art plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as the act of taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. If you take someone else’s painting and say you painted it, you are plagiarizing that work. If you copy an image of an online painting and put it on your website claiming it is yours, you are again plagiarizing that work. Likewise, even if you draw or paint over someone else’s work or add to it here and there, it’s still plagiarism.

It’s worth keeping in mind that plagiarism is illegal if it affects the intellectual property rights of the artist. If your artwork is protected by copyright or trademark, you, as the owner of that copyright or trademark, could sue someone if they are found to have plagiarized their work. If someone is found to have made a substantial amount of money plagiarizing copyrighted works, they could face a fine and a heavy jail sentence.

Of course, when it comes to art, it’s virtually impossible not to borrow ideas from works you’ve come across before. If you see a piece of art, you might be inspired and want to create a similar piece – that’s totally fine, as long as you don’t blatantly copy it.

If you have been inspired by a particular painting, make sure the painting you create is original and your own. Do not reproduce someone else’s work. If you are presenting things that were clearly taken from another painting, it is vital that you reference this other painting and its artist, just as you would a citation for an essay. Don’t fool people into thinking something is yours when it isn’t. You won’t get anywhere if you plagiarize. Sometimes artists want to use a part of someone else’s work in their own work. Alright? It is, only if explicit permission is obtained from the original artist. If the original artist says that you can use some of their work in your own piece, then you can. If the original artist doesn’t give you permission, you can’t.

So what’s the best thing you can do to make sure you don’t plagiarize? Simple: be unique. By all means, look to other works for inspiration, but when it comes to creating artwork for yourself, create pieces that showcase your talent, vision, and individuality, not someone else’s. If you plagiarize someone else’s copyrighted work, they will find it and take action.

When you create art, you wouldn’t want someone else to come along and steal your work, plagiarize it, and pass it off as their own. You wouldn’t want your work plagiarized, so don’t plagiarize other people’s work. There’s a fine line between being inspired by something and plagiarizing something, so if you’re not sure, it’s always best to reference just in case. The best, of course, is to remain original.