IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ!!!!

This tutorial is based on copyright law, the rules of various art sites, and the opinions of many talented artists. HOWEVER this tutorial is intended to be a general guideline to help people avoid accidental art theft and to protect themselves against accusations of art theft. It is NOT supposed to be a guide on hunting down art thieves, and is NOT a substitute for copyright law or the rules of Deviant art. You should familiarize yourself with both to see what is different and what is the same. Here are some of the Deviant art rules regarding copying, tracing and art theft that you should familiarize yourself with:
FAQ #35: Where is the Etiquette policy for deviantART?
FAQ #572: What does deviantART consider "Fan Art" to be?
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?
FAQ #306: Does "Crediting" let me use whatever I want?


I do not want to discredit artists who use references, as they are just as much artists as those who don't. Most artists use some sort of reference in their work and are in no way art theives.


I tried to include as much information as possible, based on what other artists wanted discussed. I know a lot of people beleive there is no scuh thing as pose and style "theft", but it was brought up enough times I felt it should be included. Remember, this tutorial is also based on popular opinion and not everything shown here is true art theft. Pose “theft” and style “theft” is merely an example of common courtesy, and while polite is not against the rules of most art sites, nor is it against copyright law. While I have seen a few cases of poses theft that resulted in the removal of the offending image, I have NEVER seen an image removed because the style was copied.

All the "stolen" art was drawn by me, with the permission of the artist for example purposes.

You may link to this tutorial, but please do not repost it.

Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to this project, I couldn't have done it without you.



Take too long to load? The tutorial is also been divided into sections:
Intro, golden rules, and definitions: [link]
Tracing and Altering: [link]
Copying and Referencing: [link]
Opinions and Special Thanks: [link]

If you would like to see the original version of the tutorial, you can do so here: [link]