![experiment.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/leysa/GXvSkK9F-experiment.jpg)

**Experiment in creativity: My "copy" is on the left. The original [source image](https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/133278470210859728/) is on the right.**
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Are you familiar with the books by Austin Kleon? If so, then you will be familiar with his first book, "Steal like an artist" (2012). If you are not, you absolutely must read [this book](https://www.bookdepository.com/Steal-Like-Artist-Austin-Kleon/9780761169253)!

Or, if you're more of a listener, you might prefer to check out this Ted Talk by Austin Kleon: 
https://youtu.be/oww7oB9rjgw

Kleon's manifestos and insights have been a game-changer in my creative practice and I can't recommend highly enough for others to read his stuff.

So, there's a section in the first book that talks about copying works you admire, *as practice only* (we're *not* endorsing plagiarism), as a method of discovering your own style and creative voice.

Here is my copy (below). The section I am talking about begins around here, on page 33.
![IMG_6734.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/leysa/mlNQlucF-IMG_6734.jpg)

As Francis Ford Coppola (an American film director, producer, screenwriter, film composer, and vintner) puts it, "...you can't steal (anyway). You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your voice. And that's how you begin."

And Kleon makes an important point: to not just "steal the style, (but) steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes."

Step two is to move from imitating to emulating. Kleon explains, "Imitation is about copying. Emulation is when imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing."

Once you have a copy, examine it. It will *never* be an exact copy. Kleon reveals that it is in where you "fall short" from the original work you have copied is where your differences are—and that is what you should be amplifying and using to transform your own work. 

It brings to mind a scene in the movie, *Mona Lisa Smile*, where Katherine Watson is teaching her students about art. Here is a transcript of the scene:
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(Talking about Vincent Van Gogh):

Katherine Watson : He painted what he felt, not what he saw. People didn't understand, to them it seemed childlike and crude. It took years for them to recognize his actual technique. To see the way his brush strokes seemed to make the night sky move. Yet, he never sold a painting in his lifetime. This is his self-portrait. There's no camouflage, no romance. Honesty. Now, sixty years later, where is he?

Giselle Levy : Famous.

Katherine Watson : So famous, in fact, that everybody has a reproduction. There are post cards...

Connie Baker : We have the calendar.

Katherine Watson : there you go. With the ability to reproduce art, it is available to the masses. No one needs to own a van Gogh original, they can paint their own. Van Gogh in a box, ladies! The newest form of mass-distributed art; paint by numbers.

Connie Baker : [reading from the box]  "Now everyone can be van Gogh. It's so easy. Just follow the simple instructions and in minutes, you're on your way to being an artist."

Giselle Levy : Van Gogh by numbers?

Katherine Watson : Ironic, isn't it? Look at what we have done to the man who refused to conform his ideals to popular taste. Who refused to compromise his integrity. We have put him in a tiny box and asked you to copy him.

[Source](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304415/characters/nm0000210)

If you want to watch the scene, you can here (the first two-thirds of this clip):
https://youtu.be/i5SZ5UcmROY

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I mention this scene because towards the end of the movie, there is a beautiful moment where the girls present Katherine with their own versions of Van Gogh's flower paintings.

The result? They all looked vastly different. They all copied Van Gogh's flower paintings in essence but applied their own style to it:

![MonaLisaSmile.jpeg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/leysa/p2ciUSKn-Mona-Lisa-Smile.jpeg) 
[Source](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/VoR_pVuW8UCJS7K2WUDoeV_7BoM/fit-in/1200x630/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-:fill-!white!-/2017/01/05/912/n/41570627/8de0594c586eb23e481865.57458366_M8DMOLI_EC007_H/i/Mona-Lisa-Smile.JPG)  

Which brings me to my own experiment in creativity.

I found [this image on Pinterest](https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/133278470210859728/) as my source to copy. (I can't find the original owner. If this is your work please let me know so I can credit you). 

As you can see, my "copy" looks recognisably different from the original, but you can clearly see the similarities, too! I usually work with clean lines, but I experimented with rough, chalk-like lines to imitate the stamp-like texture in the original work. 

![blush.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/leysa/VTh5l5u8-blush.jpg)

Now, I ask you to examine my work (above), and the original (below). What differences stand out to you?

![originalsource.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/leysa/d4Kvc7Kc-original-source.jpg)

 
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