Is Google is killing art?

[rodneywt1180b]

Another fun topic. 

Is Google killing art?  I don't think so.  It may actually be helping in some ways. There is a world of inspiration at our fingertips.  I think for every person who is satisfied with copying someone else's work there is another person who sees that same work and is inspired to create their own.  I use the internet for design references all the time.but I don't make direct copies of what I see. 

[Stewart]

I am caught !!

   I did not inherit the skills  My Mom had. I do copy and paste a lot of images off Google.

Two  or three at a time to create a theme. Some times I printout two different scenes,

trace each one and combine them into one scene. Like now I am doing a boy fishing off a doc into a pond.

That's one image taken from a picture.   Cropped lily pads and enlarged from same picture and traced .

Combined on a 4 inch round and added my style of trees. So I am am a copiest and not an artist.

  So without Google images  I would not have the relaxing effect of working with leather or satisfy

the creative urge . I do not sell these but have given  out to people that go beyond there responsibilities.

  I am not a leather craftsman cause I make a mess of holsters. sheathes and  belts..etc..

         Than again I am not an artist.  I just have fun.

Joe S.

 

[Bob Blea]

2 hours ago, Stewart said:

I am caught !!

   I did not inherit the skills  My Mom had. I do copy and paste a lot of images off Google.

Two  or three at a time to create a theme. Some times I printout two different scenes,

trace each one and combine them into one scene. Like now I am doing a boy fishing off a doc into a pond.

That's one image taken from a picture.   Cropped lily pads and enlarged from same picture and traced .

Combined on a 4 inch round and added my style of trees. So I am am a copiest and not an artist.

  So without Google images  I would not have the relaxing effect of working with leather or satisfy

the creative urge . I do not sell these but have given  out to people that go beyond there responsibilities.

  I am not a leather craftsman cause I make a mess of holsters. sheathes and  belts..etc..

         Than again I am not an artist.  I just have fun.

Joe S.

 

Stewart there is nothing wrong with the way you are doing it.  The first functional thing I made in leather was a check book cover and I wanted a floral carving but didn't have anything in the books or craftaids I had at the time that fit the space or looked like what I wanted.  I 'adapted' a carving pattern for a small case by photocopying it and tracing parts of it till it fit the space.  I was able to put it together so it sort of worked together.  Before computers a lot of camera ready artwork for ads, flyers and posters was created this way.  If you don't have the ability to draw (and some people just don't, their brains aren't wired for that activity) the way you are handling it is a creative solution that creates an artwork that didn't exist before you came along.

[Handstitched]

G'Day,

What an interesting  subject. 

I have used  ' Mr Google' , as I call it , mainly  for logos, ideas   and inspiration etc.  and custom jobs for clients . But the majority of my patterns come from  Al Stohlman books from the 60's & 70's etc.  . I have done some free hand stuff as well, but only because Al Stohlman has inspired me to do my own . 

I couldn't draw to save my own life before I got into leather work. But these days, if I have an idea of my own  that pops into my head, its now almost instinct to grab a pen & paper and scribble the idea down , even on the closest bit of scrap paper I find,  ....before I forget what it was..... and kicking myself later. 

If I'm doing an Al Stohlman  carved pattern , I don't always copy that very pattern from his books. I often use a ' a bit of this pattern and a bit of that pattern ,like a flower from one book, a scroll,  from another,   perhaps a horse from yet another,    so that the end design is a combination of different patterns and  has come from 3,4 or five different books, but also adding & drawing  some of my own ideas as well. It  sometimes takes me hours for me to finally settle on a design too . 

But I don't think ' Mr Google' is  killing art...well, not mine anyway  . Google only plays a small part of my leather designs for me. 

HS