[raincole]

> If you want to be strikingly original, you probably want to be an artist instead of a designer.

Copying is the way art works as well (at least for those who are not doing super-edgy-fine-art).

Typical journey of a digital painter:

1. Refuse to copy. Refuse to even look at references.

2. Hoard references. Over reference.

3. Copy in the right way.

[tetha]

Music isn't very different either. A common recommendation is to first learn to play songs you like, and then to start diverging a bit and to adjust the things you don't like and merge the ideas you like later on.