Hi there. Do not worry, I am not here to flame you, just to clarify.
I heard about the thievery and so I looked through your gallery.
I saw something I commonly see with younger or less experience artists on Da (I am surprised however to see this from such a long-time member).
I see a lot of re-draws of pictures from mangas and other peoples' fanarts.
You need to credit the image you are re-drawing (or heavy referencing) in respect to the original artist's hard work to make the original composition. In reality, re-draws are not allowed on DeviantART (see bellow), but the community is not so angered by this as long as the original sources are properly credited.
Keep in mind that when you upload something to this site, it automatically publishes your picture with a copyright to your username. So even if you are not claiming you made the original idea/picture in your own words, if you do not credit the original source/artist for the picture, and not just the series title, you are indirectly claiming it-- unintentional, or tactical, art thievery.
You can credit it with a direct link to the original image, or writing out your source such as the volume/chapter/page number the image is from in the manga. If you do not remember where it is from, just write in the description that it is a "re-draw" of an image that is not your own.
This is also needed for most "heavy referencing." By this, is mainly using the original image as a base to re-draw the same pose or another aspect exactly as it is shown, and just changing certain features (such as the eye style or the hair).
Mimicry art is a great learning tool, but breaks copyright laws and deviantARt's own rules (I'll provide references of this bellow). They are wonderful to use offline for practice, but shouldn't be uploaded, especially unaccredited, into an art website: DeviantART especially since DeviantART provides a copyright to every image you upload into your username.
With as much practice as you have had to learn how different artists use line and angles to make an image, you should be able to make your own by now. Try branching out further into developing your own independent skills. It might not be what you would like at first, but you'll never get any better without trying.
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Resources:
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
FAQ #217: What are "Stock and Resources" and can I use them in my submissions?
One of the examples of copyright infringement, as dictated in writing in DeviantART's own copyright policy about.deviantart.com/policy/co… , includes: "Adapting someone else's creative work found in one medium to another medium, such as making a book into a movie or a photograph into a painting."
Not necessarily. Two months ago, I found a deviant who has been here for over 3 years submitting into a group I admin in. He claimed to have made the image entirely by himself. The original was on a site from Venezuela 11 years prior. His gallery was stealing artwork from sources that he thought we wouldn't find -- and they were very difficult to find too!-- and that is how he got away with it so long. Others get away with it for a long time just because they are not very popular, so not enough eyes are going past it to pick it up, or because they are not active enough on the site.
Not really.
I sketch other people's artwork all the time to learn how they use line, angle, and proportions in their drawings to do what it is that they do. I just don't upload those here because it is a drawing tool I use to learn, and not something I made entirely myself.
Most of the art in his gallery I've found to be re-draws from specific comics/manga and television shows/animes. I've let him know how to credit them properly, and why it needs to be credited.
As for the stylized pictures, many of those have been heavily referenced from other pictures and minimal changes have been made, such as the eye style, but the majority of the picture, such as the body, are the same as the original source. Those need to be credited too, and I've let him know how.
Now if he takes that advice or not will determine if he is an art thief really, or if he was just mistaken.
Really though, with how long he has been doing this, he should have learned enough form the mimicry art to be making much more original art now. He should branch out further and nurture his own abilities more, rather than crutching on the ideas of someone else.