When you get right down to it, confidence is one of those things in life that can be elusive, difficult to find, but the difference in your life between having it, and not, is immense.

On a personal level, having confidence in yourself makes you appear capable, reliable, successful. When others see this capable person, they also have confidence in her and gladly engage and befriend her. Thus, confidence brings about friendship and social success.

As an artist, the confident person can paint with more assurance and bravura, imprinting her work with those bold brushstrokes that can really make a work come together and sing. Viewers notice the boldness, the genius, and respond accordingly. Again, confidence brings about success.

One would think that it’s the other way around, that success would bring about confidence, and while there’s some measure of truth in this statement, I am convinced that it usually works the other way around, that the very fact of being confident makes things happen more easily, or more successfully.

So, having said that, how does one get this so-important confidence? That, I’m afraid, is not so easily answered. It involves a number of factors. Like having done your homework so that you know your stuff and know that you can do it. Like not worrying so much what others think so that whether others like your work or not becomes unimportant, or less important at least. Like building small successes over small successes, until one feels successful.

One of the tricks I have found over the years is to ’act as if’. By that I mean that you act as if you already are what you wish to be. Want to be less shy and more outgoing? Enter a room and start talking to everyone ’pretending’ that it’s totally natural for you to behave this way and before you know it, it will be and it will feel comfortable. Want to be more successful? Act like a successful person, and you will attract the kind of success you seek.

Sound crazy? Don’t make up your mind until you’ve tried it. It works.

"When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things." (Joe Namath)

Suzette

Continuing my discussion on originality, this time I’m considering issues of copyright.

Copyright Infringement
      When you create something, you own that thing, you own the copyright, ie the right to copy or reproduce that thing and profit from it. If someone copies one of your paintings and sells it, they have stolen your image and profited by it. It’s a clear case of copyright infringement.

      When you paint and use someone else’s photograph, you are doing the same thing. That photographer has probably gone to great lengths to get the right photograph, the right location, the right time, the right light. He owns that image as clearly as you own the image of your painting. If that photograph is published in a book or magazine, the publisher also has some rights with regard to that image. So using those images for more than general reference, is also a case of infringement.

Originality vs. Copyright
      There seems to be a lot of confusion between the issue of originality and copyright infringement. The two are completely different issues and one must understand the difference. Copying from a copyright-free image*, is still copying, but it does not infringe on anyone’s rights. It does however break the rule if entered into a show where originality is required. (In our club, we do allow the use of someone else’s photograph if permission has been obtained from the author of the photograph, but I’m not sure why; the copying may have been done with permission, but it is still copying).

      *(Copyright-free images are available from a number of sources, particularly the internet. They are only copyright-free if they are in the public domain (a topic for another time), or if the owner specifically says so where the images are found. Otherwise, images on the net, or in books, are covered by copyright laws.)

The following (taken from a post on www.artbizblog.com - Ethics and using other peoples photographs, Oct. 24/08) says it well:

      "If the photograph is not in the public domain, and the painting does not add substantial additional artistic expression (basically the difference between “copying” and “inspiration”) then the painting is a derivative work from the photo. If the painter does not own the photo, or does not have permission, then we’re looking at a possible copyright infringement.... There’s no % or other objective standard. It’s case-by-case."

So, to conclude, the trick is to use material as reference, as study, for inspiration but never to copy from. Use it as a new idea, to try a different technique, but make it yours by making it unique. Don’t forget to add ’substantial additional artistic expression’.

Suzette

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." (Henry David Thoreau)