On Art Integrity and the Tracing Epidemic
Lately, Iāve been reflecting on the state of the art community and how we, as creators, sometimes lose sight of what really matters. Art isnāt just about the followers or the fameāat least, it shouldnāt be. But thereās this growing trend thatās becoming impossible to ignore: Tracing, stealing, and essentially leeching off the hard work of others.
This person (revheadarts on Deviantart and revhead_fanarts on Instagram) is out here tracing over original art just to make it look more āpopularā and likeable.
Honestly, love, tracing isnāt art. Youāre literally stealing someone elseās hard work and slapping your name on it to get likes. Thatās not talent, thatās manipulation. š
And donāt even get me started on how theyāre only drawing ideas from free bases they find online. Thereās absolutely no originality here. They canāt even be bothered to come up with something fresh or uniqueāitās all just recycled rubbish! I find it funny they call themselves āscrap junkieā. Sooo relatable.
Weāve all been inspired by something or someone, but thereās a big difference between drawing inspiration and copying. Artists build on ideas, sure, but we also need to respect the originality of others and be mindful of copyrights and creative ownership. āØ
Whatās worse? Their characters are literally blends of already existing canon characters. Like, weāre talking about direct rip-offs, people. This isn't "inspiration," this is straight-up copyright infringement. You canāt just mash up a bunch of well-known characters and call it your own. Thatās not how art works.
This personās all about the likes, the fame, and the attentionājust look at their social media. Itās all about the numbers; no heart, no soul. If they donāt care enough to put in the effort to be original or even respect other creators, why should we support them?
If you need more proof to believe me, just check the difference in their style. The change happened so fast, my brain just sent out a ā404 Error: Unable to Processā message.
Not to mention how their "fame" changed overnight once they started tracing the original artwork:
Revhead_fanarts has been known for tracing ever since their existence and this community is not the only one he has been deceiving. This is just one example among many (traced art on the left and a movie scene on the right):
Itās unfair to real artists when tracing is seen as equally valid or praised because it undermines the dedication and time they pour into their craft. While Revhead can produce content in minutes by tracing (noticeable in how frequent they post, which is every day); true artists face hours of practice, learning, and refining their technique, often without the immediate recognition they deserve.
Tracing might create fast results, but it skips the growth process that shapes an artist's unique voice. Itās disheartening when the effort and skill required for original work are overshadowed by shortcuts that donāt reflect the real work that goes into creating art from scratch.
Final takeout: Letās keep the art community a space where authenticity shines. Whether itās coming up with your own character designs, experimenting with different techniques, or simply learning new things, thereās no shortcut to becoming a true creator. Itās all about passion and effort, not the quick thrill of chasing likes. šŖ
You can try to delete the truth but it will never go away. And, I might as well copy and paste what I said on deviantart.
Let's go down every point by point of this post of the "evidence" you are so trying to defend here.
"Lately, Iāve been reflecting on the state of the art community and how we, as creators, sometimes lose sight of what really matters. Art isnāt just about the followers or the fameāat least, it shouldnāt be. But thereās this growing trend thatās becoming impossible to ignore: Tracing, stealing, and essentially leeching off the hard work of others.
This person (revheadarts on Deviantart and revhead_fanarts on Instagram) is out here tracing over original art just to make it look more āpopularā and likeable.
Honestly, love, tracing isnāt art. Youāre literally stealing someone elseās hard work and slapping your name on it to get likes. Thatās not talent, thatās manipulation. š" Okay, LOVE, he ain't tracing. It's called referencing. There is a huge difference and NEWSFLASH, EVERYONE does this. This is not a new thing because everyone who draws is always looking for a way to improve, especially when they start out. Tracing parts or heavily referencing isn't a new thing. I have seen people who have legit traced over bases but that's not what Rev even did. Rev was NOT doing this to get popular or anything. As everyone has said in your post, he is not selling this art nor is he trying to get people to notice him. And everyone LIKES him because he is NICE. He gives gift art to the people he feels deserves gifts. He doesn't leech off of anyone. Though I honestly can't say the same for you.
Also the examples you used are laughable . One is from a fucking AI IMAGE. AI. Which is known to freaking steal from other people's art. So, yeah, good job on that front. You're attacking a legit artist by defending AI "artists". The screenshot of Noah doesn't even match. The Kaiba face one is also stretching it. Even if it was, the face shapes in YGO and most of anime tend to be, OMG, the same??? Wow, talking about grasping at straws here.
"And donāt even get me started on how theyāre only drawing ideas from free bases they find online. Thereās absolutely no originality here. They canāt even be bothered to come up with something fresh or uniqueāitās all just recycled rubbish! I find it funny they call themselves āscrap junkieā. Sooo relatable." Hmmm...interesting. Because I see just about EVERYONE ELSE doing the exact same thing. Those bases are freaking used by so many artists. And most of them are referencing too. Why is Rev being the one called out on this when he is doing the same thing as everyone else is doing? Also, love how you become very immature by trying to insult him too. If you're trying to be bias, it ain't showing. Like at all. Seriously, was this little attitude comment really necessary?
