Rat's Saucy Nest

Hi! So, I know this is not the greatest gift ever but I drew you something at work today! I was gonna draw a cake with candles on it but I realized AJ isn’t the kind of pony to bake a cake… so have some apple pie :P

Aaaah, omg! That’s super cute. Thank you so much, starguzzler! Apple pie is the best birthday cake, too.

Hey Rat, I used one of your lewd pieces as a reference for some naughty bits on an Epona sketch and it bears a little bit of resemblance to your great art. I’m making sure its alright with you before I post it to derpi in case someone flags it or complains. If you’re not ok with it I won’t post it. Thanks man!

Hey! That looks absolutely awesome! I always loved the idea of Epona as a pony. It looks great! And I don’t mind at all, using references is nothing bad at all. It makes you a better artist! As long as it’s not traced, there’s nothing shameful about it at all. Feel free to post it on Derpi! And I’m flattered that you’d use my art as a reference for the naughty bits. They look sweet and to be honest, if someone would’ve showed me that picture without context, I wouldn’t have realized it!

If someone complains about you being inspired by someone else’s art and using it as a reference, slap them with a horse dildo. Seriously. Every artist uses references. No one should expect an artist to create something only out of their own mind all the time. As long as you don’t trace, there’s nothing wrong with it. Using references helps you growing as an artist and you learn new things. Just don’t make a carbon copy of the whole thing you’re referencing, what’s the point in completely duplicating something that already exists, after all. Always try to put your own spin on it. Like here, using a reference to help out with a small part of a bigger image is completely okay and I’d say even encouraged. I use references all the time, and I’ve developed “my” style of genitals because I really liked how kevinsano and braeburned are doing things. So I used their art as a reference in the beginning, then I also started looking at real photographs to get another idea and added certain elements I like about the human anatomy until everything kinda mashed together into something I like personally.

Using references and getting inspirations from other pictures or photographs or real life is absolutely normal. I’m sure you also googled a picture of a carrot to draw that one carrot lying on the floor, no? If not then I’m really impressed by your mental image of carrots, haha. My mental image of things suck. In general most humans are horrible at remembering things correctly. Ever tried drawing a bicycle without looking at a picture of one? You’d think it wouldn’t be that difficult, after all we all see a bicycle many, many times in our lives, maybe even rode on one for years in our life. Hell, I couldn’t draw my phone completely accurately without looking at it, and I stare at that thing for hours every single day.