What's the Difference Between Stealing and Being Inspired?

In his book “Steal Like An Artist” Austin Kleon lays out the “rules” of stealing. And I like them.

I’m paraphrasing here but you should read his book.

Cardinale Fernando Niño de Guevara, by El Greco/

Honor, don’t degrade. Make your copies pay homage to their source.

Study your mentor (who you’re stealing from). Don’t just skim Wikipedia about her or him. Find out what really made them do what they did.

Steal from a lot of folks. Don’t just steal from one person. That’s borderline at best. Now granted you can be inspired by one person for awhile (Rauschenberg was inspired by de Kooning, Picasso was inspired by El Greco, van Gogh was inspired by Japanese woodcuts, etc.) but eventually you should move on to your next mentor.

Give credit don’t plagiarize. Does this one really need explaining?

Transform it. Don’t just copy it whole cloth. Put your spin on it. If you can’t do that, then you are not being inspired. You’re stealing.

Who inspires you? Who’s style do you want to figure out? Who’s technique do you want to reverse engineer?

Find someone who inspires you and pay homage to their work. Steal Like An Artist.