Question: why is using free stock images bad art? If someone's not good at designing or drawing vehicles, horses, space ships, etc, but the story calls for them, why can't they use resources other artists have created? People get heckled for drawing badly, for tracing over objects, and for putting stock images in their work. How can they win?
Iāve gotten this kind of ask a lot over the years and I used to spend a lot of energy trying to think of compelling arguments to answer them but honestly Ive come to the conclusion that if you donāt get it you wonāt get it, you win, canāt explain why tracing is bad, I canāt explain why photoshop filtered 3D models are bad, itās too fundamental a feeling to explain beyond ābecause youāre an artist dudeā why do chefs slave away in the kitchen when they can door dash, why do musicians practice a piece for hours when they can just play it on YouTube? If your main goal as an artist is to save time, find a short cut to get around having to improve, to just fucking trying then why bother? Why are you as an āartistā taking up room in a cut throat industry when someone infinitely better than you is begging for $10 commissions on twitter? Or even if they arenāt better just someone that would try, do you think Adam Hughes when he was learning to paint was ever like āthis is too hard let me just slap some jpgs in hereā no, he learned form drawing, because he loves what he makes which people like Greg Land clearly fucking donāt, I donāt believe theres ever been a great artist in any medium that didnāt fundamentally love art, if not the process than the outcome but if the outcome isnāt yours to begin with then who gives a shit, not you obviously but hey you didnāt have to try and plus think of all the time you saved, thatās what really matters
