We often receive emails asking if a student can make a reproduction of a famous piece of art or a photograph that is well know such as an album cover. The answer depends on if the student is using the famous painting as a starting point or if they are trying to authentically reproduce the art. There are two levels to the judging: being accepted to be published and being a Top Ten Winner.
To be a Top Ten Winner, we like originality. If you take an image that is well known such as a Van Gogh, your rendition of it may be good enough to be accepted to be published; however, due to the fact the composition was originally created by someone else, it would most likely not be chosen as a Top Ten Winner.
To be accepted to be published, one can take another person’s work and then add their own style. Don’t try to copy it exactly. Take a work and put your touch to it so we can state that it is your work. There are many copyrighted images, such as Mickey Mouse, that we have taken the position that they are not acceptable. We don’t ever want to have a quarrel with Disney or Pixar concerning their images in our book.
With the deadline coming up in just over 2 weeks (April 3rd), we hope you will have your students join our Celebration of Artists. You can always look at the winners online and see the styles represented. Good luck to your artists.
Celebrating Art 