I’m taking a break from this blog, Twitter, Facebook and literally everything online to focus on my final examinations in May. I will be back in early June!
I submitted an entry for a drawing contest, specifically the Pandas and Friends Contest held by #welovepandas on DeviantArt this afternoon. It’s the first time I’m entering a drawing contest and furthermore, it’s a topic I really love – Pandas. I thought I would share my inspiration behind this drawing.
This was suppose to be a panda island and not the entire globe but somehow I feel that showing the whole universe in the drawing gives a stronger appeal than just an island. The globe was inspired by the illustration used in my previous post, fishing for designs kills all the creativity. The rest of the ideas came from the fictitious panda stories created by Chewy.
According to Chewy, there’s an island owned by the panda clan and on this not-so-little island lives all the pandas in the world. I kind of change the island to world in this case. While I was drawing, I am thinking what would a world with only pandas and no humans look like? Would it be the same as what we are looking at today? City? Cars? Computers? Or not? I remembered Chewy once told me that pandas are peaceful and quiet animals (though I’m not sure if that applies for the real ones). I’m pretty sure a place with pandas wouldn’t be too developed so no cars nor computers. A boat sounds like a good thing to have to visit the neighbours?
On this island, there are 4 main characters, the panda flying the kite who lives in the blue tower is Pete. His house reminds me of the Weasleys’ house in Harry Potter, he spends most of his time keeping the orange kite flying. He doesn’t really do anything. Pete lives with Farmer Fred, a gardener who enjoys spending his time in the fields. He doesn’t get tan though. Fred has a gluttonous brother (surprisingly, he’s not a pig) who spends 24/7 in the bamboo forest not far off from Pete’s island. We also have Mary (a very uncreative name, I know). Mary loves pink. She lives in the candy house and travels around via the boat. She doesn’t own the boat, it belongs to everyone. The pandas community is full of sharing, care and love. She is easily recognise by the big pink bow on her head. Lastly, the huge one doing the introduction is Gem (he’s a male).
The end. Have you felt asleep? I think I can start writing children story books in the future. 
Check out my entry at DeviantArt and if you love it, please favourite the entry and show your love! All comments, suggestions and favourites are very much appreciated. Thanks for reading this story! 
When will some people ever realise that not everything on the Internet is “free for all” to take. Just because majority of the content on the Internet are publicly available, it doesn’t mean you are entitled to take and use it as your own. You don’t just dip your hand into the sea, fish out a design, redecorate and throw it back into the ocean as if nothing has happened. If everyone is doing it, what will happen to the design community in the future?
If we are talking about images found via Google search, they may also be protected by copyright or creative commons licenses. So what makes them think they can just use and edit it? Changing the colours doesn’t make it any more unique. All I ask for is a little respect for designs and art which I think all artists and designers out there are as well. The increase of such ignorant Internet users are really frustrating for us. I value inspiration and I’m sure all designers in our community will be glad to be a source of inspiration. But there’s also a thin line between inspiration and copying. After all the time and effort we spend working on a design, it got ripped off and the ripped design actually destroyed the original creativity and concept. Though I won’t get discouraged and will continue working on my designs, it’s actually depressing to know what happen to my creations. Will such acts cause creativity and originality to die out? What are your views?
I think I have just coin a new meaning for fishing – the act of copying in the online community. I thought it sounds nicer than just copying. On a last note, stop fishing for designs and create your own. Let’s work together to build a better community for everyone!
