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Steal Like an Artist: How Copying Inspires Creativity and Transformation

Lessons learned from Austin Kleon's book + Major updates!

Hey There!

Hi! I’m so glad you’re receiving this. After months of not updating from my last post, I finally have the courage to get back to write again!

There’s a couple of updates that I want to share to you before heading towards the meat of this newsletter, so sit tight or scroll past if you want to jump straight away!

Thursdays With Ran Updates

  • New publishing schedule - I have thought of initially releasing one email per week, but that would compromise the quality and preparedness of my posts getting delivered across inboxes and other platforms. Starting from this release, you’ll be receiving updates once every two weeks on Thursdays!

  • We’re on a new platform! - If you didn’t notice the look of this email, then you will now. I migrated all of my content from Substack to Beehiiv as this new platform offers more customization options and a better opportunity for me to grow and share more about what I love to share about. If you’re new here and want to take a look at what I share about, you can check my main page

  • Other updates - I’m new to this platform and I just got back into writing things like this, so expect some writing format changes or improvements along the way to make your reading experience great.

Now that we sorted out the updates, we’ll pick up where we left off from the last update…

Welcome back to Part 3! There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’m going to share with you another two key points from Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist.

Ever wonder how great artists that you follow make great artworks? That’s because they started copying their favorites. It’s not necessarily a 1:1 copying, of course, but what I mean is that somewhere from their favorites, they take one element that they think that works and mix it with another element they use from another of their favorites and mesh them into one.

And what makes it a brand new work? It’s when you combine everything you like from each parts, making them into another whole. All of this is done in respect to the ones who made it before, and this is what makes a great artist: they honor their inspirations, they study their way of thinking behind the style, the technique, and how they view the world.

Now, let’s dig into this major keypoint:

📝 Start Copying

A good artist is someone who starts copying those that inspire them. If you are a beginner artist who fears that copying someone is illegal (by all means, yes if it’s a direct 1:1 copy), there is a way to copy your favorites without passing beyond that line.

A good artist is someone who:

  • Honors their inspirations - When they copy a technique from an artist from somewhere, they thank them for it through mentions or directing their followers to that artist who gave them the inspiration.

  • Studies their way of thinking behind the style, technique, and how they view the world - This is where the deep learning begins. There is so much more than just copying the strokes and the workflow they do. Understand how they think when doing something. This is how you’ll understand why you want to copy them in the first place.

  • Copies from many people and transforms them into their own - You steal from one, you are plagiarizing. But when you steal from many and integrate these into your own work, you get yourself an awesome work that no one else can copy.

  • Gives credits - They are someone who gives credits from where they get inspirations from, and this leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to the rest to follow for them to get inspired.

  • Transforms and Remixes - They transform what they consume and remixes them based on their taste. This makes their work transformed into a whole new level.

And that is all for this week’s issue! These are some of the keypoints of how you can copy like a good artist with respect to the original source.

See you until next time!

Ran

xx

📄 Journal Prompt (from Day One App)

What is something that always makes you laugh?

🎶 🖌️ Music and Art Corner

Artwork - Here’s a recent artwork that I made few weeks ago

Music - I just finished watching Reply 1988, and I highly recommend watching this wholesome KDrama! Listen to one of my favorite soundtracks:

Video - In a world where we have too many interests yet so little time, this video from Oddyseas gives some tips on how to realistically approach your multiple interests

📘 Readers Delight

  • Are you Catastrophizing? Learn more here

  • The right to disconnect - Australia joins several countries in establishing a law that to ignore employers outside working hours

  • The real color of Neptune - Thanks, I hate it

  • Join Day One’s Beginner’s Journaling Challenge!

🖊️ Words to Live by

Block out 1 hour a day.

Work on 1 meaningful project.

Aim for 1 vision for your future.

Take it 1 day at a time.

You don't need more motivation, you need more clarity.

You don't need more time, you need more focus.

-Dan Koe

🙏 A small favor

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