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Blog Post #2

Explain what copyright means

Work with copyright means it is legally protected from unauthorised use

Why do we have copyright laws?

We have copyright laws to create incentives for people to create new designs and materials, and to protect creators.

How long does copyright last?

As of January 1st 2005, copyright in Australia generally lasts the duration of the creators lifetime, plus 70 years, however it differs in different countries, and copyright expired before 2005 under the outdated regulations (a creators lifetime plus 50 years) remain expired.

What will happen if you break copyright laws?

Breaking copyright laws and using copyrighted material outside of the copyright guidelines and without permission, means that copyright infringement has been committed. This can lead to legal action and fines, depending on the severity of the crime. For more serious crimes, fines can go as high as $117 000 for individuals and up to $585 000 for corporations.

Find two (2) examples of when copyright laws were broken, and what action was taken.

Art Rogers vs Jeff Koons

Left: Art Rogers, Puppies, 1985 © Art Rogers. Right: Jeff Koons, String of Puppies, 1988

In 1988, artist Jeff Koons created a set of statues that were very heavily based off a photograph by Art Rogers from 1985. These statues were made for his exhibit based around everyday items, and sold several them, making a significant profit which prompted legal action in 1991. In April of 1992 the court ruled that the pieces of art were too similar, and he had to pay Rogers a settlement

The Associated Press vs Shephard Fairey

Left: Mannie Garcia – 2006 © The Associated Press. Right: Shephard Fairey – 2008

In 2008, artist Shephard Fairey created a poster for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, independent of the campaign itself. The photo it had been based on had been taken by a freelancer for The Associated Press, and therefore next year AP demanded compensation from the artist for the use of the photograph in the artwork. Fairey defended with fair use, and in 2011 the two parties came to a private settlement outside of court, where they would split the profits

What percentage, if any, of a copyrighted image are you legally allowed to use in your artwork?

There is a generally agreed upon ‘30 Percent Rule’ where if you change 30% of the copyrighted work, it is no longer infringement. However, there is no official percentage of how much can be used, if a fair level of skill was involved in transforming it.

What are moral rights?

Moral rights are the individual rights creators have over their own works. These rights, like copyright, is applied automatically to creators in Australia. However unlike copyright, moral rights cannot be given to other parties, belonging solely to the creator of the work, therefore the moral rights and the copyright of a particular work may belong to different people.

How can you assert your copyright and moral rights when publishing your original artwork?

Moral rights and copyright automatically applied in Australia, and can be dealt with privately or through court

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Blog Post #1

What is vector art and why is it used widely in both screen and print?

Vector art is an algorithmic presentation of lines, shapes and vertices to create a graphic. This method allows the art to be scaled up indefinitely, giving it an “infinite resolution”, as opposed to rasterised art, which has a set number of pixels. This is why it is widely used in screen and print, as it can be scaled to fit whatever size is needed, being limited only by the display resolution or the printing method, giving the best possible quality.

What are the benefits of using Adobe Illustrator to create digital images?

Adobe Illustrator is an extremely powerful tool for creating digital images, as it is very good at manipulating vector art, with a wide range of tools to help carve out different shapes needed for the graphic. Some of its more powerful features involve the trace function, which can convert text into an editable vector graphic, and can even trace an existing picture file with a fixed resolution, into a vector graphic with an infinite resolution. It is the industry standard software for vector art, and by far the most superior.

Briefly explain the purpose of the Pen tool, the Brush tool and the Pencil tool when creating digital images, and describe when it would be appropriate to use these tools.

The pen tool is used to create anchor points to create a path or shape. It can make clean, sharp edges or smooth curves, and is the most precise tool out of the others

The pencil tool can also create paths and shapes, but by using a more traditional approach by drawing the shapes on the screen, which are automatically converted to paths. It isn’t as surgical as the pen tool, but can create more dynamic looking results

The brush tool is the most organic out of the tools. It works like the pencil tool, but with a brush applied to it in real time, so you can better see the outlook of the path being painted

Find three (3) examples of vector art that you like. Upload (with referencing) each image and specify:

What tools you think were used to draw each of the artworks

Why do you think these images work well?

Abdelrahman Taymour on Behance

Tools used: Pencil Tool

The image works really well due to the impressive linework, style, colours and effects

Wilman Winaya on Behance

Tools used: Pen, pencil, shape tools, pathfinder

This image works well due to the minimal shapes, subtle gradients, soft colours and clever framing

Kelly Amaral on Behance

Tools used: Mesh Tool

This image works incredibly well as uses a very unconventional method in a medium that doesn’t suit photorealistic art to great effect

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