Emulation—The Best Form of Flattery

I'm continuing to enjoy the book Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. Chapter 2, "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started," is filled with examples and different ways to express the idea that the way we come to know who we are is by creating things and going through the creative process. There is nothing wrong with pretending to be what you desire to be or to create by copying other people's work for the sake of practice and understanding. In fact, it is the process of doing these things over and over again that will allow you to find out who you really are and what you can really do. We have to copy, practice, imitate, emulate, and finally we will come into our own.

Copying is important. "Fake it 'til you make it," (p. 30) applies to so many things. For instance, you can apply it to having a positive outlook on life. You might feel really negative inside, but if you act "as if" you are more positive, the patterns in your brain can actually change based on your behavior as well as your internal self-talk. In terms of creation, we learn by copying. I love the quote on page 33 by Yohji Yamamoto, "Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self." I'm starting to understand and practice this more and more.

Repetition, practice, and even failures are important. In order to do something well, you just have to do it over and over and over again, every day. Some days you will feel like a failure, and other days you will feel some success, but the point is that you commit to doing it every day. You just do it like you do anything else on a daily basis—eat, brush your teeth, and so on. In a well known Michael Jordan quote, he says, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." I couldn't find the other quote I was looking for by Jordan, but it added to this by saying that he just keeps going back out on the court. No matter what. Every day. As visual artists and designers, we have to do the same thing.

Attempting to get inside the head of your heroes is important. Kleon makes the point that when we copy for the sake of practice (not plagiarism), it's like reverse-engineering. We do it to try to understand how it was done in the first place. We are attempting to figure out the thinking behind the work. When Kleon writes, "Don't steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style," (p. 33) this is what he is referring to. We want to see the world through our heroes' eyes. I want to be able to think the way Jessica Hische thinks! If I can copy her work enough, emulate her work enough, maybe I'll start to understand the thinking process behind her design and illustration. There's a difference between imitation and emulation, and that eventually you have to move from imitating to emulating your hero's work, because that's when you break through "into your own thing." (p.38) Emulation is transforming your hero's work into something that is your own: "Adding something to the world that only you can add." (p. 41)

Kleon's chart of "Good Theft vs. Bad Theft" is a concise checklist that can be used when you are attempting to emulate your hero's work. These are concepts that are important to memorize so that you can always check yourself to make sure your emulation only includes "good theft." I attempted to emulate Jessica Hische's work by creating a decorative drop cap. Her project, The Daily Crop Cap, was what helped to get her on the map in the design world. I have huge Pinterest board of her work, and many of the pieces are her drop caps. There are SO many different things she has done with letters in this project! I decided to try to emulate a Jessica Hische drop cap, and I think it was a good first try. I chose one of her simpler styles, and I added sprinkles of my own flavor to it. Below I've posted two of her drop caps that were inspiration for my "stolen creation," and then the last image is that creation (H). I had so much fun doing it, and it is right up my alley! Let me know if you think this is simply imitation or if I've started to move into emulation, which was my goal.