Thursday, April 14, 2016, I was the lone member of a panel that David Morgan was the Moderator for Grapevine Art Project

It was a fun night.  I put in some real time on finding sources for the members of GAP.  It is always "fun" to talk about yourself, and is always an eye opener for self.  Having to put things into words makes feelings more real and gives me understanding of self.  Talked about a lot of things fast and hard and still did not get everything covered.
  One of the things I wanted to mention is using references from the internet and other peoples photographs and paintings.  If you want to compete with your painting or sell your painting (and I can't think of many other reasons for producing a painting), you should not use anyone else's photograph, and certainly NEVER another person's painting) or a reference photo from the internet.  Let me give you my personal experience that I have told in most every class or workshop since the experience.  Wanted to enter a State wide Pet Exhibition with a painting of my Blue Great Dane named Belle.  She had died some year before and I could not find a good photo I had taken, so went to the internet.  Found  a photo of a typical position that Belle would get in and made some changes:  1. the dog in internet photo was beige color with darker points and my dog was a blue.  2. The dog in internet photo had cut ears and I changed the ears to Belle's natural ears.  3. The dog in internet photo was not as fat as Belle, so I changed my painting to add pounds.  4.  Made my painting more feminine looking.
  None of this makes any difference.  The photo was not mine and that is the only consideration that copyright takes into consideration.  I won Best of Show, was challenged and gave the award money and ribbon back.  Lesson learned.
  Below is painting of my beloved Belle in Typical Dane Position.