Now, I'm a new artist. Learning how to properly draw and I know how I want my work to look like. However, I don't learn very well without having the ability to follow the lines for something very easilly. For example, a muzzle on a fox or an eye for a feline. If I draw it a few times from a base image, it's put into my 'style' and I can produce a pretty good image by piecing together different things I've learned.
Yet, the moment I create something that even remotely looks like fan-art of lets say Balto or Fox and the Hound (where I have been practicing weeks on coloring book images over and over). I produce an image and BAM! it's titled as traced... yet, no one has shown proof that it's traced and frankly, it's disappointing to see that the work you put into something only to be told you are a thief just because it follows the same style of a movie.
HOWEVER! I see Mew-two, sonic, tails, lion king, whatever fan art out there transformed into personal pictures, direct copies that are edited to follow their character's look or personality. And a lot of times these art pieces are never deemed as 'copying' or 'thieving'
If I wanted to trace and claim something of my own, the line art would look a hell of a lot better using illistrator or pen tool in whatever art program.
what do I do?