Why I don't allow bases

It feels like every day I get a handful of people sending me comments and notes asking to make bases out of my artwork. Honestly, I'm getting tired of saying no, and even more tired of stumbling across traces and bases made of my work anyway. It's getting so incredibly frustrating wondering what will be stolen next. I'm just so fucking sick of this.

Drawing is hard. I get it. I get that a lot of you are young and just getting into art. A lot of you may not even know how using and uploading unauthorized bases hurts the artist in question. And a base does present a way for inexperienced artists to create pony drawings and tell stories of their own. That's fine. If you want to use bases made from the show, or with the permission of other artists, that's fine. But my gallery is not your personal sampling board for tracing. I do NOT allow bases made of my work.

I work hard to have my own distinct storytelling style in my drawings. I do thumbnails, I reference real life animals, I get frustrated and rip drawings up and start over. I do this again and again, always trying to figure out how to clearly communicate ideas, draw the best poses, and depict characters that charm and entertain. I pour a lot of myself into my art. It's my escape. It's terrible seeing someone else blatantly copy me.



This is one of my favorite works in my gallery. I had fun coming up with the poses, dialogue, and designs for my Older!Mane Six. It's a drawing I'd been wanting to do for a while, so it was wonderful to finally finish, and lovely to read all of your feedback.

Then I come across things like this:


So. You piggybacked off my own creative labor and just painted over it with your own OCs. This isn't flattering, guys. It's theft, plain and simple. It's insulting, it's lazy, it won't teach you how to be a better artist, and frankly (in the above example, at least), it looks awful.

Also, don't look into that one purple OC's eyes for too long. I don't think it has a soul

I'm not attacking artists that use bases. No, you guys carry on. Neither am I attacking people who have politely asked to make a base out of my art, and accepted "no" as an answer. I'm calling out people who trace and steal my work specifically. Let me reiterate: I do not allow bases made out of my art. No exceptions.