Still need to refine bg…potentially shade clothing more…if I need to…hmmm….dunno

So I was talking to my cousin about artrage because he was really impressed with the picture I did of mork.  So, I uploaded my wip as my display pic on facebook to show him what else I was doing.  A friend of mine made a comment about how I always have anime avatars and I told him it was an artrage image and explained how it worked.  He then compared the process to photo filters which pissed me off since I’ve been working on this image all week (mostly because since it’s so big it’ll freeze the program and I’ll have to start over from where I last saved) and it may not be based off an “original image” but I honestly believe that this piece is mine!

It did bring up the question however of this kind of artwork.  While I feel strongly about this particular piece being mine the mork piece I’m not so sure.  Essentially what I did with that image was make a photo look more painterly and added a few touches of my own.  My cousin said it was still mine because the strokes were mine, but I don’t know if I’m satisified with that.

I don’t know if I could remake the mork piece from scratch if I had to. Not that I’m not capable,  I just feel I lack the skill at this moment in time.  So, I sort of feel like a fraud.  But at the same time I do believe it’s mine because there’s a movement and feeling in the piece that is not there in the photo.  I believe that’s what makes it mine.

Still, the question remains, is this mine?  Can something digital ever belong to anyone?  Could I print this out and sign my name on the back without looking like a phony?

These are questions I think as digital artists we should ask ourselves.

For my first finished Artrage piece I used a picture I took of my dog Mork and then tried a whole bunch of different things until I ended with something I liked, this .

And the original:

I’m working on one using a My Little Pony I customized but so far I’m not all too pleased with the results…we’ll see I guess…

1 down 2 to go.