lindblut:

hurtanminttu:

silvermender:

pharotekton:

nevertoomanyspiders:

mistytang:

Sometimes I like to rant.

Sorry if there are any typos. I didn’t bother to spellcheck this time

I personally don’t find a comment like this insulting. Sadly there will be a lot of overlap in the art world, but when you’re coming up with weird, niche stuff, how likely will it be to find creations that are anywhere near similar on your own?

I dunno. I personally don’t find my works super original, even if I fancy myself to be fairly creative with the stuff I do work with. I guess “originality” is more about how one combines pre-existing aspects, whether one is aware of them or not. Coincidences happen, some are more painful than others, especially if you thought you came up with something original.

All in all, I guess it’s a case-by-case thing for me. If, say, one comments on how their OC is eerily similar to one of mine just because they both happen to be faceless humanoids, or grey pointy-eared creatures, etc. then I side-eye them a little…

 While I firmly believe that everything is recycled to some degree and while I consciously duplicate/modify elements of characterization or design I find in the media I consume for my own content, this kind of comparison – in particular when it is unsolicited – can drive me up the wall. Hearing “Oh it’s just like X” about a design or a concept you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into from some stranger is like having your soul drop-kicked by Bruce Lee.

Well, at least my general reaction towards this kind of thing now veers towards this

instead of this

I haven’t had anyone state the -this character looks like x y- in an intentionally ‘YOU CHEAT’ way. At least not that I’m aware of.

I suppose, if the movie/thing is something I like good enough, I’d go like -I EMBRACE THIS COMPARISON- that namely being the one I get the most: No-Face from Spirited Away – Pint’s chalkuform. And Pug Foo, to Kung Fu panda, but that one is something I fully admit to being pretty much directly inspired haha

The only one I’ve been a little irked about is a ‘na’vi’ one I got on my aliens way back, but that was just because of the blue and pattern scheme they had, not shape-wise. Plus cat aliens, geeze

Plus, it makes me self-conscious of some designs, if they’re fairly new and get the -this looks a lot like x y- it gives me a good hint of what to change and avoid in the future. Not so much because the -UGH I HATE HAVING IT COMPARED- but because I don’t want that rustling any jimmies

Hnnngh anyone who knows me even slightly better knows how badly this grinds my gears especially after I got several of these to fanart/art trades/commissions. Oh, Skullmeramon looks like Ghostrider… and?
I mean when that’s all there is in the comment “reminds me of Ghostrider” and I didn’t design/choose the character (thus lessening the chance that if I drew X I might like Y of similar sort), the hell am I supposed to do with that?
And then there the “remind me of” things that just… don’t look anything at all like my character, like both have red eyes and that’s all. I mean it’s nice that my character gives you a pleasant (I assume, though it’s hard to tell because I really have no sense of sarcasm/trouble seeing the intent behind written words) emotion that you relate to something else, and this will sound really selfish, but knowing that my character/design has element X (like red eyes) that make you think other thing Y you like doesn’t really tell me whether you actually like my design or any of your feeling towards my art, so basically you could comment “I like bread” on my drawing of a dragon and it would pretty much have as much relevancy as some “reminds me of X” comments I’ve gotten (and I don’t know what’s the average for these but I seem to get these comments quite a bit).

And then there’s those (rare) instances where I actually hate the thing my drawing/design gets compared to… And honestly I think a lot of this “reminds me of” thing’s bad feeling could be avoided if those were worded just bit more elegantly than just “LOOKS LIKE X”.
Even I, as tone-blind as I am, generally take something like “I like this, it’s giving me same sort of surreal vibes like Grim Fandango” better than “reminds me of Manny Calavera”.
I don’t know, eh. A lot of this is also case-by-case basis.

I personally haven’t heard that too often myself, but I saw a lot of people give comments like that an I used to give comments like these when I was younger, for sure.

But really, once you look into the human brain and how it works, and how pattern-seeking is a super normal thing within primates, it’s a lot easier to brush off.

It’s not always a bad thing.  Some people when they really like something compare it to other things that they also really like.  The problem is though, when people make these kinds of comments they’re usually not of that nature.  Instead it’s the misconception that everything needs to be original and they’re trying to make little jabs at you.