"Weāve all been inspired by something or someone, but thereās a big difference between drawing inspiration and copying. Artists build on ideas, sure, but we also need to respect the originality of others and be mindful of copyrights and creative ownership. āØ"
Good point. Except using Rev as an example of being the opposite of this isn't working out. I also can't really take this seriously with the examples you are using. Like the one with Jorah? Whoever you used, it doesn't even match. As for the other three, I see no issue just using screenshots and official art to help get the characters down. Like I said, everyone does this all the time. It's not that deep, LOVE.
"Whatās worse? Their characters are literally blends of already existing canon characters. Like, weāre talking about direct rip-offs, people. This isnāt āinspiration,ā this is straight-up copyright infringement. You canāt just mash up a bunch of well-known characters and call it your own. Thatās not how art works."
For someone preaching about inspiration, you sure are quick to dismiss that with these three examples you cherry picked. There are designs of characters in canon media that take inspiration from other anime. Cartoons as well. Coriander is questionable, but I do think I remember Rev talking about where his design came from and he did inspire his design from an anime character. The other two are really stretching as well. There are a lot of men who wear hats and long coats with strings of hair hanging down. Also, sometimes designing characters that are similar to other characters can be a coincidence.
"This personās all about the likes, the fame, and the attentionājust look at their social media. Itās all about the numbers; no heart, no soul. If they donāt care enough to put in the effort to be original or even respect other creators, why should we support them?
If you need more proof to believe me, just check the difference in their style. The change happened so fast, my brain just sent out a ā404 Error: Unable to Processā message."
No heart? No soul? It's all about the fame? Are you sure about that? Dude pours his heart into his art and he loves gifting people. I have SEEN it. Gotta love how you are so dismissive of this. Just because he happened to get popular doesn't mean he doesn't care about his art. Also, his style changed so fast? Did it ever occur to you that people can improve in their art in different ways and different times? Because us humans are different. How shocking I know.
"Not to mention how their āfameā changed overnight once they started tracing the original artwork:"
He has NO control over that. It's like how people tend to jump up in fame from one little thing. This kind of stuff does happen. And once again, him tracing or referencing from official art is not a big deal. As long as he gave credit, it's all good. And he plans to do just that.
"Revhead_fanarts has been known for tracing ever since their existence and this community is not the only one he has been deceiving. This is just one example among many (traced art on the left and a movie scene on the right):"
Tracing? You mean REDRAWING it? It doesn't look traced to me. Rather he just looked at the screenshot of the movie and REDREW it. Newsflash, love, EVERYONE REDRAWS screenshots all the time. Remember how EVERYONE was redrawing that one screenshot of Sailor Moon? You going to call those people tracers for that too? This is a really poor example.
"Itās unfair to real artists when tracing is seen as equally valid or praised because it undermines the dedication and time they pour into their craft. While Revhead can produce content in minutes by tracing (noticeable in how frequent they post, which is every day); true artists face hours of practice, learning, and refining their technique, often without the immediate recognition they deserve.
Tracing might create fast results, but it skips the growth process that shapes an artistās unique voice. Itās disheartening when the effort and skill required for original work are overshadowed by shortcuts that donāt reflect the real work that goes into creating art from scratch."
He is a fast artist. I know someone who is seriously a fast artist themself. This is nothing new either. Everyone goes at a different pace. Some can work on a piece for hours and hours while others can have something done in a few. Don't assume fast artists means they are tracing. Dismissing his craft just because he can draw fast is such a low blow. Heck, I get told I am a fast artist when I whip up a sketch. And quite frankly, I have SEEN the progress Rev has done over the course of me knowing him. Using official art and screenshots to help his art is not taking shortcuts. He doesn't fully trace everything, even with the "evidence" provided, most of everything doesn't even match up. While I do agree with what you said about tracing, we shouldn't completely dismiss it. It can help artists who are starting out. Young people trace all the time. Again, this isn't deep.
"Final takeout: Letās keep the art community a space where authenticity shines. Whether itās coming up with your own character designs, experimenting with different techniques, or simply learning new things, thereās no shortcut to becoming a true creator. Itās all about passion and effort, not the quick thrill of chasing likes. šŖ"
Again, I would love to agree with this, if you hadn't made a public call out that basically insulted Rev while trying to make it seem that what he does is so heinous he should be called out. Even if you think your intentions come from good graces, that is NOT how it comes off as. Honestly, you should have DM Rev in private to discuss the matter. But instead, you just took what little to no evidence you had and made a very sloppy call out post while trying to give him crap that just comes off more as you hating him personally rather than wanting to let people know about him. And it's also poor behavior to go a few of his art posts and be all "HE'S TRACING! THIS IS TOTALLY TRACING!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
And the last "evidence" you provided with the Jack and Daphne one is laughable. As I said before, Daphne and Akiza don't have the same face shape. It doesn't even line up. Once again, that is reaching. The Jack is debatable but I already said my piece earlier. Also I know that base pose since I asked a commissioner artist to draw me something similar: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeoTwcgPIdw/?img_index=3 and you can clearly see in the third part of the post that the artist only referenced the pose, which is exactly what Rev did with his own. If you are going to call people out for referencing a POSE, I suggest you watch this video:
https://youtu.be/kA3qB0TQjcs?si=KxIJ7gF2BxjgWtqZ Educate yourself. because pose theft is not a real thing. This is the last thing I will ever say to you. Have a nice life. ^-^
