Aaaahhh snap!

[Azrael]

Have you started throwing down on paper something that you get really into, letting the ink fly as you craft your masterpiece from spontanious inspiration,taking the image to the far depths of your mind, reveling in the freshness of your pice as it unfolds before you only... then..as you take a step back to admire your beauty..... the bomb hits; Your "fresh idea" closely resembles a piece of work by another artists. Maybe you have seen this artists work before, maybe you stumbled upon it when your image was done, it doesn't matter, the pain of unoriginality is still present. Doesn't that suck?

[Interceptor]

I know the feeling..

It's even wrose when you have a personal character you've had for years, and then suddenly you see in a game or something a character that looks identical. oh well, that's the breaks

[Carnifex]

well,you can always say to yourself "great minds think alike". voilá.

[Hookswords]

That happens to me all the time. Sometimes I wonder if I am being watched.

[DSillustration]

Brad Holland once said:
"Your first idea is usually someone else's."

[Azrael]

ha! that's a good one DS. I'll have to add that to my repertoire.

[Andy P]

Hah, DS, well put. Brad Holland is, indeed, an intelligent fellow.

I do feel like I'm always in someone else's shadow, but I take comfort in the fact that a lot of my heros felt that way at one point. I just keep bangin, bound to hit upon somethin fresh eventually...

[magicgoo]

Yes, all the time! I'm like, "I'm such a genius!" And, then I step back, and both the idea has been done before AND my art turns out crappy. It's like two slaps to the face.

[DavidCousens]

Yup. The worst moment is that sinking feeling where you think "hang on a second..." then you know you're about to abandon a whole load of hard work. Sigh...

[Qitsune]

There are ideas that we see a lot because they are good. Cliche are useful to convey a message effectively.

[Azrael]

I guess they do say we are all sums of our experiences. Just like when you see a good piece of artwork you think to yourself,” man the way that line was done was insane, or that pose, lighting, composition, etc, is perfect, I’ll have to remember that.”. Those images that you admire are part of the equation that defines what you produce. Of course, we all do our best to put our own twist on things, it just sucks when that “twist” also resembles someone else’s work, but then like Qitsune said, ideas revolve because they are good ones.