talking with them about your inspired pieces. Credit them and gush over them. This is about intent.

Of course, you should not pursue making money from imitating works This is unethical; rather, you should only use copying as a form of educating yourself and growing in your abilities. Then it is time to break away and develop your own style.

It should come as no surprise that creatives in the art space have a lot to say about copying.

Creatives Speak on Copying

What you will hear from the creatives is that imitation is a means to an end, it is not the end.

Author Steven King on developing one’s own style, from Bazaar of Bad Dreams:

“Stylistic copying eventually wanes. Little by little, writers develop their own styles, each as unique as a fingerprint. Traces of the writers one reads in one’s formative years remain, but the rhythm of each writer’s thoughts—an expression of his or her very brainwaves, I think— eventually becomes dominant. In the end, no one sounds like Elmore Leonard but Leonard, and no one sounds like Mark Twain but Twain. Yet every now and then stylistic copying recurs, always when the writer encounters some new and wonderful mode of expression that shows him a new way of seeing and saying. ‘Salem’s Lot’ was written under the influence of James Dickey’s poetry, and if Rose Madder sounds in places as if it were written by Cormac McCarthy, it’s because while I was writing that book, I was reading everything by McCarthy I could get my hands on. “

Satirical novelist, Chuck Palahniuk, author of Invisible Monsters states:

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.”

Geddy Lee, of Rush fame, on originality:

“What is originality? Originality is when you have so many influences, that you can’t see them anymore. They’ve all melded. As your confidence rises in your craft, your personality steps in front of those influences, and that forms your voice.”

Artist Josie Lewis says of copying:

“You can and should be influenced by many different sources. You can and should learn techniques by copying a master (but not claiming it as your original idea). If you’re a learning artist who is privately making, copy all you want. The second you show it publicly, merely by posting to the internet and most definitely if you’re trying to sell it, you are in murky ethical water.”

Steve Jobs says this about creativity:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

From these quotes, it is clear that artists know for a fact: When you are first starting out on your creative journey, or even when you are an established artist, but you have discovered and fallen in love with some new technique, you are destined to copy everyone around you. But what is the best way to imitate others in the creative space?

Why and How Should You Copy?

Pablo Picasso is often quoted as saying “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” But what does this really mean? It means that if you simply copy and paste a work and call it your own, then you are merely a thief.

Why Should You Copy?

Copy in the pursuit of finding your own style. If you steal an idea or a concept, and then make it your own, combining the ideas with others and making a transformation, then you are an artist. That’s just being creative. Do this enough, and you will build a style of your own that someone else will steal and so on..

In this case, “steal” does not mean “plagiarize”, and that is an important distinction. In this case, to steal means acknowledging and accepting your influences and using them as a starting point to create unique output. Again, it’s about intent.

Here are some reasons to copy the work of another artist:

  • When you are learning the fundamentals of your craft
  • To learn a new technique that you haven’t tried before
  • Learn the “rules” of your art form so you know how to “break them”

That last one is especially important. You’ve heard the saying that “rules are made to be broken.” Your craft has boundaries in place. It has a structured anatomy of inherent rules and systems. Here are some examples.

  • According to Wood and Fire Studio, a pop song consists of intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end.
  • In their Painting for Beginners course, the Virtual Art Academy defines the 7 elements of art as color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value.
  • Scribophile says every great story can be broken down into 12 essential elements: protagonist, antagonist, setting, perspective, something to fight for and something to lose, rising action and falling action, symbolism, language, theme, and a nugget of truth.
  • The Cambridge Dictionary defines a quilt as “a covering for a bed, made of two layers of cloth with a layer of soft filling between them, and stitched in lines or patterns through all the layers.”

If you want to work outside of the confines of your art, and create ascension, you first need to study these rules during Phase 1 of your Artistic Journey.

This ascension or elevation of your influencers’ ideas will happen in Phase 3 of your Artistic Journey, but I’m mentioning this here in the Phase 1 discussion because the beginning of the transformation is just rote copying.

