How Can an Artist be Inspired by Another’s Work While Retaining Their Own Style?

A question I had for Yun-Fei Ji was if he had ever studied Francisco Goya. The demons he depicts in his work, especially in the most recent scroll, seem to mimic Goya’s style. Although I did not get to ask this question myself, someone in our class asked a version of it. I expected Yun-Fei to know of Goya, but his response was more enthusiastic than I expected. Francisco Goya is an artist Yun-Fei has heard of and admired. In the exhibit, the scrolls outside and inside the moon gate had the most figures mimicking Goya’s dark, animalistic figures. There were human qualities but the forms were still had grotesque elements. When I observed this and came up with my question, I thought, how does Yun-Fei retain his own personal style while trying to incorporate themes from Goya’s work? How does any artist keep themselves from crossing that line of copying another artist?

THe best way to do that is to add another type of style to the one the artist wants to imitate. Yun-Fei still creates his own style by combining the techniques of traditional chinese scroll art with modern themes. Landscape plays an important role, but there are industrial objects, such as freighters and decaying buildings situated throughout the works as well. Yun-Fei also uses a different medium than Goya. Even though his most recent scroll was mostly black and gray, looking like Goya’s Los Caprichos at first glance, the brush strokes in the scroll create a completely different texture than the aquatint printing method Goya used. In similar way, my group mimicked Goya’s style for our collaborative project but we used watercolors and a felt tip pen, and a different illustrating style to create our own approach to the piece. Incorporating other artist’ styles can give us a better understanding of those works.