So as most of you know I posted a video tutorial of me making one of my dragons on YouTube: [link] It's been pretty cool seeing the dragons people have made from watching it. I think it might be fun to post them in a journal, just to see how different and unique they all turned out.

I know some of you have expressed concern that the video will just encourage copycats. Well, after over two years of posting online I have learned a few things. First, imitation and copying is inevitable. It sucks but it IS going to happen at some point if your work becomes popular enough. I do have copycats, and I do keep an eye on them. I can't really do much about them, unless they blatantly copy a design. So I've learned to live with it. I appear to have a very protective fanbase, as I am constantly alerted by you good people when anyone might be copying me. I like to think that most people can figure out who the original artist is, and who is copying.  It used to make me furious that someone would have the gall to steal my style and sell it as their own, but I've found that for the most part, those people eventually get bored of it, and move on to other things. If they can only steal ideas, then I have no respect for them and they don't really deserve my time and worry anyway. The more I focus on my own work, and stop obsessing over copycats, the happier I am and the better my work is.

Secondly, I want to help aspiring sculptors. I love to hear that my work has inspired someone to start sculpting or to pick it up again after giving up. I absolutely love working with clay, so it makes me sad to see people give up on it! When I first started all this, I was very closed about sharing my "trade secrets". But as I've gone along, I wondered, well why can't I help out other sculptors? True I've put in all the time myself to learn everything I do on my own over the course of many years, but does that mean I should expect everyone to do it that way? It seems selfish to me. I'm a lot happier sharing and helping people than I was being secretive. I truly have no problem with people learning from my sculptures. If you want to have a go at making a dragon for yourself or as a gift to a friend, I have no problem with it! If you want to practice with my designs and build your own style from there, that's great! There are a lot of people here who make dragons or ponies similar to mine for practice, and they almost always link back to me as inspiration. I love seeing them, and love giving feedback on them. It's actually pretty rare that my style is full out hijacked and sold by someone as their "own style".

I think being open and ready with advice builds a certain amount of respect between artists. I've met a lot of awesome people here on DA and had some great discussions, just because I was open to sharing. And in return I have learned from them! So sharing my techniques doesn't bother me in the slightest anymore. It's more rewarding than not, in my opinion    






COMMISSIONS:
Are still closed! I'm booked solid through June, but will re-open them again in late June, to start filling up July. I am more than happy to give estimates for future purchases through NOTE. Comments get buried insanely fast, so you may not hear back on them for many weeks!

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