How to Copy in the Most Productive Way

To use copying as a means to an end, you will need to know how to copy in a way that will guide you to the next level where you can break away from your influences and find your own style. There are definitely some best practices to follow.

Action Items for Useful Copying

  • Look for patterns. Assess the works of your favorite artists, and look for patterns. In those patterns, you will find what works.
  • Research the basic elements. In the previous section I mentioned learning the “rules” of your art. You can examine the works of influential artists and see how they use the different elements in their pieces.
  • Reach out to your influencers. For the most part, artists will be flattered that you enjoy their work and are inspired to create something. Reach out to ask questions and interact. They will probably share some valuable knowledge with you.
  • Honor the artist. Painter Salvador Dali said, “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” Artists know about imitation, and that’s why we consider it the sincerest form of flattery. Be sure that your intention is to honor the artist and share credit in the influence.

A Word on the End Goal: Developing Your Own Style

To paraphrase Alfred Hitchcock, personal style is just plagiarizing yourself. Next month, during the Artistic Journey: Phase 2 discussion, I will talk about Self Plagiarism, or making a copy of a copy of a copy.

Once you get going learning the basics and making your super derivative art, put away those pieces that you created while imitating another artist. Then, without looking at them, try to re-create a similar piece. Then put that away and start fresh with another piece. I can almost guarantee you that some of your own authentic artistic style will start to creep in.

How will you know when you are exiting Phase 1 and starting Phase 2?

When you start showing signs of exhibiting your own style. Eventually, during Phase 2, your influences will no longer be easily discerned in your pieces.

My Copying Phase: A Show and Tell for Crochet Artists

I’m a crochet designer, and I learned to crochet in 2006. I started my hobby by crocheting from other people’s published patterns and designs, and I didn’t start figuring out design until 2012. Then, the first time that I copied another artist was in 2014.

It was a small heart mandala motif designed by Crochet Millan. I reached out to the designer and asked if I could have permission to create a squared off border for her heart mandala to turn it into a blanket square. I also wanted to create a half-motif and a quarter-motif for the design. She granted me permission, and I wrote up the little additions to her pattern and linked to her directions for the initial mandala portion.

Each episode of Creative Clarity has a crochet pattern that goes with it, and this month my goal for the crochet pattern portion was to include this mandala extension design, Hearts in Bloom. Nowadays, the Crochet Millan written pattern no longer exists online, but I will of course credit the talented designer when the free pattern for Hearts in Bloom releases on Monday, March 27th.

This is how the heart mandala looks – isn’t it gorgeous? I have used Scheepjes Colour Crafter in the following colors and quantities.

Yarn Information

You can find Colour Crafter at my affiliated shops: WoolWarehouse and Jimmy Beans Wool, or by searching for a Scheepjes retailer near you.

One ball each of the following:

  • Maastricht – 1246
  • Tilburg – 1083
  • Amsterdam – 1010
  • Leek – 1132
  • Knokke – 2012
  • Eelde – 1422
  • Texel – 1019
  • Middelburg – 1003
  • Rhenen – 1188
  • Harlingen – 1825

Small amount of Brussel – 2004 (or any yellow DK remnants)

Three balls of Weert – 1001

Want more?

If you would like to take a deeper dive, I have some more content for you!

Free Crochet Pattern

If you crochet or know someone who does, check out the accompanying free pattern, the updated Hearts in Bloom. Finished photos and free pattern will be released in a blog post on March 27th here on the blog – yay!

Creative Art Blanket Course

If you want to enroll in my Creative Art Blanket Course, it is designed for crafters who are struggling with their creative journey. In the course, I tackle such problems as, “too many WIPs”, “lost my crojo”, “analysis paralysis” and much more. Along the way, I’ll guide you through the layout and construction of a beautiful art blanket with yarn from your stash.

Creative Clarity Series

Click here to read all of the posts in my Creative Clarity series.

Thank you for reading and I hope it helps!

As always, happy crafting!

Rachele C.

The Art of Crochet Blankets (my book on Amazon)

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