Magdelynne
Well...I haven't had anyone copy my art...not to my knowledge, anyway. I don't think they would want to, anyway. My art isn't exactly high art.
I understand if they have no artistic skills and need guidance if they eyeball things...until they post it on the internet and call it their art. If you're doing that to learn, then that's just fine, but to pass it off as your own is wrong. When I was learning more about art styles (particularly anime), I would pause the TV screen on "Sailor Moon" and draw the still...but I didn't try to say "HEY, LOOK I DREW THIS, ISN'T IT THE GREATEST?".
It makes me angry, too...a lot of those people are just people with no skills trying to get famous quickly, without putting effort into their work. I wouldn't get too bothered by it, even though it's wrong...
I whole heartedly agree. It's perfectly acceptable to use a refrence photo, hell, I still do that for my drawings class, but I don't trace over it or try to make it look exactly like the scene in the picture. I say "hmm...those leaves look interesting, maybe I could try something like that." Learning to draw or paint or anything takes practice: trial and error. If you don't go through that you'll never grow. People that just trace or copy a compleat image piss me off, but after a while I'm just like "anyone can see that it's a knock off so they're just making a fool of themselves. My assistance for that isn't really needed."
And I havn't had anything copied as well...that I know of...
stare