Inspiration or Plagiarism? How do you tell the difference?

Happy Saturday guys!  I've decided to start touching deeper topics on my blog due to some things that I've encountered on Facebook.  First let's be clear that these are my opinions only.  I'm not saying that my views are the gospel but I'm entitled to my views.  I don't like drama & therefore I don't comment on things that are dramatic on Facebook.  I choose to be positive and to stay in my lane & mind my business.  The reason I've decided to speak on things here on my blog is simple.  This blog is mine.  It is a place where I can share my thoughts and my opinions on my own terms.  I hope you can respect my opinions & I would love to hear yours on some of the topics I will be discussing :).

Topic 1:  Inspiration or Plagiarism?

I receive a lot of request for private orders where the customer wants me to "copy" a reborn baby by another artist.  Their words would be "I want you to make me a baby that looks just like "this" one & even provide a picture or link of the reborn baby from the original artist.  I always professionally decline the request but it makes me so angry.  First of all, it's insulting to me as an Artist that you don't trust my judgment to create a gorgeous reborn baby but secondly it's not fair the the artist who originally made the baby.

I would never want anyone to copy my work exactly unless they are following a tutorial.  It's not right & there are so many reborn artist who do it. Their excuse is "the customer is always right" or I just used their work as an inspiration.  Each artist should strive to have their own distinct style.  There's nothing more awesome than looking a reborn doll & knowing who the artist is without even reading who made it.  We should all strive to reach that level one day.  But going around attempting to "clone" other people's work is sickening to me  

Which leads to the next question.  When is it inspiration or plain old plagiarism?  

I'm sure we all have our opinions on this, but I will say I'm inspired by so many artist.  I may love the way they paint hair, or love the way they paint lips & details & I get inspired to do better with my own work.  I'm inspired to practice harder & work harder to do better, not to knock off a replica of their work.  

Here's an awesome article here on inspiration versus plagiarism.  Please take the time to read it.  I hope it will change your mind on continuing to hijack someone else's work & I truly hope I haven't offended anyone.  Again these are my thoughts & opinions.